Peirol or PeiròlIn Occitan, ''peir'' (French "pierre") means "stone" and ''-ol'' is a diminutive suffix, the name Peirol being understood as the equivalent of "Little Stone" but also "Petit Pierre" (Lil' Peter) or "Pierrot" (Pete or Petey); however, "peiròl" also meant a cauldron or a stove. The Occitan usually write Peiròl with an accented "ò" because "Peirol" would be pronounced . (, ; born c. 1160, fl. 1188–1222Nichols, 129./1225,Aubrey, "References to Music in Old Occitan Literature", 123. died in the 1220s) was an

Auvergnat or (endonym: ) is a northern dialect of Occitan spoken in central and southern France, in particular in the former administrative region of Auvergne. Currently, research shows that there is not really a true Auvergnat dialect but rather a vas ...

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) 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 troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

who wrote mostly ''

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 ...

'' of

courtly love Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...

in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.Switten, 320. Thirty-four surviving poems written in

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

have been attributed to him; of these, seventeen (sixteen of them love songs) have surviving melodies. He is sometimes called Peirol d'Auvergne or Peiròl d'Auvèrnha, and erroneously Pierol.

Biography

Not much is known of his life, and any attempt to establish his biography from a reading of his poems is soundly rejected by the most recent scholarship. Peirol's birth is commonly estimated around 1160.The common 1160

br>
is possibly inferred from his being established active starting around 1188. He may have hailed from — and been named after — the village of

Pérols Pérols (; oc, Peròus) is a Communes of France, commune in the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region in southern France. Close to the city of Montpellier, it is ...

Prondines Prondines () is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. See also *Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department The following is a list of the 464 communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department of France. In ...

Puy-de-Dôme Puy-de-Dôme (; oc, label=Auvergnat, lo Puèi de Doma or ''lo Puèi Domat'') is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the centre of France. In 2019, it had a population of 662,152.castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

of Rochefort-Montagne (''Rocafort'').Schutz, 227. Another candidate for his birth town is Pérol in modern Riom-es-Montagnes.Egan, 82. His homeland was thus ''en la contrada del Dalfin'': in the county of the

Dauphin of Auvergne This is a list of the various rulers of Auvergne. History In the 7th century Auvergne was disputed between the Franks and Aquitanians. It was later conquered by the Carolingians, and was integrated for a time into the kingdom of Aquitaine. The c ...

. Peirol was originally a poor

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

, described as "courtly and handsome" by the author of his late thirteenth-century ''

vida Vida means “life” in Spanish and Portuguese. It may refer to: Geography * Vida (Gradačac), village in Bosnia and Herzegovina * Lake Vida, Victoria Valley, Antarctica * U.S. settled places: ** Vida, Montana ** Vida, Oregon ** Vida, Missour ...

'' (biography).Egan, 81. He served at the court of

Dalfi d'Alvernha Dalfi d'Alvernha (french: Dauphin d'Auvergne) was the Count of Clermont and Montferrand, a troubadour and a patron of troubadours. He was born around 1150 and died in 1234 or 1235. He is sometimes called Robert IV, but there is no solid evidence ...

, but was in love with his sister Salh (or Sail) de Claustra (which means "fled from the cloister"), the wife of Béraut III de Mercœur, and wrote many songs for this "domna" (lady). While Dalfi had brought his sister to his court for Peirol and had helped Peirol cater to her tastes in his compositions, eventually Dalfi grew jealous of the attention his sister gave Peirol and, in part because of the impropriety, had to dismiss Peirol, who could not support himself as a man-at-arms. His biographer indicates, That is: Peirol being unable to maintain himself as a knight became a

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

, and travelled from court to court, receiving from barons clothing, money, and horses. Peirol is known to have been a

fiddler A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Although in many ...

and singer from a reference in a '' tornada'' of

Albertet de Sestaro Albertet de Sestaro, sometimes called Albertet de Terascon ( fl. 1194–1221), was a Provençal jongleur and troubadour from the Gapençais (''Gapensés'' in Occitan). Of his total oeuvre, twenty three poems survive. "Albertet" or "Albertetz" ...

