Floral Games
Encyclopedia
Floral Games were any of a series historically related poetry contests with floral prizes. In Occitan, their original language, and Catalan
they are known as Jocs florals (ˈʒɔks fɫuˈɾaɫs or ˈdʒɔks floˈɾaɫs; modern Occitan: Jòcs florals/floraus, ˈdʒɔks fluˈɾaws). In French they became the Jeux floraux (ʒø floʁo). The original contests may have been inspired by the Roman Floralia
(Ludi Floreales) held in honour of Flora
.
The original floral games of the troubadour
s were held by the Consistori del Gay Saber
in Toulouse
, annually from 1324, traditionally on May 1. One contestant would receive the violeta d'aur, golden violet, for the poem judged the best. The second prize was a silver wild rose
(englantina), and the other prizes, awarded for particular poetic forms, were similarly floral. The first prize was rewarded on 3 May 1324 to Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari
for a sirventes
in praise of the Virgin Mary. The contests were held intermittently until 1484, when the last prize was awarded to Arnaut Bernart de Tarascon. From this period of 160 years survive the record of around a hundred prizes. These contest were judged in accordance with the Leys d'amor, a grammatical and literary treatise on Occitan poetry.
Initially the floral games were intended to keep alive the poetic language and style of the Occitan troubadours, but in time this agendum was lost. In 1471 the golden violet was awarded to Peire de Janilhac n'ostan qu'el fos Frances, per so que dictec el lengatge de Tholosa: notwithstanding that he was French, because he composed in the language of Toulouse. In 1554 the Constistori, now the Collège, awarded a silver eglantine rose to none other than Pierre de Ronsard
, the greatest French poet of his generation, for his Amours. During the Enlightenment
, Fabre d'Églantine
received his name from the dog rose
the Collège bestowed on him. The Consistori, as the Académie des Jeux floraux
, continues to function.
, 31 May 1338, a poetic contest was held at Lleida
before Peter IV of Aragon
, at which awards were given to those poems adjudged the best. A panel of judges was designated in advance by the king. The winning poets received a rosa d'or (golden rose) and a piece of expensive golden satin
called diasprell. This contest was the first Catalan attempt to emulate the Toulousain games and it may have been part of a pattern of isolated events, though no other records have reached us.
(Joan I el Caçador) founded an annual festival (la festa de la Gaya Ciència or Gaia Ciència) to be celebrated in honour of the Virgin Mary on the day of Annunciation
(15 May) or the following Sunday in Barcelona. The festival included a vernacular poetry contest, modelled after those held in Toulouse
, Paris
, and other illustrious cities, and the poems submitted would be judged by a panel of literati.
The first recorded contest held by John's Consistori de Barcelona
is believed to have taken place on 28 March 1395, with the king in attendance. This festival is called a bella festa ... an honor de la dita gaya ciència, the prizes for which were provided by the municipal government of Barcelona. There is no record of the names of the winners, the prizes, or their poems. With the death of John two months later and his conflict with the city, the floral games and their source of prize money came to an end.
On 1 May 1398, John's successor, Martin the Humane (Martí l'Humà), agreed to subsidise the annual festival and cover the cost of the gold and silver prizes for the winners, to be chosen by mantenidors (maintainers) named by the king. Under Martin a great festa was held in 1408 beneath the walls where the Mirador del rei Martí—a recent addition the royal palace complex—and the Palau del Lloctinent meet in Barcelona. On 17 March 1413 Ferdinand of Antequera
, who had succeeded Martin, confirmed that the floral games occurred on 1 May.
in 1859, during the Catalan Renaixença
, Antoni de Bofarull and Víctor Balaguer
re-established the floral games (jocs florals or Jocs de la Gaia Ciència) in Barcelona on the first Sunday in May with the theme of Patria, Fides, Amor (Country, Faith, Love), alluding to the three typical prizes: the Englantina d'or (golden eglantine
) given for the greatest patriotic poem, the Flor Natural (natural flower, the prize of honour, an actual rose) for the greatest love poem, and the Viola d'or i argent (gold and silver violet) to the greatest religious poem. There were other lesser prizes. A person winning all three great prizes was given the honorific title of Mestre en Gai Saber ("Master of the Gay Science").
