Last updated Joan's tenso with Nicoletto. The large "E" in the centre of the page begins the line En Nicolet ... Above the first line is the name of the first speaker, Joan dalbuzon.
Joan was often present at the court of the viscountPeter of Aubusson and his wife Margaret. He also stayed at the court of Blacatz sometime between 1200 and 1236. He was apparently often present at the court of the Emperor Frederick II.
Joan wrote songs about Frederick and his war with the Lombard League. Along with Terrisio d'Atina, he described Frederick as the lord of the four elements—air, earth, fire, and water—which he could thus command in his campaigns against the enemies of the Holy Roman Empire. The only certain date in Joan's life is 1229, for he mentions the strengthening of the bond between Boniface II of Montferrat and the emperor in that year.
Joan wrote a famous tenso with Sordello da Goito, "Digatz mi s'es vers zo c'om brui" ("Tell me if you are truly what you proclaim"), in which he informs us that the Italian troubadour was forced to be a jongleur at the court of Azzo VII of Este before becoming a troubadour in Provence. Besides his tenso with Sordello, Joan also composed a tenso with another Italian troubadour, Nicoletto da Torino.
Notes
↑ Gérard Gonfroy, Les troubadours limousins, La Geste, La Crèche, 2022.
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.
Aubusson is a commune in the Creuse department region in central France.
Occitan literature is a body of texts written in Occitan, mostly in the south of France. It was the first literature in a Romance language and inspired the rise of vernacular literature throughout medieval Europe. Occitan literature's Golden Age was in the 12th century, when a rich and complex body of lyrical poetry was produced by troubadours writing in Old Occitan, which still survives to this day. Although Catalan is considered by some a variety of Occitan, this article will not deal with Catalan literature, which started diverging from its Southern French counterpart in the late 13th century.
Sordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit was a 13th-century Italian troubadour. His life and work have inspired several authors including Dante Alighieri, Robert Browning, and Samuel Beckett.
Peire Cardenal was a troubadour known for his satirical sirventes and his dislike of the clergy. Ninety-six pieces of his remain, a number rarely matched by other poets of the age.
Cunizza da Romano was an Italian noblewoman and a member of the da Romano dynasty, one of the most prominent families in northeastern Italy, Cunizza's marriages and liaisons, most notably with troubadour Sordello da Goito, are widely documented. Cunizza also appears as a character in a number of works of literature, such as Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
Pons de Capduelh was a troubadour from the Auvergne, probably from Chapteuil. His songs were known for their great gaiety. He was a popular poet and 27 of his songs are preserved, some in as many as 15 manuscripts. Four of his cansos survive with musical notation.
Uc de Saint Circ or Hugues (Hugh) de Saint Circq was a troubadour from Quercy. Uc is perhaps most significant to modern historians as the probable author of several vidas and razos of other troubadours, though only one of Bernart de Ventadorn exists under his name. Forty-four of his songs, including fifteen cansos and only three canso melodies, have survived, along with a didactic manual entitled Ensenhamen d'onor. According to William E. Burgwinkle, as "poet, biographer, literary historian, and mythographer, Uc must be accorded his rightful place as the 'inventor' (trobador) of 'troubadour poetry' and the idealogical trappings with which it came to be associated."
Gui d'Ussel, d'Ussèl, or d'Uisel was a troubadour from the Limousin. Twenty of his poems survive: eight cansos, two pastorelas, two coblas, and eight tensos, several with his relatives and including a partimen with Maria de Ventadorn. Four of his cansos melodies remain.
Bertran d'Alamanon, also spelled de Lamanon or d'Alamano, was a Provençal knight and troubadour, and an official, diplomat, and ambassador of the court of the Count of Provence. Twenty-two of his works survive, mainly provocative tensos and sirventes, many dealing with Crusading themes.
Nicoletto da Torino was a Piedmontese jongleur and troubadour of the first half of the thirteenth century, probably from Turin, though some believe that to be his father's name. He produced three surviving tensos with Joan d'Albusson, Falquet de Romans, and Uc de Saint Circ.
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Simon Doria was a Genoese statesman and man of letters, of the important Doria family. As a troubadour he wrote six surviving tensos, four with Lanfranc Cigala, one incomplete with Jacme Grils, and another with a certain Alberto. He was the son of a Perceval Doria, but not the Perceval Doria who was also a troubadour and probably his cousin.
Peire Bremon Ricas Novas was a Provençal troubadour who left behind twenty works: thirteen cansos, six sirventes, and one tenso. His treatment of courtly love was somewhat original.
Falquetde Romans was the most famous troubadour attached to the court of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, where he garnered a high reputation despite the fact that his career began as a jongleur. His surviving work consists of fourteen or fifteen pieces: seven sirventes, three tensos, two or three cansos on courtly love, a salut d'amor of 254 lines, and a religious alba. His poetry is, in general, clear and elegant, and he was apparently very religious.
Gui de Cavalhon, Cavaillo, or Gavaillo was a Provençal nobleman: a diplomat, warrior, and man of letters. He was probably also the Guionet who composed tensos and partimens with Cadenet, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Mainart Ros, Pomairol, and a certain Guillem.
Pistoleta was a Provençal troubadour. His name means "little letter (epistle)" in Occitan. He left behind eleven songs, comprising nine cansos and two tensos. Some of his pieces are assigned to an otherwise unknown Jordan de Born in the table of contents of chansonnier C, a fourteenth-century Occitan manuscript.
Alberico da Romano, called Alberico II, was an Italian condottiero, troubadour, and an alternatingly Guelph and Ghibelline statesman. He was also a patron of Occitan literature.
Bernart de la Barta, also spelled Bernarnz Delabarta or Benart de la Barda, was a troubadour from La Barthe, the location of which is unknown. He wrote two tensos, a fragment (cobla) of a satire, and a sirventes, "Foilla ni flors, ni chatuz temps ni fredura", an attack on terms of the Treaty of Meaux (1229), by which Raymond VII of Toulouse surrendered to Louis IX of France, thus ending the Albigensian Crusade.
Sordello is a narrative poem by the English poet Robert Browning. Worked on for seven years, and largely written between 1836 and 1840, it was published in March 1840. It consists of a fictionalised version of the life of Sordello da Goito, a 13th-century Lombard troubadour depicted in Canto VI of Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio.
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