. After returning from a pilgrimage to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

sometime in or after 1222, Peirol may have died in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

in the 1220s.Kehew, Pound, and Snodgrass, 244.

Courtly love

Peirol's works are simple and metaphysical; based on familiar concepts of

courtliness Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...

, they lack originality.Switten, 321. They are most characteristic in their abstractness and lack of concrete nouns; the adjectives are rarely sensory (related to sight, touch, etc.) and there are no extended references to nature as found in many troubadours. The purpose behind his writing was probably economical and chivalric — for reputation, prestige, and honour — rather than emotional or sentimental; his writing is intellectual and formulaic.Switten, 322. Among the personal statements in his works, he expresses a preference for the ''vers'' over the ''chansoneta''. Among his love songs can be distinguished the light-hearted "gay songs", which sometimes at least had equally gay melodies, and the more "serious songs", which were "theoretical discussions of love".Switten, 323. He wrote in the ''

trobar leu The ''trobar leu'' (), or light style of poetry, was the most popular style used by the troubadours. Its accessibility gave it a wide audience. See also *''Trobar ric'' *''Trobar clus ''Trobar clus'' (), or closed form, was a complex and obscur ...

'' (light poetry) tradition.Kehew, Pound, and Snodgrass, 245. To Peirol, the "crafty lover" can "circumvent the foolish watchfulness of the jealous husband." Peirol gave up a nobler woman for a lesser "that I love in joy and peace and am loved in return." Peirol also waded into the discussion concerning whether it was permissible to love in a pure, elevated form at the same time as one sought low, physical love. One of Peirol's works, "Mainta gens mi malrazona", survives with a melody to which a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

accompaniment was written as "Manta gens me mal razona" by E. Bohm. Among his surviving melodies, Théodore Gérold has ascertained a discord between music and lyric, and although Switten denies this, she admits that they are generally melancholic and not expressive of the mood of the lyrics (if one is conveyed). Both agree, however, that his melodies are simpler than those of contemporary troubadours

Folquet de Marselha Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse (c. 1150 – 25 December 1231) came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He is known as a trobadour, and then as a fiercely anti- ...

and

Peire Vidal Peire Vidal ( fl. 12th century) was an Old Occitan troubadour. Forty-five of his songs are extant. The twelve that still have melodies bear testament to the deserved nature of his musical reputation. There is no contemporary reference to Peire ou ...

. They are usually written in either the Dorian or

Mixolydian Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic scal ...

modes and "cannot be rejected as tiresome pedantries ..yet possessed of an intrinsic harmony, a singularity of purpose, a unanimity of conception and intent that may properly be termed artistic." A

trouvère ''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French (''langue d'oïl'') form of the ''langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word ''troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to poet- ...

Guiot de Dijon Guiot de Dijon ('' fl.'' 1215–25) was a Burgundian trouvère. The seventeen ''chansons'' ascribed to him in the standard listing of Raynaud-Spanke are found in fifteen chansonniers, some without attribution or with conflicting attributions w ...

, writing in

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

, probably modelled his song after Peirol's love song . Peirol also tried his hand at the art of the ''

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 ...

'' with the "Ren no val hom joves que no.s perjura", which was widely copied. This poem, which has stark and vivid imagery and even a prosaic reference to merchants, is so unusual for Peirol that its authenticity has been placed in doubt.

Crusading songs

Peirol supported the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...

(1189–1192) and wrote a ''

tenso A ''tenso'' (; french: tençon) 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 ...

'', "Quant amors trobet partit" (When Love discovered that my heart / Had parted from his concerns), encouraging the kings of Europe to make peace and send aid to "the noble and valiant marquess"

Conrad of Montferrat Conrad of Montferrat (Italian: ''Corrado del Monferrato''; Piedmontese: ''Conrà ëd Monfrà'') (died 28 April 1192) was a nobleman, one of the major participants in the Third Crusade. He was the ''de facto'' King of Jerusalem (as Conrad I) by vi ...

