A troubadour ( English: / ˈ t r uː b ə d ʊər , - d ɔːr / , French: [tʁubaduʁ] ; Occitan : trobador [tɾuβaˈðu] ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a trobairitz .
138-403: Bernart de Ventadorn (also Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn ; c. 1130–1140 – c. 1190–1200 ) was a French poet-composer troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Generally regarded as the most important troubadour in both poetry and music, his 18 extant melodies of 45 known poems in total is the most to survive from any 12th-century troubadour. He
276-562: A brief period in the 1330s and 1340s, Castile tended to be nonetheless "essentially unstable" from a political standpoint until the late 15th century. Merchants from Genoa and Pisa were conducting an intense trading activity in Catalonia already by the 12th century, and later in Portugal. Since the 13th century, the Crown of Aragon expanded overseas; led by Catalans , it attained an overseas empire in
414-571: A burgher of Béziers. Joan Esteve and Bernart both composed in support of the French in the Aragonese Crusade . The Béziers poets are a shining example of the transformation of Occitania in the aftermath of the Albigensian Crusade, but also of the ability of troubadours to survive it. Troubadours, at least after their style became established, usually followed some set of "rules", like those of
552-649: A courtly entertainer (as opposed to popular or low-class one) and a troubadour was a poet and composer. Despite the distinctions noted, many troubadours were also known as jongleurs, either before they began composing or alongside. Aimeric de Belenoi , Aimeric de Sarlat , Albertet Cailla , Arnaut de Mareuil , Elias de Barjols , Elias Fonsalada , Falquet de Romans , Guillem Magret , Guiraut de Calanso , Nicoletto da Torino , Peire Raimon de Tolosa , Peire Rogier , Peire de Valeira , Peirol , Pistoleta , Perdigon , Salh d'Escola , Uc de la Bacalaria , Uc Brunet , and Uc de Saint Circ were jongleur-troubadours. A vida
690-457: A distinction was definitely being made between an inventor of original verse and the performers of others'. The latter were called joglars in both Occitan and Catalan, from the Latin ioculatores , giving rise also to the French jongleur , Castilian juglar , and English juggler , which has come to refer to a more specific breed of performer. The medieval jongleur/joglar is really a minstrel . At
828-409: A lot as their male counterparts, with the general exceptions of their poetic style and their provenance. They wrote predominantly cansos and tensos ; only one sirventes by a named woman, Gormonda de Monpeslier , survives (though two anonymous ones are attributed to women). One salut d'amor , by a woman ( Azalais d'Altier ) to a woman ( Clara d'Anduza ) is also extant and one anonymous planh
966-581: A permanent trading port in the Gadir colony c. 800 BCE in response to the increasing demand of silver from the Assyrian Empire . The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over several centuries. In the 8th century BCE, the first Greek colonies , such as Emporion (modern Empúries ), were founded along
1104-439: A poem appears to be about on its surface is rarely what is intended by the poet or understood by audiences "in the know". The clus style was invented early by Marcabru but only favoured by a few masters thereafter. The trobar ric style is not as opaque as the clus , rather it employs a rich vocabulary, using many words, rare words, invented words, and unusual, colourful wordings. Modern scholars recognise several "schools" in
1242-643: A poem" by regular phonetic change . This reconstructed form is based on the Latin root tropus , meaning a trope . In turn, the Latin word derives ultimately from Greek τρόπος ( trópos ), meaning "turn, manner". Intervocal Latin [p] shifted regularly to [b] in Occitan (cf. Latin sapere → Occitan saber , French savoir "to know"). The Latin suffix -ātor , -ātōris explains the Occitan suffix, according to its declension and accentuation : Gallo-Romance * tropātor → Occitan trobaire (subject case) and * tropātōre → Occitan trobador (oblique case). There
1380-553: A population of 100,000 by the 10th century, Toledo 30,000 by the 11th century and Seville 80,000 by the 12th century. During the Middle Ages, the North of the peninsula housed many small Christian polities including the Kingdom of Castile , the Kingdom of Aragon , the Kingdom of Navarre , the Kingdom of León or the Kingdom of Portugal , as well as a number of counties that spawned from
1518-701: A population of roughly 53 million, it is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula . The Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the River Ebro (Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin ). The association was so well known it was hardly necessary to state; for example, Ibēria was the country "this side of the Ibērus" in Strabo. Pliny goes so far as to assert that
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#17328450871211656-439: A potential Andalusian origin for his works. The scholars attempted to translate the lines in question, though the medievalist Istvan Frank contended that the lines were not Arabic at all, but instead the result of the rewriting of the original by a later scribe. Scholars like Ramón Menéndez Pidal stated that the troubadour tradition was created by William, who had been influenced by Moorish music and poetry while fighting with
1794-533: A pre-existing Latin corpus must merely be lost to us. That many troubadours received their grammatical training in Latin through the Church (from clerici , clerics) and that many were trained musically by the Church is well-attested. The musical school of Saint Martial's at Limoges has been singled out in this regard. "Para-liturgical" tropes were in use there in the era preceding the troubadours' appearance. This theory or set of related theories has gained ground in
1932-507: A quarter century earlier, or Guilleuma de Rosers , who composed a tenso with Lanfranc Cigala , known between 1235 and 1257. There exist brief prose biographies— vidas —for eight trobairitz: Almucs de Castelnau (actually a razo ), Azalais de Porcairagues , the Comtessa de Dia, Castelloza, Iseut de Capio (also a razo ), Lombarda, Maria de Ventadorn , and Tibors de Sarenom. Three main styles of Occitan lyric poetry have been identified:
2070-637: A role in the conflict by providing key naval support to France that helped lead to that nation's eventual victory. After the accession of Henry III to the throne of Castile, the populace, exasperated by the preponderance of Jewish influence, perpetrated a massacre of Jews at Toledo. In 1391, mobs went from town to town throughout Castile and Aragon, killing an estimated 50,000 Jews, or even as many as 100,000, according to Jane Gerber . Women and children were sold as slaves to Muslims, and many synagogues were converted into churches. According to Hasdai Crescas , about 70 Jewish communities were destroyed. During
2208-676: A satirical poem written by a younger contemporary, Peire d'Alvernha , indicates that he was the son of either a servant, a soldier, or a baker, and his mother was also either a servant or a baker. From evidence given in Bernart's early poem Lo temps vai e ven e vire , he most likely learned the art of singing and writing from his protector, viscount Eble III of Ventadorn . He composed his first poems to his patron's wife, Marguerite de Turenne. Forced to leave Ventadour after falling in love with Margerite, he traveled to Montluçon and Toulouse , and eventually followed Eleanor of Aquitaine to England and
