Berenguer d'Anoia
Encyclopedia
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
from Majorca. He wrote the Mirall de trobar, an Occitan poetic
Poetic
Poetic may refer to:* Poetry, or a relation thereof.* Too Poetic, a deceased rapper and hip hop producer....
, grammatical, and rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
al treatise in the tradition of the Razos de trobar of Raimon Vidal and the Regles de trobar of Jofre de Foixà
Jofre de Foixà
Jofre de Foixà was a troubadour from Foixà in the Empordà, the second son of Bernard of Foixà.At a young age Jofre became a Franciscan and appears in that position when mentioned for the first time at Monzón in 1267...
, a genre always popular in Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
country.
Berenguer's parents were noble Catalans, originally from the village of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia
Sant Sadurní d'Anoia
Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is a municipality in the comarca of the Alt Penedès in Spain, and the centre of production of a sparkling wine known as cava. It is situated in the north-east of the Penedès Depression at the confluence of the Avernó river and the Anoia river...
, who settled at Inca
Inca, Spain
Inca is a town on the Spanish island of Majorca. The population of the municipality is 25,900 in an area of 58.4 km².There is a junction station Majorca rail network with trains to Palma, the island's capital, to Sa Pobla, and to Manacor....
in Majorca following its conquest by James the Conqueror. This information concerning his family and origins is found hidden in his own writings in the form of an acrostic
Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
which gives:
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The Mirall commences with a prologue explaining its division into four chapters that study rhetorical forms and major poetic errors. It begins thus: Comença la miraylls de trobar o de versificar o de rimar. Car si hom mira o regarda sas fausas en un mirall. . . Everything is illustrated with examples drawn from the compositions of previous troubadours, but not alway in the correct form. Berenguer himself does not have any work to his own name, though some otherwise unattributable fragments from his treatise are assumed to be his work. The following short section is taken from his illustration of the religious alba
Alba (poetry)
The alba is a subgenre of Occitan lyric poetry. It describes the longing of lovers who, having passed a night together, must separate for fear of being discovered by their respective spouses....
:
- Gaita, be gardatz
- que no us sia amblatz
- lo castell que tan beyl
- vos a Deus comanatz,
- car si es noveyl
- non es aycell
- qui mantz n'a enganatz.
- No us fisetz en l'enemich
- qui per plazer vos destrich,
- ans fayts gens queix vostra gaita
The Institut Berenguer d’Anoia, founded in Inca in 1970, was named after the troubadour.