, then

King of Jerusalem The King of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader states, Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Church, Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was Siege of Jerusalem (1099), conqu ...

.Siberry, 59. Though Peirol expresses a desire to accompany his lord,

, on the Crusade, he is ultimately convinced by Love not to abandon his lady (''domna'') by pointing out that "never by your intervention will the Turk and Arab yield up the Tower of David" and giving the counsel: "love and sing often." It appears that Peirol never did go on the Third Crusade, but he eventually pilgrimaged to Jerusalem in 1221 and may have witnessed the surrender of

Damietta Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easter ...

.Siberry, 66. He placed some of the blame on the

Emperor Frederick II Frederick II (German: ''Friedrich''; Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusa ...

in a

crusading song A Crusade song ( oc, canso de crozada, ca, cançó de croada, german: Kreuzlied) is any vernacular lyric poem about the Crusades. Crusade songs were popular in the High Middle Ages: 106 survive in Occitan, forty in Old French, thirty in Middle High ...

— his last poem — entitled "Pus flum Jordan ai vist e.l monimen". He even went so far as to mock the

imperial eagle The eagle is used in heraldry as a charge, as a supporter, and as a crest. Heraldic eagles can be found throughout world history like in the Achaemenid Empire or in the present Republic of Indonesia. The European post-classical symbolism of the ...

() and praise the victorious

Sultan of Egypt Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Though the extent of the Egyptian Sultanate ebbed and flowed, it generally i ...

(''Anta y avetz e.l Soudan onramen''). "M'entencio ai tot'en un vers mesa", one of Peirol's ''cansos'' and not one of his crusading songs, was used twice around the time of the

Eighth Crusade The Eighth Crusade was the second Crusade launched by Louis IX of France, this one against the Hafsid dynasty in Tunisia in 1270. It is also known as the Crusade of Louis IX against Tunis or the Second Crusade of Louis. The Crusade did not see ...

(1270) as the basis for a

contrafactum In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...

in support of the Crusades.Puckett, 878. First, Ricaut Bonomel, a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...

, wrote a scathing analysis of the future of Christianity in the Holy Land, and a few years after that, Austorc d'Aurillac, composed a ''

'' encouraging conversion to Islam. Both later poems were exercises in

reverse psychology Reverse psychology is a technique involving the assertion of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what is actually desired. This techniqu ...

and attempts to spur further Crusades.

Bibliography

The thirty-four surviving poems that constitute Peirol's complete works have been titled after their first line. ; The ''

'', alphabetically * "Ab gran joi mou maintas vetz e comenssa" * "Atressi co.l signes fai" * "Be.m cujava que no chantes oguan" * "Ben dei chantar puois amors m'o enseigna" * "Car m'era de Joi lunhatz" * "Camjat ai mon consirier" * "Cora qu'amors vuelha" * "Coras que.m fezes doler" * "D'eissa la razon qu'ieu suoill" * "Del sieu tort farai esmenda" * "D'un bon vers vau pensan com lo fezes" * "D'un sonet vau pensan" * "En joi que.m demora" * "Eu non lausarai ja mon chan" * "La gran alegransa" * "Mainta gens mi malrazona" * "M'entencion ai tot' en un vers mesa" * "Mout m'entremis de chantar voluntiers" * "Nuills hom no s'auci tan gen" * "Per dan que d'amor mi veigna" * "Pos de mon joi vertadier" * "Pos entremes me suy de far chansos" * "Ren no val hom joves que no.s perjura" * "Si be.m sui loing et entre gent estraigna" * "Tot mon engeing e mon saber" * "Tug miei cossir son d'amor e de chan" ; The ''

s'', alphabetically * "Dalfi, sabriatz me vos" *: (with

) * "Gaucelm, diguatz m'al vostre sen" *: (with

Gaucelm Faidit Gaucelm Faidit ( literally "Gaucelm the Dispossessed" c. 1156 – c. 1209) was a troubadour, born in Uzerche, in the Limousin, from a family of knights in service of the count of Turenne. He travelled widely in France, Spain, and Hungary. His ...

