Peire Raimon de Tolosa

Peire Raimon de Tolosa or Toloza (fl. 1180–1220)Aubrey, 17.] was a troubadour from the merchant class of Toulouse. He is variously referred to as "lo Viellz" ("the Old") and "lo Gros" ("the Fat"), though these are thought by some to refer to two different persons. On the other hand, "lo Viellz" could refer to his being of an early generation of troubadours.Egan, 77.] Eighteen of Peire Ramon's poems survive, one "canso" with a melody.

Peire Ramon's name (as "Petrus Raimundus") appears in two documents of Toulouse, dated to 1182 and 1214. According to his "vida", he became a jongleur and travelled to the court of Alfonso II of Aragon, who bestowed great honour on him. The earliest datable work by Peire Ramon is a "planh" written on the death of Henry the Young King in 1183. According to his "vida" Peire passed "a long time" at the courts of Alfonso, William VIII of Montpellier, and a certain "Count Raymond", which could refer to either Raymond V of Toulouse or, more probably, Raymond VI. He also spent time in Italy (Lombardy and Piedmont), at the courts of Thomas I of Savoy, Guglielmo Malaspina, and Azzo VI of Este. Azzo's daughter Beatriz was the addressee of one of Peire's poems. Eventually Peire settled down with a wife in Pamiers and there he died.

Peire was reputed as a singer and composer of "cansos". His work is characterised by themes of nature. His style was hermetic. [Aubrey, 18.] He imitated the troubadours Cadenet and Arnaut Daniel and was in turn imitated by Bertran de Born, especially as regards his use of natural imagery. [Aubrey, 21.] Bertran went so far as to copy almost a whole stanza from Peire's "No.m puesc sofrir d'una leu chanso faire." [Kastner, 27.] In "Us noels pessamens", Peire even anticipates the Tuscan poet Dante Alighieri. [Lewent, 106. The passage in Dante being referred to is "Inferno", V, 121 ff.] Peire is complaining about a mistress who first beckoned him and then broke her promise to him when he says:

:"Que qui non a vezat aver:"gran be, plus leu pot sostener:"afan que tal es rics e bos;:"que.l maltrag l'es plus angoyssos,:"quan li soven benanansa". [Lewent, 106: "For he who is not accustomed to have much luck, is more capable of suffering misery than one who is noble and high in rank; for misfortune grieves the latter more if he remembers (former) good fortune."]

Peire's sole surviving melody is florid like Cadenet's and less melismatic than Daniel's. [Aubrey, 225 and 268.] His style employs an uncommonly high number of large intervals, including tritones. The poem with the melody is built on an innovative metaphor:

:"Atressi cum la candela" [Also commonly "Atressi com la chandella".] :"que si meteissa destrui:"per far clartat ad autrui,:"chant, on plus trac gren martire,:"per plazer de l'autra gen". [Gouiran, 88: "Like the candle which destroys itself in order to give light to others, I sing, at the worst of my torture, for the pleasure of others."]

Notes

ources

*Anglade, Joseph. [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9053 "Poésies du troubadour Peire Raimon de Toulouse".] 1920.
*Aubrey, Elizabeth. "The Music of the Troubadours". Indiana University Press, 1996. ISBN 0 253 21389 4.
*Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. "The Vidas of the Troubadours". New York: Garland, 1984. ISBN 0824094379.
*Gouiran, Gérard. "The Classical Period: from Raimbaut d'Aurenga to Arnaut Daniel." "The Troubadours: An Introduction". Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay, edd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0 521 574730.
*Kastner, L. E. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-7937%28193601%2931%3A1%3C20%3ANOTPOB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S "Notes on the Poems of Bertran de Born."] "The Modern Language Review", 31:1 (Jan., 1936), pp. 20–33.
*Lewent, Kurt. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-7937%28194304%2938%3A2%3C106%3AOPM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3 "Old Provençal Miscellany: 1. Troubadours as Precursors of Dante."] "The Modern Language Review", 38:2 (Apr., 1943), pp. 106–116.