2346-491: A single poet; an alba or canso could be written with religious significance, addressed to God or the Virgin; and a sirventes may be nothing more than a political attack. The maldit and the comiat were often connected as a maldit-comiat and they could be used to attack and renounce a figure other than a lady or a lover, like a commanding officer (when combined, in a way, with the sirventes ). Peire Bremon Ricas Novas uses
2484-560: A sudden economic cessation. Many settlements in northern Castile and Catalonia were left forsaken. The plague marked the start of the hostility and downright violence towards religious minorities (particularly the Jews) as an additional consequence in the Iberian realms. The 14th century was a period of great upheaval in the Iberian realms. After the death of Peter the Cruel of Castile (reigned 1350–69),
2622-421: A trope", the trope being a poem where the words are used with a meaning different from their common signification, i.e. metaphor and metonymy . This poem was originally inserted in a serial of modulations ending a liturgic song. Then the trope became an autonomous piece organized in stanza form. The influence of late 11th-century poets of the "Loire school", such as Marbod of Rennes and Hildebert of Lavardin ,
2760-511: A troubadour composer (music of the trouvères has a higher survival rate, usually attributed to them surviving the Albigensian Crusade , which scattered the troubadours and destroyed many sources). His work probably dates between 1147 and 1180. Bernart is often credited with being the most important influence on the development of the trouvère tradition in northern France, since he was well known there, his melodies were widely circulated, and
2898-473: A variety of ways, lived, and travelled in many different places, and were actors in many types of social context. The troubadours were not wandering entertainers. Typically, they stayed in one place for a lengthy period of time under the patronage of a wealthy nobleman or woman. Many did travel extensively, however, sojourning at one court and then another. The earliest known troubadour, the Duke of Aquitaine, came from
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#17328450871213036-399: Is trobadors , found in a 12th-century Occitan text by Cercamon . The French word itself is borrowed from the Occitan trobador . It is the oblique case of the nominative trobaire "composer", related to trobar "to compose, to discuss, to invent" ( Wace , Brut , editions I. Arnold, 3342). Trobar may come, in turn, from the hypothetical Late Latin * tropāre "to compose, to invent
3174-560: Is a brief prose biography, written in Occitan , of a troubadour. The word vida means "life" in Occitan. In the chansonniers , the manuscript collections of medieval troubadour poetry, the works of a particular author are often accompanied by a short prose biography. The vidas are important early works of vernacular prose nonfiction. Nevertheless, it appears that many of them derive their facts from literal readings of their objects' poems, which leaves their historical reliability in doubt. Most of
3312-604: Is an alternative theory to explain the meaning of trobar as "to compose, to discuss, to invent". It has the support of some historians , specialists of literature, and musicologists to justify the troubadours' origins in Arabic Andalusian musical practices. According to them, the Arabic word ṭaraba "music" (from the triliteral root ṭ–r–b ط ر ب "provoke emotion, excitement, agitation; make music, entertain by singing" as in طرب أندلسي , ṭarab ʾandalusī ) could partly be
3450-448: Is clear, for example from the poetry of Bertran de Born , that jongleurs were performers who did not usually compose. They often performed the troubadours' songs: singing, playing instruments, dancing, and even doing acrobatics. In the late 13th century Guiraut Riquier bemoaned the inexactness of his contemporaries and wrote a letter to Alfonso X of Castile , a noted patron of literature and learning of all kinds, for clarification on
3588-427: Is debatable: peguesca (nonsense), espingadura ( flageolet song), libel (legal petition), esdemessa (leap), somni (dream), acuyndamen (challenge), desirança (nostalgia), aniversari (anniversary), serena (serene). Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( IPA : / aɪ ˈ b ɪər i ə n / ), also known as Iberia , is a peninsula in south-western Europe . Mostly separated from
3726-429: Is described as the son of a noble jongleur, presumably a petty noble lineage. Later troubadours especially could belong to lower classes, ranging from the middle class of merchants and "burgers" (persons of urban standing) to tradesmen and others who worked with their hands. Salh d'Escola and Elias de Barjols were described as the sons of merchants and Elias Fonsalada was the son of a burger and jongleur. Perdigon
3864-505: Is just peripheral. Käte Axhausen has "exploited" this theory and A. J. Denomy has linked it with the Arabist (through Avicenna ) and the Cathar (through John Scotus Eriugena ). The earliest troubadour whose work survives is Guilhèm de Peitieus, better known as Duke William IX of Aquitaine (1071–1126). Peter Dronke, author of The Medieval Lyric , however, believes that "[his] songs represent not
4002-500: Is remembered for his mastery as well as popularization of the trobar leu style, and for his prolific cançons , which helped define the genre and establish the "classical" form of courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity. Now thought of as "the Master Singer," he developed the cançons into a more formalized style which allowed for sudden turns. Bernart
4140-423: Is seen as evidence. This theory has been developed away from sociological towards psychological explanation. This theory may relate to spring folk rituals. According to María Rosa Menocal , Alfred Jeanroy first suggested that folklore and oral tradition gave rise to troubadour poetry in 1883. According to F. M. Warren, it was Gaston Paris , Jeanroy's reviewer, in 1891 who first located troubadour origins in
4278-409: Is stressed in this connexion by Brinkmann. This theory is one of the more intellectualising. The "ennobling effects of love" in specific have been identified as neoplatonic . It is viewed either as a strength or weakness that this theory requires a second theory about how the neoplatonism was transmitted to the troubadours; perhaps it can be coupled with one of the other origins stories or perhaps it
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4416-609: Is testimony to a considerable input from various waves of (predominantly male) Western Steppe Herders from the Pontic–Caspian steppe during the Bronze Age. Iberia experienced a significant genetic turnover, with 100% of the paternal ancestry and 40% of the overall ancestry being replaced by peoples with steppe-related ancestry. In the Chalcolithic ( c. 3000 BCE), a series of complex cultures developed that would give rise to
4554-451: Is usually assigned a female authorship. They wrote almost entirely within the trobar leu style; only two poems, one by Lombarda and another Alais, Yselda, and Carenza , are usually considered to belong to the more demanding trobar clus . None of the trobairitz were prolific, or if they were their work has not survived. Only two have left us more than one piece: the Comtessa de Dia, with four, and Castelloza , with three or four. One of
4692-571: Is worth anything. When referring to themselves seriously, troubadours almost invariably use the word chantaire ("singer"). The early study of the troubadours focused intensely on their origins. No academic consensus was ever achieved in the area. Today, one can distinguish at least eleven competing theories (the adjectives used below are a blend from the Grove Dictionary of Music and Roger Boase's The Origins and Meaning of Courtly Love ): The sixteenth century Italian historian Giammaria Barbieri