) * "Peirol, com avetz tan estat" *: (with

Bernart de Ventadorn Bernart de Ventadorn (also Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn; – ) was a French poet-composer troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Generally regarded as the most important troubadour in both poetry and music, his 1 ...

) * "Peirol, pois vengutz es vas nos" *: (a ''

cobla The cobla (, plural ''cobles'') is a traditional music ensemble of Catalonia, and in Northern Catalonia in France. It is generally used to accompany the Sardana, a traditional Catalan folk dance, danced in a circle. Structure The modern Cobla no ...

'') * "Pomairols, dos baros sai" *: (with Pomairol, Guionet, and one Peire) * "Pus flum Jordan ai vist e.l monimen" *: (with "Dieus", God) * "Quant Amors trobet partit" *: (with "Amors", Love) * "Senher, qual penriaz vos" *: (with a "Senher", Lord)

Modern recordings

Several dozens albumsMedieval.org alone lists about 26 CDs
/ref> exist featuring at least one recording of a Peirol song. Below are some recordings, alphabetically by poem name. (If you have enabled

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...

, you can reorder the table by clicking any column heading.)

References

; Endnotes ;Sources consulted * Aston, S. C. ''Peirol: Troubadour of Auvergne''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953. * Aston, S. C
"On the Attribution of the Poem 'Be·m cujava que no chantes oguan' and the Identity of 'Marqueza'."
''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 48, No. 2. (Apr., 1953), pp. 151–158. * Aubrey, Elizabeth
"References to Music in Old Occitan Literature."
''Acta Musicologica'', Vol. 61, Fasc. 2. (May–Aug., 1989), pp. 110–149. * Aubrey, Elizabeth. ''The Music of the Troubadours''. Indiana University Press, 1996. . * Chambers, Frank M
"Three Troubadour Poems with Historical Overtones."
'' Speculum'', Vol. 54, No. 1. (Jan., 1979), pp. 42–54. * Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. ''The Vidas of the Troubadours''. New York: Garland, 1984. . * Jones, W. Powell
"The Jongleur Troubadours of Provence."
''PMLA'', Vol. 46, No. 2. (Jun., 1931), pp. 307–311. * Kehew, Robert (ed.) ''Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours''.

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

and William De Witt Snodgrass, trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. . * Moller, Herbert
"The Social Causation of the Courtly Love Complex."
''Comparative Studies in Society and History'', Vol. 1, No. 2. (Jan., 1959), pp. 137–163. * Moller, Herbert
"The Meaning of Courtly Love."
''The Journal of American Folklore'', Vol. 73, No. 287. (Jan.–Mar., 1960), pp. 39–52. * Nichols, Stephen G
"Poetic Places and Real Spaces: Anthropology of Space in Crusade Literature (in Allegory and the Space of Otherness)."
''Yale French Studies, No. 95, Rereading Allegory: Essays in Memory of Daniel Poirion''. (1999), pp. 111–133. * Paterson, Linda M. "Occitan Literature and the Holy Land." ''The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'', edd. Marcus Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. . * Puckett, Jaye
"'Reconmenciez novele estoire': The Troubadours and the Rhetoric of the Later Crusades."
''MLN'', Vol. 116, No. 4, French Issue. (Sep., 2001), pp. 844–889. * Siberry, Elizabeth. ''Criticism of Crusading, 1095–1274''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. . * Schutz, A. H
"Where Were the Provençal "Vidas" and "Razos" Written?"
''Modern Philology'', Vol. 35, No. 3. (Feb., 1938), pp. 225–232. * Smythe, Barbara
"The Connection between Words and Music in the Songs of the Trobadors."
''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 3, No. 4. (Jul., 1908), pp. 329–336. * Switten, Margaret Louise
"Text and Melody in Peirol's Cansos."
''PMLA'', Vol. 76, No. 4. (Sep., 1961), pp. 320–325.

External links

*
Peirol's complete works online
at Trobar.org * * *

*
Multimedia edition of Peirol's lyrics
{{Authority control 1160s births 1220s deaths People from Auvergne 13th-century French troubadours 12th-century French troubadours