The intellectual and political classes swiftly patronised the Jocs Florals and their support lent renewed prestige to Catalan poetry. Several different positions soon became apparent with respect to the models to be used for the creation of a new Catalan literature. Marià Aguiló defended as worthy models all the various forms and authors. Antoni de Bofarull defended sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Catalan authors and the Barcelonese dialect as the best models for Catalan poetry. Finally, there was a "third way" that upheld a unique nineteenth-century Catalan poetry in Barcelonese dialect, but it had few defenders among the supporters of the Jocs Florals. In the end the Jocs attracted persons of a wide variety of ideologies: republicans, conservatives, the young people. Eventually, Frederic Soler and his followers would participate in the majority of contests. The Jocs Florals went a long way to re-asserting the Catalan language after centuries of decline with respect to Castilian.
In 1879 Jocs Florals were established at Valencia in imitation of those begun two decades earlier in Barcelona. The games were traditionally held by Lo Rat Penat in the Valencian
(the variant of the Catalan language
spoken in Valencia). A total of seventeen prizes were awarded annually; the three top prizes were identical to those of the Barcelonan games. On top of the usual contests that included theatre and narrative
as well as poetry, there were extraordinary contests held by institutions all throughout the Land of Valencia
.
The Jocs of Valencia witnessed thirty-five Mestres en Gai Saber and two female winners of the Flor Natural (top prize, an actual rose). Figures like Blasco Ibañez and Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
have acted as maintainers, i.e. presidents and judges of the Jocs, and in 1914 and 1999 the maintainers were women. The Regina (queen) who sits in the Cadira d'Or (golden chair) is elected alternatingly from the three Valencian provinces (Alicante
, Castellón
, and Valencia
) and from the comarques. Today the Jocs take place in the Teatro Principal with the attendance of the highest dignitaries of the Valencian Community.
in 1909. The games were the most prestigious Esperanto event in the era before the Second World War.
in 1914. On 22 December Gabriela Mistral
, who took her pen name from Occitan poet Frédéric Mistral
, won top prize for her Sonetos de la Muerte
. After winning the Juegos she infrequently used her given name of Lucila Godoy for her publications.
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
they are known as Jocs florals (ˈʒɔks fɫuˈɾaɫs or ˈdʒɔks floˈɾaɫs; modern Occitan: Jòcs florals/floraus, ˈdʒɔks fluˈɾaws). In French they became the Jeux floraux (ʒø floʁo). The original contests may have been inspired by the Roman Floralia
Floralia
The Floralia, also known as the "Florifertum," was an ancient Roman festival dedicated to Flora, the goddess of flowers and vegetation. It was held on the IV Calends of May, April 27 to May 3, and symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, marked with dancing, drinking, and flowers. These days...
(Ludi Floreales) held in honour of Flora
Flora (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in Roman mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association with the spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime...
.
Toulouse
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....
s were held by the Consistori del Gay Saber
Consistori del Gay Saber
The Consistori del Gay Saber , commonly called the Consistori de Tolosa today, was a poetic academy founded at Toulouse in 1323 to revive and perpetuate the lyric school of the troubadours.-Foundation:...
in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, annually from 1324, traditionally on May 1. One contestant would receive the violeta d'aur, golden violet, for the poem judged the best. The second prize was a silver wild rose
Wild Rose
Wild Rose is the name given to certain flowering shrubs:*Genus Rosa:** Rosa acicularis, or Wild Rose, a rose species which occurs in Asia, Europe, and North America...
(englantina), and the other prizes, awarded for particular poetic forms, were similarly floral. The first prize was rewarded on 3 May 1324 to Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari
Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari
Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou ' d'Ari was a medieval Occitan author from Castelnaudary.Arnaut was a troubadour and the first poet laureate of the Consistori del Gay Saber...
for a 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...
in praise of the Virgin Mary. The contests were held intermittently until 1484, when the last prize was awarded to Arnaut Bernart de Tarascon. From this period of 160 years survive the record of around a hundred prizes. These contest were judged in accordance with the Leys d'amor, a grammatical and literary treatise on Occitan poetry.
Initially the floral games were intended to keep alive the poetic language and style of the Occitan troubadours, but in time this agendum was lost. In 1471 the golden violet was awarded to Peire de Janilhac n'ostan qu'el fos Frances, per so que dictec el lengatge de Tholosa: notwithstanding that he was French, because he composed in the language of Toulouse. In 1554 the Constistori, now the Collège, awarded a silver eglantine rose to none other than Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...