4830-450: The Leys d'amors (compiled between 1328 and 1337). Initially all troubadour verses were called simply vers , yet this soon came to be reserved for only love songs and was later replaced by canso , though the term lived on as an antique expression for the troubadours' early works and was even employed with a more technically meaning by the last generation of troubadours (mid-14th century), when it
4968-626: The trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed). Likewise there were many genres , the most popular being the canso , but sirventes and tensos were especially popular in the post-classical period. The English word troubadour was borrowed from the French word first recorded in 1575 in a historical context to mean "langue d'oc poet at the court in the 12th and 13th century" ( Jean de Nostredame , Les vies des plus célèbres et anciens Poètes provençaux , p. 14 in Gdf. Compl.). The first use and earliest form of troubador
5106-530: The trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed, hermetic ). The first was by far the most common: the wording is straightforward and relatively simple compared to the ric and literary devices are less common than in the clus . This style was the most accessible and it was immensely popular. The most famous poet of the trobar leu was Bernart de Ventadorn . The trobar clus regularly escapes modern scholarly interpretation. Words are commonly used metaphorically and symbolically and what
5244-653: The Ṣaqāliba (literally meaning "slavs", although they were slaves of generic European origin) as well as Sudanese slaves. The Umayyad rulers faced a major Berber Revolt in the early 740s; the uprising originally broke out in North Africa (Tangier) and later spread across the peninsula. Following the Abbasid takeover from the Umayyads and the shift of the economic centre of the Islamic Caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad,
5382-679: The Aurignacian , Gravettian , Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures, some of them characterized by the complex forms of the art of the Upper Paleolithic . During the Neolithic expansion , various megalithic cultures developed in the Iberian Peninsula. An open seas navigation culture from the east Mediterranean, called the Cardium culture , also extended its influence to the eastern coasts of
5520-484: The Cluniac Reform ) and Guido Errante. Mario Casella and Leo Spitzer have added " Augustinian " influence to it. The survival of pre-Christian sexual mores and warrior codes from matriarchal societies, be they Celtic , Germanic , or Pictish , among the aristocracy of Europe can account for the idea (fusion) of "courtly love". The existence of pre-Christian matriarchy has usually been treated with scepticism as has
5658-702: The Ebro ) as far north as the Rhône , but in his day they set the Pyrenees as the limit. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar , with the Atlantic side having no name. Elsewhere he says that Saguntum is "on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia." According to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia (Greek: Iberia ) as synonyms. The confusion of
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5796-601: The House of Trastámara succeeded to the throne in the person of Peter's half brother, Henry II (reigned 1369–79). In the kingdom of Aragón, following the death without heirs of John I (reigned 1387–96) and Martin I (reigned 1396–1410), a prince of the House of Trastámara, Ferdinand I (reigned 1412–16), succeeded to the Aragonese throne. The Hundred Years' War also spilled over into the Iberian peninsula, with Castile particularly taking
5934-488: The Imperial court , and the scraps of Plato then available to scholars have all been cited as classical influences on troubadour poetry. According to this thesis, troubadour poetry is a reflection of Cathar religious doctrine. While the theory is supported by the traditional and near-universal account of the decline of the troubadours coinciding with the suppression of Catharism during the Albigensian Crusade (first half of
6072-755: The Phoenician alphabet and originated in Southwestern Iberia by the 7th century BCE has been tentatively proposed. In the sixth century BCE, the Carthaginians arrived in the peninsula while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (modern-day Cartagena, Spain ). In 218 BCE, during the Second Punic War against the Carthaginians,
6210-584: The Phoenicians , by voyaging westward on the Mediterranean . Hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia , which he wrote about c. 500 BCE . Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that "it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with [...] Iberia." According to Strabo , prior historians used Iberia to mean the country "this side of the Ἶβηρος ( Ibēros ,
6348-541: The Plantagenet court; evidence for this association and these travels comes mainly from his poems themselves. Later Bernart returned to Toulouse, where he was employed by Raimon V , Count of Toulouse; later still he went to Dordogne , where he entered a monastery. Most likely he died there. Bernart is unique among secular composers of the twelfth century in the amount of music which has survived: of his forty-five poems, eighteen have music intact, an unusual circumstance for
6486-466: The Reconquista . However, George T. Beech states that there is only one documented battle that William fought in the Iberian Peninsula, and it occurred towards the end of his life. Beech adds that while the sources of William's inspirations are uncertain, he and his father did have individuals within their extended family with Iberian origins, and he may have been friendly with some Europeans who could speak
6624-819: The Strait of Gibraltar and founded upon a vassalage relationship with the Crown of Castile, also insinuated itself into the European mercantile network, with its ports fostering intense trading relations with the Genoese as well, but also with the Catalans, and to a lesser extent, with the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Portuguese. Between 1275 and 1340, Granada became involved in the "crisis of
6762-494: The etymon of the verb trobar . Another Arabic root had already been proposed before: ḍ–r–b ( ض ر ب ) "strike", by extension "play a musical instrument". In archaic and classical troubadour poetry, the word is only used in a mocking sense, having more or less the meaning of "somebody who makes things up". Cercamon writes: Peire d'Alvernha also begins his famous mockery of contemporary authors cantarai d'aquest trobadors , after which he proceeds to explain why none of them
6900-706: The podestà -troubadours to follow Rambertino, four were from Genoa: the Guelphs Luca Grimaldi , who also served in Florence, Milan, and Ventimiglia , and Luchetto Gattilusio , who served in Milan, Cremona , and Bologna, and the Ghibellines Perceval Doria , who served in Arles , Avignon , Asti , and Parma , and Simon Doria , sometime podestà of Savona and Albenga . Among the non-Genoese podestà -troubadours
7038-481: The vidas were composed in Italy in the 1220s, many by Uc de Saint Circ . A razo (from Occitan for "reason") was a similar short piece of Occitan prose detailing the circumstances of a particular composition. A razo normally introduced the poem it explained; it might, however, share some of the characteristics of a vida . The razos suffer from the same problems as the vidas in terms of reliability. Many are likewise
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#17328450871217176-490: The "classical" period around the turn of the 13th century and a mid-century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the 14th century and around the time of the Black Death (1348) and since died out. The texts of troubadour songs deal mainly with themes of chivalry and courtly love . Most were metaphysical , intellectual, and formulaic. Many were humorous or vulgar satires . Works can be grouped into three styles:
