Matieu de Caersi, Caerci, or Querci 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 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....

. According to the rubric

Rubric (typography)

A rubric is a word or section of text which is traditionally written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The word derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...

 accompanying his only song in troubadour manuscript C, he was Mayestre Matieus de Caersi, that is, a master of arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 from Quercy, possibly Cahors

Cahors

Cahors is the capital of the Lot department in south-western France.Its site is dramatic being contained on three sides within an udder shaped twist in the river Lot known as a 'presqu'île' or peninsula...

. He is not to be identified with the Matheus who composed a tenso

Tenso

A tenso is a style of Occitan song favoured by the troubadours. It takes the form of a debate in which each voice defends a position on a topic relating to love or ethics. Closely related genres include the partimen and the cobla exchange...

with Bertram de Gordon in 1212.

Matieu's lone surviving song is Tant suy marritz que no.m puese alegrar ("I am so afflicted that I cannot be happy"), a planh

Planh

The planh or plaing is a funeral lament used by the troubadours, modeled on the medieval Latin planctus. It differed from the planctus in that it was intended for a secular audience...

on the death of James I of Aragon

James I of Aragon

James I the Conqueror was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276...

 (died 26 August 1276). It is often compared and contrasted with another planh on James' death composed by Cerverí de Girona

Cerverí de Girona

Cerverí de Girona was a Catalan troubadour born Guillem de Cervera in Girona. He was the most prolific troubadour, leaving behind some 114 lyric poems among other works, including an ensenhamen of proverbs for his son, totaling about 130. He was a court poet to James the Conqueror and Peter the...

, Si per tristor, per dol no per cossir. Cerverí's piece is direct and almost personal, as the troubadour asks the Virgin Mary to show as much mercy to James as he showed on earth, referring to his establishing the Mercedarian Order

Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy

The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives also known as Our Lady of Ransom is a Roman Catholic religious order established in 1218 by St...

 in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

. Matieu, on the other hand, is moralising and religious. He is also self-concerned, as he asks James' sons to continue to protect him. The merits of both works have been debated by critics.

Structurally, Matieu imposes coblas capfinidas

Cobla (Occitan literary term)

A cobla is a stanza in Occitan lyric poetry, the art form of the troubadours. Though not usually standalone work in itself, in many instances a cobla or two is all that survives of what was once a complete poem. Each cobla of a song was usually played to the same melody, but a few songs were...

on what is otherwise the metric and rhyme form used by 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....

 in Ara pot hom conoisser e proar. The pieces also has two tornadas. The first plays on the fact that James died a day after the feast day of James, son of Zebedee (Santiago Matamoros): de dos Jacmes dobla festa.ns remanha [Dieu] ("from two James God has given us a double festival"). Earlier Matieu had compared the sorrow of the people of James' lands as like that of the Britons bemoaning the loss of King Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

: ben devetz aitant de dol aver cum per Artus agron silh de Bretanha.

Sources

• Riquer, Martín de. Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.