Cerverí de Girona
Encyclopedia
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1259–1285) was a Catalan
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....
born Guillem de Cervera in Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
. He was the most prolific troubadour, leaving behind some 114 lyric poems among other works, including an ensenhamen
Ensenhamen
An ensenhamen was an Occitan didactic poem associated with the troubadours. As a genre of Occitan literature, its limits have been open to debate since it was first defined in the 19th century...
of proverb
Proverb
A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
s for his son, totaling about 130. He was a court poet to James the Conqueror and Peter the Great
Peter III of Aragon
Peter the Great was the King of Aragon of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. He conquered Sicily and became its king in 1282. He was one of the greatest of medieval Aragonese monarchs.-Youth and succession:Peter was the eldest son of James I of Aragon and his second wife...
. He wrote pastorela
Pastorela
The pastorela was an Occitan lyric genre used by the troubadours. It gave rise to the Old French pastourelle. The central topic was always meeting of a knight with a shepherdess, which may lead to any of a number of possible conclusions. They are usually humorous pieces...
s and sirventes
Sirventes
The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type...
and his overriding concern was the complexities of court life. None of his music survives.
Cerverí spent some time under the patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
and at the court of Hugh IV
Hugh IV of Rodez
Hugh IV , of the House of Millau, was the Count of Rodez and Viscount of Carlat and Creyssel from 1221 until his death. He was the son of Henry I of Rodez and Algayette of Scorailles....
and Henry II of Rodez
Henry II of Rodez
Henry II , of the House of Millau, was the Count of Rodez and Viscount of Carlat from 1274 until his death. He was the son of Hugh IV of Rodez and Isabeau de Roquefeuil....
. He was in Spain in 1269, for he is found that year in the entourage of the then-infante Peter the Great. With fellow troubadours Folquet de Lunel
Folquet de Lunel
Folquet de Lunel was a troubadour from Lunel in the Languedoc. He left behind nine recorded lyric poems, including five cansos, two partimens, and two sirventes. He also wrote one longer work, the Romans de mondana vida...
and Dalfinet
Dalfinet
Dalfinet was a minor troubadour from the Dauphiné. His name, which means "little dolphin", evidently derives from his place of origin. Only one sirventes he wrote, De meg sirventes ai legor, survives....
he accompanied Peter to Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
. On 26 April at Riello
Riello
Riello is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 864 inhabitants....
, near Cuenca
Cuenca, Spain
-History:When the Iberian peninsula was part of the Roman Empire there were several important settlements in the province, such as Segóbriga, Ercávica and Gran Valeria...
, he received one solidus
Solidus
Solidus may refer to:*Solidus , the "⁄" grammatical punctuation character, also used in mathematics*Slash a sign, "/" used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes...
for his services. Cerverí's Cobla en sis lengatges ("Verse in six languages") copied the metre of either Folquet's Al bon rey q'es reys de pretz car or Sordel's
Sordello
Sordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit was a 13th-century Lombard troubadour, born in the municipality of Goito in the province of Mantua...
Bel m'es ab motz leugiers a far.
Cerverí wrote Si per tristor, per dol no per cossir, a planh
Planh
The planh or plaing is a funeral lament used by the troubadours, modeled on the medieval Latin planctus. It differed from the planctus in that it was intended for a secular audience...
, on 26 August 1276 for the death of James the Conqueror. It is direct and almost personal. The troubadour asks the Virgin Mary to show as much mercy to James as he showed on earth, referring to his establishing the Mercedarian Order
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives also known as Our Lady of Ransom is a Roman Catholic religious order established in 1218 by St...
in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. The poet Matieu de Caersi
Matieu de Caersi
Matieu de Caersi, Caerci, or Querci was a troubadour from the Quercy. According to the rubric accompanying his only song in troubadour manuscript C, he was Mayestre Matieus de Caersi, that is, a master of arts from Quercy, possibly Cahors...
wrote a very different planh, Tant suy marritz que no.m puese alegrar, for James, moralising and religious in tone.