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A troubadour 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 troubadour is usually called a trobairitz.
The troubadour school or tradition began in 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 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) it 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: 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.
More information: Midi-France
The English word troubadour was borrowed from the French word first recorded in 1575 in an historical context to mean langue d'oc poet at the court in the 12th and 13th century.
The first use and earliest form of troubador 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.
Trobar may come, in turn, from the hypothetical Late Latin *tropāre to compose, to invent 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 shifted regularly to 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).
The 450 or so troubadours known to historians came from a variety of backgrounds. They made their living in 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.
More information: TrobEu
The Consistori de la Gaya Sciència de Barcelona, Academy of the Gay Science of Barcelona, was a literary academy founded in Barcelona by Joan I El Caçador, John the Hunter, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, in 1393 in imitation of the Consistori del Gay Saber founded in Toulouse in 1323.
The poetry produced by and for the Consistori was heavily influenced by the troubadours.
The Consistori's chief purpose was to promote correct styles and themes and discourage vices (vicis) by awarding prizes in competition to poets who adhered to the rules of poetic composition.
The names of few poets laureate have come down to us and despite some excellent descriptions of the Consistori's activities, associated persons and poems are obscure.
At Pentecost, 31 May 1338, a contest was held at Lleida before Pere El Cerimoniós, Peter the Ceremonious, Joan's predecessor, at which those poems adjudged the best were given awards. A panel of judges was designated in advance by the king. It was to pass judgement super arte dictandi et faciendi pulcra carmina sive cantars, on the art of speaking and composing beautiful songs, that is, cantars.
The winning poets received a rosa d'or (golden rose) and piece of expensive golden satin called diasprell. With its floral prize, the 1338 contest emulated the Jocs Florals (floral games) already being held in Toulouse and to be held eventually in Barcelona as well.
Much about this event, however, remains unknown: the language of composition was vernacular (cantars), but which vernacular is uncertain (Occitan or Catalan), and the names of the poets or any portions of their work have not survived.
More information: British Library
ils dessinent des pays fidèles comme aucun homme,
qui mêlent l'haleine tiède des arbres
à la peau diaphane des rivières, des landes,
des dunes et des marais.
Mon pays.
Les troubadours me le rendent à chaque fois.
The poems tell of freedoms, of united siblings;
they draw countries faithful like no man,
which mingle the warm breath of the trees with
the diaphanous skin of the rivers, the wastelands,
the dunes and the marshes.
My country.
The troubadours give it back to me every time.
Clara Dupont-Monod
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