7314-623: The 13th century), support for it has come in waves. The explicitly Catholic meaning of many early troubadour works also works against the theory. The troubadour lyric may be a development of the Christian liturgy and hymnody . The influence of the Song of Songs has even been suggested. There is no preceding Latin poetry resembling that of the troubadours. On those grounds, no theory of the latter's origins in classical or post-classical Latin can be constructed, but that has not deterred some, who believe that
7452-591: The 15th century, Portugal, which had ended its southwards territorial expansion across the Iberian Peninsula in 1249 with the conquest of the Algarve, initiated an overseas expansion in parallel to the rise of the House of Aviz , conquering Ceuta (1415) arriving at Porto Santo (1418), Madeira and the Azores , as well as establishing additional outposts along the North-African Atlantic coast. In addition, already in
7590-453: The 20th century. It is more a methodological approach to the question than a theory; it asks not from where the content or form of the lyric came but rather in what situation or circumstances did it arise. Under Marxist influence, Erich Köhler , Marc Bloch , and Georges Duby have suggested that the "essential hegemony" in the castle of the lord's wife during his absence was a driving force. The use of feudal terminology in troubadour poems
7728-590: The Arabic language. Regardless of William's personal involvement in the tradition's creation, Magda Bogin states that Arab poetry was likely one of several influences on European "courtly love poetry", citing Ibn Hazm 's " The Ring of the Dove " as an example of a similar Arab tradition. Methods of transmission from Arab Iberia to the rest of Europe did exist, such as the Toledo School of Translators , though it only began translating major romances from Arabic into Latin in
7866-677: The Carolingian Marca Hispanica . Christian and Muslim polities fought and allied among themselves in variable alliances. The Christian kingdoms progressively expanded south taking over Muslim territory in what is historiographically known as the " Reconquista " (the latter concept has been however noted as product of the claim to a pre-existing Spanish Catholic nation and it would not necessarily convey adequately "the complexity of centuries of warring and other more peaceable interactions between Muslim and Christian kingdoms in medieval Iberia between 711 and 1492"). The Caliphate of Córdoba
8004-549: The Chalcolithic sites of Los Millares, the Argaric culture flourished in southeastern Iberia in from 2200 BC to 1550 BC, when depopulation of the area ensued along with disappearing of copper–bronze–arsenic metallurgy. The most accepted model for El Argar has been that of an early state society, most particularly in terms of class division, exploitation, and coercion, with agricultural production, maybe also human labour, controlled by
8142-586: The Christian Iberian kingdoms by the beginning of the 13th century, in relation to the more or less conflictual border with Muslim lands. By the beginning of the 13th century, a power reorientation took place in the Iberian Peninsula (parallel to the Christian expansion in Southern Iberia and the increasing commercial impetus of Christian powers across the Mediterranean) and to a large extent, trade-wise,
8280-790: The Early Modern Period, between the completion of the Granada War in 1492 and the death of Ferdinand of Aragon in 1516, the Hispanic Monarchy would make strides in the imperial expansion along the Mediterranean coast of the Maghreb. During the Late Middle Ages, the Jews acquired considerable power and influence in Castile and Aragon. Throughout the late Middle Ages, the Crown of Aragon took part in
8418-548: The Greeks had called "the whole of the peninsula" Hiberia because of the Hiberus River. The river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BCE between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian , uses Ibērus. With reference to this border, Polybius states that the "native name" is Ibēr , apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination. The early range of these natives, which geographers and historians place from
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#17328450871218556-400: The Hispano-Roman population took place, ( muwalladum or Muladí ). After a long process, spurred on in the 9th and 10th centuries, the majority of the population in Al-Andalus eventually converted to Islam. The Muslims were referred to by the generic name Moors . The Muslim population was divided per ethnicity (Arabs, Berbers, Muladí), and the supremacy of Arabs over the rest of group
8694-474: The Iberian Peninsula reorientated towards the North away from the Muslim World. During the Middle Ages, the monarchs of Castile and León, from Alfonso V and Alfonso VI (crowned Hispaniae Imperator ) to Alfonso X and Alfonso XI tended to embrace an imperial ideal based on a dual Christian and Jewish ideology. Despite the hegemonic ambitions of its rulers and the consolidation of the union of Castile and León after 1230, it should be pointed that, except for
8832-410: The Islamic army landed at Gibraltar and, in an eight-year campaign, occupied all except the northern kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania . Al-Andalus ( Arabic : الإندلس , tr. al-ʾAndalūs , possibly "Land of the Vandals"), is the Arabic name given to Muslim Iberia. The Muslim conquerors were Arabs and Berbers ; following the conquest, conversion and arabization of
8970-416: The Mediterranean coast on the east, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. Together with the presence of Phoenician and Greek epigraphy, several paleohispanic scripts developed in the Iberian Peninsula along the 1st millennium BCE. The development of a primordial paleohispanic script antecessor to the rest of paleohispanic scripts (originally supposed to be a non-redundant semi-syllabary ) derived from
9108-557: The Mediterranean during Classical Antiquity having no match until the Industrial Revolution . In addition to mineral extraction (of which the region was the leading supplier in the early Roman world, with production of the likes of gold, silver, copper, lead, and cinnabar ), Hispania also produced manufactured goods ( sigillata pottery, colourless glass , linen garments) fish and fish sauce ( garum ), dry crops (such as wheat and, more importantly, esparto ), olive oil , and wine . The process of Romanization spurred on throughout
9246-431: The Neanderthal Châtelperronian cultural period began. Emanating from Southern France , this culture extended into the north of the peninsula. It continued to exist until around 30,000 BP, when Neanderthal man faced extinction. About 40,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans entered the Iberian Peninsula from across the Pyrenees. On the Iberian Peninsula, modern humans developed a series of different cultures, such as
9384-437: The Strait", and was caught in a complex geopolitical struggle ("a kaleidoscope of alliances") with multiple powers vying for dominance of the Western Mediterranean, complicated by the unstable relations of Muslim Granada with the Marinid Sultanate . The conflict reached a climax in the 1340 Battle of Río Salado , when, this time in alliance with Granada, the Marinid Sultan (and Caliph pretender) Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman made
9522-431: The Suebi kingdom and its capital city, Bracara (modern day Braga ), in 584–585. They would also occupy the province of the Byzantine Empire (552–624) of Spania in the south of the peninsula . However, Balearic Islands remained in Byzantine hands until Umayyad conquest, which began in 703 CE and was completed in 902 CE. In 711, a Muslim army conquered the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania . Under Tariq ibn Ziyad ,
