On the path of the trobairitz from Southern France

Abstract

Very little is known about the women lyrists from Southern France, the trobairitz; about some nothing at all. The author iolates three material sources for the reconstruction of their lives and poetic work. These are: 1. the life stories (vidas) of the troubadours; 2. the troubadour manuscript tradition; 3. poems (cansos) of the woman trou- badours themselves. The article describes, analyses and valorizes each of the three cited sources separatley. Special attention is given to the preserved troubadour song-books, of which song-book H contains a complete small collection of the miniatures of the woman troubadours which are presented by the author in the wider contex of the troubadour manuscript legacy. A review of two cansos by the two best known trobairitz, Azalais de Porcairagues and the countess de Die, which are given in the original and in translation by the author, round off the survey of these poetesses, neglected in the history of literature and in the anthologies. The author concludes that the trobairitz, members of high court society, have a dignified position of authentic poetic greatness in the complex of the entire troubadour art. The paper includes all the known biographical and bibliographical refe- rences known to us and facts relevant to its theme.