Giraut de Salignac (or Salinhac) was a jongleur and 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 the Quercy

Quercy

Quercy is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and Auvergne....

. His castle was Salignac

Salignac-Eyvigues

Salignac-Eyvigues is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.It includes the 17th century Eyrignac Manor , which has a remarkable garden, originally established in the 18th century, surrounding the manor house on a hill, with water coming from seven springs. Only a...

. According to 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...

he composed cansos

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...

, 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 descort

Descort

The descort is a subgenre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. It is a song heavily discordant in verse form and/or feeling and often used to express disagreement. It was invented by Garin d'Apchier when he wrote Quan foill'e flors reverdezis...

z, though only one canso and one descort survive. His composition were characterised, so his biographer says, by "grace and skill". He may have written under the patronage of Azalais of Toulouse

Azalais of Toulouse

Azalais of Toulouse was the daughter of count Raymond V of Toulouse and Constance of France. Her maternal grandparents were Louis VI of France and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne....

, whom he mentions in his poetry. His name is sometimes erroneously given as Guilhem.