, the greatest French poet of his generation, for his Amours. During the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, Fabre d'Églantine
Fabre d'Églantine
Philippe François Nazaire Fabre d'Églantine , commonly known as Fabre d'Églantine , was a French actor, dramatist, poet, and politician of the French Revolution.-Early life:He was born in Carcassonne, Aude...
received his name from the dog rose
Dog Rose
Rosa canina is a variable scrambling rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia....
the Collège bestowed on him. The Consistori, as the Académie des Jeux floraux
Académie des Jeux floraux
Académie des Jeux floraux , or Collège de la gaie science , is the most ancient literary institution of the western world. It was founded in 1323 by Clémence Isaure as the Consistori del Gay Saber with the goal of encouraging Occitan poetry...
, continues to function.
Lleida
At PentecostPentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
, 31 May 1338, a poetic contest was held at Lleida
Lleida
Lleida is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida, as well as the largest city in the province and it had 137,387 inhabitants , including the contiguous municipalities of Raimat and Sucs. The metro area has about 250,000 inhabitants...
before Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV, , called el Cerimoniós or el del punyalet , was the King of Aragon, King of Sardinia and Corsica , King of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona Peter IV, (Balaguer, September 5, 1319 – Barcelona, January 6, 1387), called el Cerimoniós ("the Ceremonious") or el del punyalet ("the one...
, at which awards were given to those poems adjudged the best. A panel of judges was designated in advance by the king. The winning poets received a rosa d'or (golden rose) and a piece of expensive golden satin
Satin
Satin is a weave that typically has a glossy surface and a dull back. It is a warp-dominated weaving technique that forms a minimum number of interlacings in a fabric. If a fabric is formed with a satin weave using filament fibres such as silk, nylon, or polyester, the corresponding fabric is...
called diasprell. This contest was the first Catalan attempt to emulate the Toulousain games and it may have been part of a pattern of isolated events, though no other records have reached us.
Barcelona
Medieval era
At Valencia on 20 February 1393, John I of AragonJohn I of Aragon
John I , called by posterity the Hunter or the Lover of Elegance , but the Abandoned in his lifetime, was the King of...
(Joan I el Caçador) founded an annual festival (la festa de la Gaya Ciència or Gaia Ciència) to be celebrated in honour of the Virgin Mary on the day of Annunciation
Annunciation
The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
(15 May) or the following Sunday in Barcelona. The festival included a vernacular poetry contest, modelled after those held in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and other illustrious cities, and the poems submitted would be judged by a panel of literati.
The first recorded contest held by John's Consistori de Barcelona
Consistori de Barcelona
The Consistori de Barcelona was a literary academy founded in Barcelona by John the Hunter, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, in 1393 in imitation of the Consistori del Gay Saber founded at Toulouse seventy years earlier . The poetry produced by and for the Consistori was heavily influenced...
is believed to have taken place on 28 March 1395, with the king in attendance. This festival is called a bella festa ... an honor de la dita gaya ciència, the prizes for which were provided by the municipal government of Barcelona. There is no record of the names of the winners, the prizes, or their poems. With the death of John two months later and his conflict with the city, the floral games and their source of prize money came to an end.
On 1 May 1398, John's successor, Martin the Humane (Martí l'Humà), agreed to subsidise the annual festival and cover the cost of the gold and silver prizes for the winners, to be chosen by mantenidors (maintainers) named by the king. Under Martin a great festa was held in 1408 beneath the walls where the Mirador del rei Martí—a recent addition the royal palace complex—and the Palau del Lloctinent meet in Barcelona. On 17 March 1413 Ferdinand of Antequera
Ferdinand I of Aragon
Ferdinand I called of Antequera and also the Just or the Honest) was king of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica and king of Sicily, duke of Athens and Neopatria, and count of Barcelona, Roussillon and Cerdanya...
, who had succeeded Martin, confirmed that the floral games occurred on 1 May.
Modern era
At the height of romanticismRomanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
in 1859, during the Catalan Renaixença
Renaixença
The Renaixença was an early 19th century late romantic revivalist movement in Catalan language and culture, akin to the Galician Rexurdimento or the Occitan Félibrige movements. The first stimuli of the movement date of the 1830s and 1840s, but the Renaixença stretches up into the 1880s, until it...
, Antoni de Bofarull and Víctor Balaguer
Victor Balaguer
Víctor Balaguer , Catalan Spanish politician and author, was born at Barcelona on 11 December 1824, and was educated at the university of his native city....
re-established the floral games (jocs florals or Jocs de la Gaia Ciència) in Barcelona on the first Sunday in May with the theme of Patria, Fides, Amor (Country, Faith, Love), alluding to the three typical prizes: the Englantina d'or (golden eglantine
Eglantine
- People :* Fabre d'Églantine, French actor, dramatist, and politician of the French Revolution* Églantine Éméyé, French tv presenter and journalist* Eglantyne Jebb, British social reformer and founder of the Save the Children charity...