9660-491: The Western Mediterranean, with a presence in Mediterranean islands such as the Balearics , Sicily and Sardinia , and even conquering Naples in the mid-15th century. Genoese merchants invested heavily in the Iberian commercial enterprise with Lisbon becoming, according to Virgínia Rau , the "great centre of Genoese trade" in the early 14th century. The Portuguese would later detach their trade to some extent from Genoese influence. The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada , neighbouring
9798-420: The aftermath of the conquest increased mining extractive processes in the southwest of the peninsula (which required a massive number of forced laborers, initially from Hispania and latter also from the Gallic borderlands and other locations of the Mediterranean), bringing in a far-reaching environmental outcome vis-à-vis long-term global pollution records, with levels of atmospheric pollution from mining across
9936-529: The beginnings of a tradition but summits of achievement in that tradition." His name has been preserved because he was the Duke of Aquitaine , but his work plays with already established structures; Eble II of Ventadorn is often credited as a predecessor, though none of his work survives. Orderic Vitalis referred to William composing songs about his experiences on his return from the Crusade of 1101 (c. 1102). This may be
10074-576: The culture of Los Millares was followed by that of El Argar . During the Early Bronze Age, southeastern Iberia saw the emergence of important settlements, a development that has compelled some archeologists to propose that these settlements indicate the advent of state-level social structures. From this centre, bronze metalworking technology spread to other cultures like the Bronze of Levante , South-Western Iberian Bronze and Las Cogotas . Preceded by
10212-565: The delineation of Iberia from Gaul ( Keltikē ) by the Pyrenees and included the entire land mass southwest (he says "west") from there. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the consolidation of Romance languages , the word "Iberia" continued the Roman word Hiberia and the Greek word Ἰβηρία . The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from
10350-458: The earliest reference to troubadour lyrics. Orderic also provides us (1135) with what may be the first description of a troubadour performance: an eyewitness account of William of Aquitaine. Picauensis uero dux ... miserias captiuitatis suae ... coram regibus et magnatis atque Christianis coetibus multotiens retulit rythmicis uersibus cum facetis modulationibus . (X.21) Then the Poitevin duke ...
10488-452: The early composers of trouvère music seem to have imitated him. Bernart's influence also extended to Latin literature . In 1215 the Bolognese professor Boncompagno wrote in his Antiqua rhetorica that "How much fame attaches to the name of Bernard de Ventadorn, and how gloriously he made cansos and sweetly invented melodies, the world of Provence very much recognises." On screen, Bernart
10626-782: The early fifth century, Germanic peoples occupied the peninsula, namely the Suebi , the Vandals ( Silingi and Hasdingi ) and their allies, the Alans . Only the kingdom of the Suebi ( Quadi and Marcomanni ) would endure after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders, the Visigoths , who occupied all of the Iberian Peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the Vandals and the Alans. The Visigoths eventually occupied
10764-759: The feebleness of the taifa principalities, Ferdinand I of León seized Lamego and Viseu (1057–1058) and Coimbra (1064) away from the Taifa of Badajoz (at times at war with the Taifa of Seville ); Meanwhile, in the same year Coimbra was conquered, in the Northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Aragon took Barbastro from the Hudid Taifa of Lérida as part of an international expedition sanctioned by Pope Alexander II. Most critically, Alfonso VI of León-Castile conquered Toledo and its wider taifa in 1085, in what it
10902-567: The festive dances of women hearkening the spring in the Loire Valley . This theory has since been widely discredited, but the discovery of the jarchas raises the question of the extent of literature (oral or written) in the 11th century and earlier. Hans Spanke analysed the intertextual connexion between vernacular and medieval Latin (such as Goliardic ) songs. This theory is supported by Reto Bezzola, Peter Dronke, and musicologist Jacques Chailley . According to them, trobar means "inventing
11040-612: The first Roman troops occupied the Iberian Peninsula, known to them as Hispania . After 197, the territories of the peninsula most accustomed to external contact and with the most urban tradition (the Mediterranean Coast and the Guadalquivir Valley) were divided by Romans into Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior . Local rebellions were quelled, with a 195 Roman campaign under Cato the Elder ravaging hotspots of resistance in
11178-503: The first century BC. The peninsula was also the battleground of civil wars between rulers of the Roman republic; such as the Sertorian War , and the conflict between Caesar and Pompey later in the century. During their 600-year occupation of the Iberian Peninsula, the Romans introduced the Latin language that influenced many of the languages that exist today in the Iberian peninsula. In
11316-552: The first female composers of secular music in the Western tradition. The word trobairitz was first used in the 13th-century Romance of Flamenca and its derivation is the same as that of trobaire but in feminine form. There were also female counterparts to the joglars : the joglaresas . The number of trobairitz varies between sources: there were twenty or twenty-one named trobairitz, plus an additional poet known only as Domna H. There are several anonymous texts ascribed to women;
11454-423: The following troubadours note their clerical status: Aimeric de Belenoi , Folquet de Marselha (who became a bishop), Gui d'Ussel , Guillem Ramon de Gironella , Jofre de Foixà (who became an abbot), Peire de Bussignac , Peire Rogier , Raimon de Cornet , Uc Brunet , and Uc de Saint Circ . The Occitan words trobador and trobaire are relatively rare compared with the verb trobar (compose, invent), which
11592-444: The former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior for 'near' and 'far' Hispania. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces : Hispania Baetica , Hispania Tarraconensis , and Hispania Lusitania . Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. (The name Iberia
11730-467: The greatest composer of melodies to ever live, and Bertran de Born , the master of the sirventes , or political song, which became increasingly popular in this period. The classical period came to be seen by later generations, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries and outside of Occitania, as representing the high point of lyric poetry and models to be emulated. The language of the classic poets, its grammar and vocabulary, their style and themes, were
11868-487: The height of troubadour poetry (the "classical period"), troubadours are often found attacking jongleurs and at least two small genres arose around the theme: the ensenhamen joglaresc and the sirventes joglaresc . These terms are debated, however, since the adjective joglaresc seems to imply "in the manner of the jongleurs ". Inevitably, however, pieces of these genres are verbal attacks at jongleurs , in general and in specific, with named individuals being called out. It
