Rambertino Buvalelli
Encyclopedia
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
judge, statesman, diplomat, and poet, was the earliest of the podestà
Podestà
Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...
-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....
s of thirteenth-century Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
. He served at one time or other as podestà of Brescia
Brescia
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
, Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, and Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
. Ten of his Occitan poems survive, but none with an accompanying melody. He is usually regarded as the first native Italian troubadour, though Cossezen
Cossezen
The earliest native Italian troubadour may be one called Cossezen , the subject of one stanza of the famous satire of contemporary poets by Peire d'Alvernhe which must have preceded 1173. Of "Cossezen" Peire writes:...
and Peire de la Caravana
Peire de la Caravana
Peire de la Caravana was an Italian troubadour in Lombardy in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He was one of the earliest Occitan troubadours in Italy...
may precede him. His reputation has secured a street named in his honour in his birthplace: the Via Buvalelli Rambertino in Bologna.
Political career
Rambertino was a law student at the University of BolognaUniversity of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
in his youth and became attached to the Este
Este
The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. It is split into two branches; the elder is known as the House of Welf-Este or House of Welf historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph...
court not long after. It was there that he made the acquaintance of Beatrice d'Este
Beatrice d'Este (died 1226)
Blessed Beatrice d'Este was the daughter of Azzo VI of the Este family by his second wife, Sophia Eleanor, daughter of Humbert III, Count of Savoy. She was the aunt of Saint Beatrice d'Este....
, whom he celebrates in all his songs. He was patronised by Azzo VI and he had strong ties to the Guelph party
Guelphs and Ghibellines
The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...
in Italy. He first appears as podestà of Brescia in 1201, when the Annales Brixienses ("Annals of Brescia") record that receptus est Rembertinus potestas ("Rambertino was received as podestà"). He made peace that year with Cremona
Cremona
Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...
, Bergamo
Bergamo
Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
, and Mantua. In 1203 he was again in Bologna, serving as a procurator, his term in Brescia having ended. The next five years are obscure from a distance of eight hundred, but he was podestà of Milan in 1208. He appears in Milanese documents as Lambertinus Bonarelus and Lambertinus de Bonarellis, but there is no doubt among historians that they are references to the troubadour.
In 1209 Rambertino was back in Bologna, where he was console di giustizia ("consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
of justice"). In 1212 he was serving as ambassador for Pope Innocent IV's
Pope Innocent IV
Pope Innocent IV , born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was pope from June 25, 1243 until his death in 1254.-Early life:...
cardinal-legate
Papal legate
A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
Ugo di Sessa, soon to be Bishop of Vercelli, to Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
, but by May he had returned to Bologna. A Buvalello was procurator of Bologna again in 1212, though it is a myth that Rambertino was involved in a property dispute involving Sambuca
Sambuca
Sambuca is an Italian anise-flavoured, usually colourless, liqueur. Its most common variety is often referred to as white sambuca to differentiate it from other varieties that are deep blue in colour or bright red ....
during the guerrilla between Pistoia
Pistoia
Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...
and Bologna that year. He was podestà of Parma in 1213. He resumed the office of consul in Bologna in 1214 and swore to uphold the league between Bologna and Reggio nell'Emilia that year. Rambertino was podestà at Mantua between 1215 and 1216, his longest term yet. In 1217 he was elected to the podesteria of Modena, to which he had formerly served briefly on an embassy. In 1218 Rambertino was named to the podesteria of Genoa and he held it for three consecutive years through 1220. It was probably in his three years at Genoa that he introduced Occitan lyric poetry
Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
to the city, which was later to develop a flourishing Occitan literary culture.
Rambertino was again offered the podesteria of Modena in 1221 but refused it because of a papal injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
of Honorius III
Pope Honorius III
Pope Honorius III , previously known as Cencio Savelli, was Pope from 1216 to 1227.-Early work:He was born in Rome as son of Aimerico...
. In that very year he was named podestà of Verona, a post he accepted, but he died in September. His obituary reads: MCCXXI. Hoc de mense septembris obit dominus Lambertus Buvalelli potestas Verone.
Poetic career
Rambertino probably learned Occitan by reading anthologies (chansonnierChansonnier
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) rather than through contact with other troubadours. His poetry, modest in volume, is skilled and the poet utilised difficult rhyme schemes and alliteration. Rambertino's technical proficiency is evident and his language is unadulterated by Italianisms. As one of the earliest Italian troubadours, it is perhaps unsurprising that he stuck with the theme of courtly love
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 wrote only 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...
. He did have contact with other troubadours, notably Elias Cairel
Elias Cairel
Elias Cairel was a troubadour of international fame. Born in Sarlat in the Périgord, he first travelled with the Fourth Crusade and settled down in the Kingdom of Thessalonica at the court of Boniface of Montferrat before moving back to Western Europe, where he sojourned in both Spain...
, whom at the end of Toz m'era de chantar gequiz he asks to bring the poem to Beatrice at the Este court. And perhaps it was Rambertino's deft treatment of love that prompted Peire Raimon de Tolosa
Peire Raimon de Tolosa
Peire Raimon de Tolosa or Toloza was a troubadour from the merchant class of Toulouse. He is variously referred to as lo Viellz and lo Gros , though these are thought by some to refer to two different persons. On the other hand, lo Viellz could refer to his being of an early generation of...
to address his De fin'amor son tuit mei pessamen, described as "one of the finest descriptions of fin'amor ever written", to him.
Works
Rambertino's surviving poems are listed alphabetically:- Al cor m'estai l'amoros desirers
- D'un salut me voill entremetre
- Er quant florisson li verger
- Eu sai la flor plus bella d'autra flor
- Ges de chantar nom voill gequir
- Mout chantera de ioi e voluntiers
- Pois vei quel temps s'aserena
- S'a mon Restaur pognes plazer
- Seigner, scel qi la putia
- Toz m'era de chantar gequiz