Amanieu de Sescars
Encyclopedia
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1278–1295) 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...
, possibly 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....
of the late 13th century. Famous for his love songs
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...
in his own day, his contemporaries gave him the nickname dieu d'amor (god of love). He wrote two 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...
s (didactic poems) and two saluts d'amor
Salut d'amor
A salut d'amor or pistola was an Occitan lyric poem of the troubadours, written as a letter from one lover to another in the tradition of courtly love...
(love letters) that survive.
The uncertainty about his origins stems from the fact that his poems refer extensively to Catalan people and places, but a singer of the same name is found signing a Gascon document of 1253. Whether the signatory of 1253 and the troubadour are one and the same is left open to doubt, but it is possible that Amanieu was a Catalan who was either born in or lived in Gascony, which was not uncommon at the time.
His earliest datable work is also his shortest, the salut "A vos, que ieu am deszamatz", which was written 24 August 1278. His first ensenhamen was the "Ensenhamen del scudier" about a squire
Squire
The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...
(scudier) who observes his noble master in love, in leisure, and preparing for war and can thus describe the ideal nobleman. It was addressed al comte gent apres En B. d'Astarac (to Bernard IV of Astarac) and must therefore have been written before the count's death in 1291. Also in that period was written his second and longer salut, which refers to James the Just
James II of Aragon
James II , called the Just was the King of Sicily from 1285 to 1296 and King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. In 1297 he was granted the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica...
as "reys ... de cecilias", which puts it between 1285, when James inherited Sicily
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy...
, and 1291, when he inherited Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...
. Amanieu's second didactic work, the "Ensenhamen de la donsela" can be dated between 1291 and 1295 by a reference to James as King of Aragon and to the ongoing War of the Sicilian Vespers
War of the Sicilian Vespers
The War of the ' Vespers started with the insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers against Charles of Anjou in 1282 and finally ended with the peace of Caltabellotta in 1302...
. It is addressed to an unnamed donsela (young woman) and is designed to teach her how to behave in courtly society
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....
and how to be respected.
Amanieu's poetry is definitely influenced by Peire Vidal
Peire Vidal
Peire Vidal was a troubadour. According to his biography, he was born in Toulouse, the son of a furrier, and the greatest of singers....
and also possibly by Arnaut de Maruelh. The later troubadour Peire Lunel de Montech
Peire Lunel de Montech
Peire Lunel or Cavalier Lunel de Montech or Monteg was a lawyer, politician, and author of Toulouse. His name indicates he was a knight from Montech....
wrote, in a letter of 1320, "I have heard it said that you [unknown] have [the book, i.e. the ensenhamens] of Sir Amanieu, who is called the god of love, where he teaches about the young woman and the squire."
Sources
- Riquer, Martín de. Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.