12006-537: The high nobility. He was followed immediately by two poets of unknown origins, known only by their sobriquets, Cercamon and Marcabru , and by a member of the princely class, Jaufre Rudel . Many troubadours are described in their vidas as poor knights. It was one of the most common descriptors of status. Berenguier de Palazol , Gausbert Amiel , Guilhem Ademar , Guiraudo lo Ros , Marcabru , Peire de Maensac , Peirol , Raimon de Miraval , Rigaut de Berbezilh , and Uc de Pena are all so described. Albertet de Sestaro
12144-544: The ideal to which poets of the troubadour revival in Toulouse (creation of the Consistori del Gay Saber in 1323) and their Catalan and Castilian contemporaries aspired. During the classical period the "rules" of poetic composition had first become standardised and written down, first by Raimon Vidal and then by Uc Faidit . The 450 or so troubadours known to historians came from a variety of backgrounds. They made their living in
12282-617: The inhabitants of the territory with the environment. By the Iron Age , starting in the 8th century BCE, the Iberian Peninsula consisted of complex agrarian and urban civilizations, either Pre-Celtic or Celtic (such as the Celtiberians , Gallaeci , Astures , Celtici , Lusitanians and others), the cultures of the Iberians in the eastern and southern zones and the cultures of the Aquitanian in
12420-623: The known trobairitz, Gaudairença , wrote a song entitled Coblas e dansas , which has not survived; no other piece of hers has either. The trobairitz came almost to a woman from Occitania . There are representatives from the Auvergne , Provence , Languedoc , the Dauphiné , Toulousain , and the Limousin . One trobairitz, Ysabella , may have been born in Périgord , Northern Italy, Greece , or Palestine . All
12558-427: The larger hilltop settlements, and the elite using violence in practical and ideological terms to clamp down on the population. Ecological degradation, landscape opening, fires, pastoralism, and maybe tree cutting for mining have been suggested as reasons for the collapse. The culture of the motillas developed an early system of groundwater supply plants (the so-called motillas ) in the upper Guadiana basin (in
12696-429: The last Marinid attempt to set up a power base in the Iberian Peninsula. The lasting consequences of the resounding Muslim defeat to an alliance of Castile and Portugal with naval support from Aragon and Genoa ensured Christian supremacy over the Iberian Peninsula and the preeminence of Christian fleets in the Western Mediterranean. The 1348–1350 bubonic plague devastated large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, leading to
12834-735: The late 11th century in Occitania , but it subsequently spread to the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas . Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal , and that of the trouvères in northern France. Dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia defined the troubadour lyric as fictio rethorica musicaque poita : rhetorical , musical, and poetical fiction. After
12972-456: The meanings of the words, including Iber, must also remain unknown. In modern Basque , the word ibar means "valley" or "watered meadow", while ibai means "river", but there is no proof connecting the names with Ebro or Iberia . The word Iberia comes from the Latin word Hiberia originating from the Ancient Greek word Ἰβηρία ( Ibēríā ), used by Greek geographers under
13110-453: The mediterranean slave trade, with Barcelona (already in the 14th century), Valencia (particularly in the 15th century) and, to a lesser extent, Palma de Mallorca (since the 13th century), becoming dynamic centres in this regard, involving chiefly eastern and Muslim peoples. Castile engaged later in this economic activity, rather by adhering to the incipient atlantic slave trade involving sub-saharan people thrusted by Portugal (Lisbon being
13248-805: The miseries of his captivity ... before kings, magnates, and Christian assemblies many times related with rhythmic verses and witty measures. The first half of the 12th century saw relatively few recorded troubadours. Only in the last decades of the century did troubadour activity explode. Almost half of all troubadour works that survive are from the period 1180–1220. In total, moreover, there are over 2,500 troubadour lyrics available to be studied as linguistic artifacts (Akehurst, 23). The troubadour tradition seems to have begun in western Aquitaine ( Poitou and Saintonge ) and Gascony , from there spreading over into eastern Aquitaine ( Limousin and Auvergne ) and Provence . At its height it had become popular in Languedoc and
13386-546: The northeastern Ebro Valley and beyond. The threat to Roman interests posed by Celtiberians and Lusitanians in uncontrolled territories lingered in. Further wars of indigenous resistance, such as the Celtiberian Wars and the Lusitanian War , were fought in the 2nd century. Urban growth took place, and population progressively moved from hillforts to the plains. An example of the interaction of slaving and ecocide ,
13524-503: The peninsula in 1146. Somewhat straying from the trend taking place in other locations of the Latin West since the 10th century, the period comprising the 11th and 13th centuries was not one of weakening monarchical power in the Christian kingdoms. The relatively novel concept of "frontier" (Sp: frontera ), already reported in Aragon by the second half of the 11th century become widespread in
13662-756: The peninsula's first civilizations and to extensive exchange networks reaching to the Baltic , Middle East and North Africa . Around 2800 – 2700 BCE, the Beaker culture , which produced the Maritime Bell Beaker , probably originated in the vibrant copper-using communities of the Tagus estuary and spread from there to many parts of western Europe. The Bronze Age began on the Iberian Peninsula in 2100 cal. BC according to radiocarbon datings of several key sites. Bronze Age cultures developed beginning c. 1800 BCE, when
13800-523: The peninsula, possibly as early as the 5th millennium BCE. These people may have had some relation to the subsequent development of the Iberian civilization . As is the case for most of the rest of Southern Europe, the principal ancestral origin of modern Iberians are Early European Farmers who arrived during the Neolithic. The large predominance of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R1b, common throughout Western Europe ,
13938-535: The persistence of underlying paganism in high medieval Europe, though the Celts and Germanic tribes were certainly less patriarchal than the Greco-Romans. The classical Latin theory emphasises parallels between Ovid , especially his Amores and Ars amatoria , and the lyric of courtly love. The aetas ovidiana that predominated in the 11th century in and around Orléans , the quasi- Ciceronian ideology that held sway in
14076-504: The present southern Spain to the present southern France along the Mediterranean coast, is marked by instances of a readable script expressing a yet unknown language, dubbed " Iberian ". Whether this was the native name or was given to them by the Greeks for their residence near the Ebro remains unknown. Credence in Polybius imposes certain limitations on etymologizing: if the language remains unknown,
14214-401: The proper reference of the terms trobador and joglar . According to Riquier, every vocation deserved a name of its own and the sloppy usage of joglar assured that it covered a multitude of activities, some, no doubt, with which Riquier did not wish to be associated. In the end Riquier argued—and Alfonso X seems to agree, though his "response" was probably penned by Riquier—that a joglar was
