Gaubert Amiel or Gausbertz Amiels was a 13th-century Gascon

Gascony

Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...

 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....

. His only surviving song (canso

Canso (song)

The canso is a song style used by the troubadours. It consists of three parts. The first stanza is the exordium, where the composer explains his purpose. The main body of the song occurs in the following stanzas, and usually draw out a variety of relationships with the exordium. The canso can end...

) is Breu vers per tal que meins y poing, a humorous satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 of contemporary courtly poetry

Courtly love

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....

. This lone example of Gausbert's work is well-represented in the manuscripts, however, appearing six, labelled A, D, I, K, N, and V. The poem is only ascribed to him in MS "D", where a marginal note names "Gibert Amiels" as the author. Based on the manuscripts, the poem must have been written between 1200 and 1254.

All that is known of Gausbert that cannot be gleaned from his poem is found in his vida

Vida (Occitan literary form)

Vida is the usual term for a brief prose biography, written in Old Occitan, of a troubadour or trobairitz.The word vida means "life" in Occitan languages. In the chansonniers, the manuscript collections of medieval troubadour poetry, the works of a particular author are often accompanied by a...

, which, however, seem to use, as its primary source, his poem. He is described as "a poor knight, courteous and skilled in arms", and "he never fell in love with a dame nobler than he". The purpose of his surviving poem is to attack the rics (rich men, implying nobility and rank as well as material wealth) and their pursuance of younger women, who are poor Gausbert's targets. There are affinities in content with the work of Marcabru

Marcabru

Marcabru is one of the earliest troubadours whose poems are known. There is no certain information about him; the two vidas attached to his poems tell different stories, and both are evidently built on hints in the poems, not on independent information.According to the brief life in MS...

.

Sources

• Egan, Margarita (ed. and trans.) The Vidas of the Troubadours. New York: Garland, 1984. ISBN 0 8240 9437 9.
• Riquer, Martín de. Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.