Perdigon or Perdigo was 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....

 from Lespéron in the Gabales, diocese of Gévaudan, modern Lozère

Lozère

Lozère , is a department in southeast France near the Massif Central, named after Mont Lozère.- History :Lozère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

. Fourteen of his works survive, including three 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...

with melodies. He was respected and admired by contemporaries, judging by the widespread inclusion of his work in chansonnier

Chansonnier

A chansonnier is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally "song-books," although some manuscripts are so called even though they preserve the text but not the music A chansonnier is a manuscript or...

s and in citations by other troubadours.

Career

Though his biography is made confounding by contradicting statements 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...

and allusions in his and others' poems, Perdigon's status as a jongleur from youth and an accomplished fiddler is well-attested in contemporary works (by him and others) and manuscript illustrations depicting him with his fiddle. Perdigon travelled widely and was patronised by Dalfi d'Alvernha, the Baux, Peter II of Aragon

Peter II of Aragon

Peter II the Catholic was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213.He was the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile...

, and Barral of Marseille. His service to the latter provides an early definite date for his career, as Barral died in 1192 and Perdigon composed a canso—which survives with music—for him.

According to his vida, Perdigon was the son of a poor fisherman who excelled through his "wit and inventiveness" to honour and fame, be clothed and eventually armed, knighted, and granted land and rent by Dalfi d'Alvernha. After this period of his life, which is said to have lasted a long time, the manuscripts of his vida diverge. According to one version, death deprived him of his friends, male and female, and so he lost his position and entered a Cistercian monastery, where he died. That he entered a Cistercian monastery has received some support from two of his more sombre works.

According to another version of his vida, he became a strong opponent of Catharism and supported the Albigensian Crusade

Albigensian Crusade

The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...

. He is said to have accompanied Guillem des Baux, Folquet de Marselha

Folquet de Marselha

Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille...

, and the Abbot of Cîteaux to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 to oppose Raymond VI of Toulouse

Raymond VI of Toulouse

Raymond VI was count of Toulouse and marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also count of Melgueil from 1173 to 1190.-Early life:...

 after the latter's excommunication in 1208. The author of the vida blames Perdigon for "[bringing] about and [arranging] all these deeds." The biographer further claims that Perdigon sang to the populace to encourage the Crusade and even boasted of humiliating Peter II of Aragon

Peter II of Aragon

Peter II the Catholic was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213.He was the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile...

—a former patron "who had clothed him"—who died at the Battle of Muret

Battle of Muret

At the Battle of Muret on 12 September 1213 the Crusading army of Simon IV de Montfort defeated the Aragonese and Catalan forces of Peter II of Aragon, at Muret near Toulouse.-Background:...

. For this reason he became despised and lost all his friends in the war: Simon de Montfort

Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester

Simon IV de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort-l'Amaury, 5th Earl of Leicester , also known as Simon de Montfort the elder, was a French nobleman who took part in the Fourth Crusade and was a prominent leader of the Albigensian Crusade...

, Guillem des Baux, and many others. In the end his suzerain, Dalfi d'Alvernha, abandoned him, confiscated his land, and sent him away. The biographer claims that he went to Lambert de Monteil and begged to be entered into the Cistercian monastery of "Silvabela", where he died but the author incorrectly believes Lambert to be the son-in-law of Guillem des Baux and the monastery Silvabela ("beautiful forest") never existed.

Surviving works

Among Perdigon's surviving songs is a torneyamen

Torneyamen

A torneyamen or certamen was a lyric genre of the troubadours of the thirteenth century. Closely related to the tenso, a debate between two poets, and the partimen, a question posed by one poet and another's response, the torneyamen took place between several poets, originally usually three...

with Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras was a Provençal troubadour and, later in his life, knight. His life was spent mainly in Italian courts until 1203, when he joined the Fourth Crusade....

 and Ademar de Peiteus. Unusually for the period, Perdigon, along with Aimeric de Peguilhan

Aimeric de Peguilhan

Aimeric or Aimery de Peguilhan, Peguillan, or Pégulhan was a troubadour , born in Peguilhan the son of a cloth merchant....

, through-composed

Through-composed

Through-composed music is relatively continuous, non-sectional, and/or non-repetitive. A song is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each stanza of the lyrics. This is in contrast to strophic form, in which each stanza is set to the same music...

his melodies.