14352-498: The ranks of troubadours belong to this period. During this period the lyric art of the troubadours reached the height of its popularity and the number of surviving poems is greatest from this period. During this period the canso , or love song, became distinguishable as a genre. The master of the canso and the troubadour who epitomises the classical period is Bernart de Ventadorn . He was highly regarded by his contemporaries, as were Giraut de Bornelh , reputed by his biographer to be
14490-464: The reforming Robert of Arbrissel on "matronage" to achieve his ends can explain the troubadour attitude towards women. Chronologically, however, this hypothesis is hard to sustain, as the forces believed to have given rise to the phenomenon arrived later than it, but the influence of Bernardine and Marian theology can be retained without the origins theory. This theory was advanced early by Eduard Wechssler and further by Dmitri Scheludko (who emphasises
14628-447: The regions of Rouergue , Toulouse , and Quercy (c. 1200). Finally, in the early 13th century it began to spread into first Italy and then Catalonia , whence to the rest of modern Spain and then Portugal. This development has been called the rayonnement des troubadours ( pronounced [ʁɛjɔnəmɑ̃ de tʁubaduːʁ] ). The classical period of troubadour activity lasted from about 1170 until about 1213. The most famous names among
14766-509: The remaining taifas. The Almoravids in the Iberian peninsula progressively relaxed strict observance of their faith, and treated both Jews and Mozarabs harshly, facing uprisings across the peninsula, initially in the Western part. The Almohads , another North-African Muslim sect of Masmuda Berber origin who had previously undermined the Almoravid rule south of the Strait of Gibraltar, first entered
14904-486: The rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees , it includes the territories of Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal , comprising most of the region, as well as the tiny adjuncts of Andorra , Gibraltar , and, pursuant to the traditional definition of the Pyrenees as the peninsula's northeastern boundary, a small part of France . With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and
15042-555: The rule of the Roman Empire to refer to what is known today in English as the Iberian Peninsula. At that time, the name did not describe a single geographical entity or a distinct population; the same name was used for the Kingdom of Iberia , natively known as Kartli in the Caucasus , the core region of what would later become the Kingdom of Georgia . It was Strabo who first reported
15180-632: The second half of the thirteenth century, with objectionable sexual content removed in deference to the Catholic Church . According to the Bernardine-Marianist (or Christian) theory, it was the theology espoused by Bernard of Clairvaux and the increasingly important Mariology that most strongly influenced the development of the troubadour genre. Specifically, the emphasis on religious and spiritual love, disinterestedness, mysticism, and devotion to Mary explained "courtly love". The emphasis of
15318-457: The southern meseta ) in a context of extreme aridification in the area in the wake of the 4.2-kiloyear climatic event , which roughly coincided with the transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. Increased precipitation and recovery of the water table from about 1800 BC onward should have led to the forsaking of the motillas (which may have flooded) and the redefinition of the relation of
15456-650: The species Homo erectus , Homo heidelbergensis , or a new species called Homo antecessor . Around 200,000 BP , during the Lower Paleolithic period, Neanderthals first entered the Iberian Peninsula. Around 70,000 BP, during the Middle Paleolithic period, the last glacial event began and the Neanderthal Mousterian culture was established. Around 37,000 BP, during the Upper Paleolithic ,
15594-515: The term mieja chanso (half song) and Cerverí de Girona uses a similar phrase, miga canço , both to refer to a short canso and not a mixture of genres as sometimes supposed. Cerverí's mig (or meig ) vers e miga canço was a vers in the new sense (a moralising song) that was also highly critical and thus combined the canso and the sirventes . Among the more than one hundred works of Cerverí de Girona are many songs with unique labels, which may correspond more to "titles" than "genres", but that
15732-549: The terms 'Spanish Peninsula' or 'Pyrenaean Peninsula'. The Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited by members of the Homo genus for at least 1.2 million years as remains found in the sites in the Atapuerca Mountains demonstrate. Among these sites is the cave of Gran Dolina , where six hominin skeletons, dated between 780,000 and one million years ago, were found in 1994. Experts have debated whether these skeletons belong to
15870-457: The time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania . In Greek and Roman antiquity, the name Hesperia was used for both the Italian and Iberian Peninsula; in the latter case Hesperia Ultima (referring to its position in the far west) appears as form of disambiguation from the former among Roman writers. Also since Roman antiquity, Jews gave the name Sepharad to the peninsula. As they became politically interested in
16008-535: The total number of trobairitz texts varies from twenty-two (Schultz-Gora), twenty-five ( Bec ), thirty-six (Bruckner, Shepard, and White), and forty-six (Rieger). Only one melody composed by a trobairitz (the Comtessa de Dia ) survives. Out of a total of about 450 troubadours and 2,500 troubadour works, the trobairitz and their corpus form a minor but interesting and informative portion. They are, therefore, quite well studied. The trobairitz were in most respects as varied
16146-503: The trobairitz whose families we know were high-born ladies; only one, Lombarda, was probably of the merchant class. All the trobairitz known by name lived around the same time: the late 12th and the early 13th century (c. 1170 – c. 1260). The earliest was probably Tibors de Sarenom , who was active in the 1150s (the date of her known composition is uncertain). The latest was either Garsenda of Forcalquier , who died in 1242, though her period of poetic patronage and composition probably occurred
16284-423: The troubadour tradition. Among the earliest is a school of followers of Marcabru, sometimes called the "Marcabrunian school": Bernart Marti , Bernart de Venzac , Gavaudan , and Peire d'Alvernhe . These poets favoured the trobar clus or ric or a hybrid of the two. They were often moralising in tone and critical of contemporary courtly society. Another early school, whose style seems to have fallen out of favour,
16422-456: The urban middle class and no courtesans: Miralhas was possibly a potter and Bernart was a mayestre (teacher). All wrote in Occitan but were supporters of the French king Louis IX and the French aristocracy against the native Occitan nobility. They have been described as " Gallicised ". Raimon Gaucelm supported the Eighth Crusade and even wrote a planh , the only known one of its kind, to
16560-543: The view of Jaime Vicens Vives , "the most powerful state in Europe". Abd-ar-Rahman III also managed to expand the clout of Al-Andalus across the Strait of Gibraltar, waging war, as well as his successor, against the Fatimid Empire . Between the 8th and 12th centuries, Al-Andalus enjoyed a notable urban vitality, both in terms of the growth of the preexisting cities as well as in terms of founding of new ones: Córdoba reached
16698-544: The western portion of the Pyrenees. As early as the 12th century BCE, the Phoenicians , a thalassocratic civilization originally from the Eastern Mediterranean, began to explore the coastline of the peninsula, interacting with the metal-rich communities in the southwest of the peninsula (contemporarily known as the semi-mythical Tartessos ). Around 1100 BCE, Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz ). Phoenicians established