) given for the greatest patriotic poem, the Flor Natural (natural flower, the prize of honour, an actual rose) for the greatest love poem, and the Viola d'or i argent (gold and silver violet) to the greatest religious poem. There were other lesser prizes. A person winning all three great prizes was given the honorific title of Mestre en Gai Saber ("Master of the Gay Science").
The intellectual and political classes swiftly patronised the Jocs Florals and their support lent renewed prestige to Catalan poetry. Several different positions soon became apparent with respect to the models to be used for the creation of a new Catalan literature. Marià Aguiló defended as worthy models all the various forms and authors. Antoni de Bofarull defended sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Catalan authors and the Barcelonese dialect as the best models for Catalan poetry. Finally, there was a "third way" that upheld a unique nineteenth-century Catalan poetry in Barcelonese dialect, but it had few defenders among the supporters of the Jocs Florals. In the end the Jocs attracted persons of a wide variety of ideologies: republicans, conservatives, the young people. Eventually, Frederic Soler and his followers would participate in the majority of contests. The Jocs Florals went a long way to re-asserting the Catalan language after centuries of decline with respect to Castilian.
Mestres en Gai Saber
|
|
Agustí Bartra Agustí Bartra i Lleonart was a Catalan poet, writer, translator and University Professor in Catalan language.- Biography :... Manuel de Pedrolo Manuel de Pedrolo i Molina was a Catalan author of novels, short stories, poetry and plays. He's mostly known for his sci-fi novel Second origin typescript.-Mini-biography:... Olga Xirinacs Díaz Olga Xirinacs Díaz, was born in Tarragona in 1936, where she still lives and works. She is a writer and piano teacher. During her literary career, Díaz has written poetry, drama, tales and essays.... |
Valencia
Valencian
Valencian is the traditional and official name of the Catalan language in the Valencian Community. There are dialectical differences from standard Catalan, and under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua has been established as its regulator...
(the variant of the Catalan language
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
spoken in Valencia). A total of seventeen prizes were awarded annually; the three top prizes were identical to those of the Barcelonan games. On top of the usual contests that included theatre and narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
as well as poetry, there were extraordinary contests held by institutions all throughout the Land of Valencia
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain located in central and south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Valencia...
.
The Jocs of Valencia witnessed thirty-five Mestres en Gai Saber and two female winners of the Flor Natural (top prize, an actual rose). Figures like Blasco Ibañez and Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres was a Spanish lawyer and politician who served, briefly, as the first premier minister of the Second Spanish Republic, and then — from 1931 to 1936—as its president....
have acted as maintainers, i.e. presidents and judges of the Jocs, and in 1914 and 1999 the maintainers were women. The Regina (queen) who sits in the Cadira d'Or (golden chair) is elected alternatingly from the three Valencian provinces (Alicante
Alicante
Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...
, Castellón
Castellón (province)
Castellón or Castelló is a province in the northern part of the Valencian Community, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Valencia to the south, Teruel to the west, Tarragona to the north, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The western side of the province is in the mountainous...
, and Valencia
Valencia (province)
Valencia or València is a province of Spain, in the central part of the Valencian Community.It is bordered by the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, Cuenca, Teruel, Castellón, and the Mediterranean Sea...
) and from the comarques. Today the Jocs take place in the Teatro Principal with the attendance of the highest dignitaries of the Valencian Community.
Esperanto
The Barcelonan games inspired an imitation, the Internaciaj Floraj Ludoj (Juegos Florales Internacionales or Jocs Florals Internacionals), in EsperantoEsperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
in 1909. The games were the most prestigious Esperanto event in the era before the Second World War.
Chile
A national literary contest called the Juegos Florales was held in Santiago, ChileSantiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
in 1914. On 22 December Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...
, who took her pen name from Occitan poet Frédéric Mistral
Frédéric Mistral
Frédéric Mistral was a French writer and lexicographer of the Occitan language. Mistral won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1904 and was a founding member of Félibrige and a member of l'Académie de Marseille...
, won top prize for her Sonetos de la Muerte
Sonetos de la Muerte
Sonetos de la Muerte is a work by the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, first published in 1914. The work was awarded first prize in the Juegos Florales, a national literary contest....
. After winning the Juegos she infrequently used her given name of Lucila Godoy for her publications.