Bertran del Pojet (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1222) was a

Provençal Provençal may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Provence, a region of France ** Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France ** ''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language * Provenca ...

castellan A castellan, or constable, was the governor of a castle in medieval Europe. Its surrounding territory was referred to as the castellany. The word stems from . A castellan was almost always male, but could occasionally be female, as when, in 1 ...

and

troubadour A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

of the latter half of the thirteenth century, a period of Angevin rule in Provence and Italy. He was born in

Puget-Théniers Puget-Théniers (; ; ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. Geography It is situated on in the valley of the Var. History It was part of the historic County of Nice until 1860 as ''Poggetto Tenieri''. Pe ...

, Frederic Mistral
Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige
19th century. near

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

.Egan, 22–23. He first appears in documents in September 1222. His '' vida'' records that he was a valiant and generous knight and a skilled soldier. His ''

cansos The ''canso'' or ''canson'' or ''canzo'' () was a song style used by the troubadours. It was, by far, the most common genre used, especially by early troubadours, and only in the second half of the 13th century was its dominance challenged by a ...

'' and ''

sirventes The ''sirventes'' or ''serventes'' (), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours. The name comes from ''sirvent'' ('serviceman'), from whose perspective the song is allegedly wr ...

'' were well-esteemed. Only two works of his survive, a ''sirventes'' and a ''

tenso A ''tenso'' (; ) is a style of troubadour song. It takes the form of a debate in which each voice defends a position; common topics relate to love or ethics. Usually, the tenso is written by two different poets, but several examples exist in whic ...

''. Nonetheless, they were well known.Vitaglione, 9. Bertran's ''tenso'' with an anonymous

trobairitz The ''trobairitz'' () were Occitania, Occitan female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260. ''Trobairitz'' is both singular and plural. The word ''trobairitz'' is first attested in the 13th-c ...

, "Bona dompna, d'una re quieus deman", has been translated into English by Frank Chambers and Carol Jane Nappholz. Both his poems were first edited and published (in Italian) by C. de Lollis under the title "Bertran del Pojet, trovatore dell' età angioina" in ''Miscellanea in onore di Arturo Graf'' (Bergamo, 1903).

Notes

Sources

*Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. ''The Vidas of the Troubadours''. New York: Garland, 1984. . *Nappholz, Carol J. ''Unsung Women: The Anonymous Female Voice in Troubadour Poetry''. New York: Peter Lang, 1994. . *Vitaglione, Daniel. ''The Literature of Provence: An Introduction''. McFarland and Company, 2000. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertran Del Pojet 13th-century French troubadours Musicians from Toulon Writers from Toulon