16836-484: The western province of al-Andalus was marginalised and ultimately became politically autonomous as independent emirate in 756, ruled by one of the last surviving Umayyad royals, Abd al-Rahman I . Al-Andalus became a center of culture and learning, especially during the Caliphate of Córdoba . The Caliphate reached the height of its power under the rule of Abd-ar-Rahman III and his successor al-Hakam II , becoming then, in
16974-667: The words was because of an overlapping in political and geographic perspectives. The Latin word Hiberia , similar to the Greek Iberia , literally translates to "land of the Hiberians". This word was derived from the river Hiberus (now called Ebro or Ebre). Hiber (Iberian) was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BCE. Virgil wrote impacatos (H)iberos ("restless Iberi") in his Georgics . Roman geographers and other prose writers from
17112-557: The work of Uc de Saint Circ. A phenomenon arose in Italy, recognised around the turn of the 20th century by Giulio Bertoni, of men serving in several cities as podestàs on behalf of either the Guelph or Ghibelline party and writing political verse in Occitan rhyme. These figures generally came from the urban middle class. They aspired to high culture and though, unlike the nobility, they were not patrons of literature, they were its disseminators and its readers. The first podestà -troubadour
17250-474: Was Alberico da Romano , a nobleman of high rank who governed Vicenza and Treviso as variously a Ghibelline and a Guelph. He was a patron as well as a composer of Occitan lyric. Mention should be made of the Provençal troubadour Isnart d'Entrevenas , who was podestà of Arles in 1220, though he does not fit the phenomenon Giulio Bertoni first identified in Italy. The trobairitz were the female troubadours,
17388-502: Was Rambertino Buvalelli , possibly the first troubadour native to the Italian Peninsula, who was podestà of Genoa between 1218 and 1221. Rambertino, a Guelph, served at one time or another as podestà of Brescia , Milan , Parma , Mantua , and Verona . It was probably during his three-year tenure there that he introduced Occitan lyric poetry to the city, which was later to develop a flourishing Occitan literary culture. Among
17526-770: Was a recurrent causal for strife, rivalry and hatred, particularly between Arabs and Berbers. Arab elites could be further divided in the Yemenites (first wave) and the Syrians (second wave). Christians and Jews were allowed to live as part of a stratified society under the dhimmah system , although Jews became very important in certain fields. Some Christians migrated to the Northern Christian kingdoms, while those who stayed in Al-Andalus progressively arabised and became known as musta'arab ( mozarabs ). The slave population comprised
17664-590: Was ambiguous, being also the name of the Kingdom of Iberia in the Caucasus.) Whatever languages may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones , which was preserved as a language isolate by the barrier of the Pyrenees. The modern phrase "Iberian Peninsula" was coined by the French geographer Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent on his 1823 work "Guide du Voyageur en Espagne" . Prior to that date, geographers had used
17802-420: Was known for being able to portray his women as divine agents in one moment and then, in a sudden twist, as Eve – the cause of man's initial sin. This dichotomy in his work is portrayed in a "graceful, witty, and polished" medium. According to the troubadour Uc de Saint Circ , Bernart was possibly the son of a baker at the castle of Ventadour ( Ventadorn ), in today's Corrèze ( France ). Yet another source,
17940-509: Was perhaps the first to suggest Arabian (also Arabist or Hispano-Arabic ) influences on the music of the troubadours. Later scholars like J.B. Trend have asserted that the poetry of troubadours is connected to Arabic poetry written in the Iberian Peninsula, while others have attempted to find direct evidence of this influence. In examining the works of William IX of Aquitaine , Évariste Lévi-Provençal and other scholars found three lines that they believed were in some form of Arabic, indicating
18078-476: Was portrayed by actor Paul Blake in the BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown (1978). In the final fragment (Canto CXX) of his epic poem The Cantos , American expatriate poet Ezra Pound , who had a lifelong fascination with the trouveres and troubadours of Provence and southern France, quotes from Bernart's Can vei la lauzeta mover twice. Troubadour The troubadour school or tradition began in
18216-540: Was seen as a critical event at the time, entailing also a huge territorial expansion, advancing from the Sistema Central to La Mancha . In 1086, following the siege of Zaragoza by Alfonso VI of León-Castile, the Almoravids , religious zealots originally from the deserts of the Maghreb, landed in the Iberian Peninsula, and, having inflicted a serious defeat to Alfonso VI at the battle of Zalaca , began to seize control of
18354-453: Was subsumed in a period of upheaval and civil war (the Fitna of al-Andalus ) and collapsed in the early 11th century, spawning a series of ephemeral statelets, the taifas . Until the mid 11th century, most of the territorial expansion southwards of the Kingdom of Asturias/León was carried out through a policy of agricultural colonization rather than through military operations; then, profiting from
18492-432: Was the "Gascon school" of Cercamon , Peire de Valeira , and Guiraut de Calanso . Cercamon was said by his biographer to have composed in the "old style" ( la uzansa antiga ) and Guiraut's songs were d'aquella saison ("of that time"). This style of poetry seems to be attached to early troubadours from Gascony and was characterised by references to nature: leaves, flowers, birds, and their songs. This Gascon "literary fad"
18630-474: Was the son of a "poor fisherman" and Elias Cairel of a blacksmith. Arnaut de Mareuil is specified in his vida as coming from a poor family, but whether this family was poor by noble standards or materially is not apparent. Many troubadours also possessed a clerical education. For some this was their springboard to composition, since their clerical education equipped them with an understanding of musical and poetic forms as well as vocal training. The vidas of
18768-421: Was thought to derive from the Latin word verus (truth) and was thus used to describe moralising or didactic pieces. The early troubadours developed many genres and these only proliferated as rules of composition came to be put in writing. The known genres are: All these genres were highly fluid. A cross between a sirventes and a canso was a meg-sirventes (half- sirventes ). A tenso could be "invented" by
18906-560: Was unpopular in Provence in the early 13th century, harming the reputation of the poets associated with it. In the late 13th century a school arose at Béziers , once the centre of pre-Albigensian Languedoc and of the Trencavel lordships, in the 1260s–80s. Four poets epitomise this "school": Bernart d'Auriac , Joan Esteve , Joan Miralhas , and Raimon Gaucelm . The latter three were natives of Béziers and all four lived there. All were members of
19044-415: Was usually applied to the writing of poetry. It signified that a poem was original to an author ( trobador ) and was not merely sung or played by one. The term was used mostly for poetry only and in more careful works, like the vidas , is not generally applied to the composition of music or to singing, though the troubadour's poetry itself is not so careful. Sometime in the middle of the 12th century, however,
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