Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari (;

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they 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 indicatin ...

1305–1324) was a medieval Occitan author from

Castelnaudary Castelnaudary (; oc, Castèlnòu d'Arri) is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of southern France. It is located in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world ca ...

. Arnaut was a troubadour and the first poet laureate of the

Consistori del Gay Saber The Consistori del Gay Saber (; "Consistory of the Gay Science") was a poetic academy founded at Toulouse in 1323 to revive and perpetuate the lyric poetry of the troubadours. Also known as the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals or Académie des Jeu ...

. Arnaut's poem in praise of the Virgin Mary was adjudged the best by the Consistori at a contest held on Holy Cross Day 1324 at Toulouse and the troubadour was awarded the ''violeta d'or'' (golden violet). He received the ''flor de gaug d'argen fi'' (fine marigold in silver) as the first prize for a ''

dansa A ''dansa'' (), also spelt ''dança'', was an Old Occitan form of lyric poetry developed in the late thirteenth century among the troubadours. It is related to the English term "dance" and was often accompanied by dancing. A closely related form, ...

'' at the ''festa de Santa Crotz'' on 3 May 1324. He was also the author of the

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalr ...

''Guilhem de la Barra'' (1318), of which Paul Meyer produced the ''editio princeps'' (first modern critical edition). A new (French) edition has since been produced.

Sources

*Aubrey, Elizabeth. "References to Music in Old Occitan Literature." ''Acta Musicologica'', 61:2 (May–Aug., 1989), pp. 110–149. *Gouiran, Gérard. ''Arnaut Vidal de Castelnaudary: Le Livre des aventures de Monseigneur Guilhem de la Barra''. Paris: Champion, 1997. *Harris, M. Roy. "The Occitan Translations of John XII and XIII–XVII from a Fourteenth-Century Franciscan Codex (Assisi, Chiesa Nuova MS. 9)." ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', New Series, 75:4 (1985), pp. 1–149. * Jeanroy, Alfred. ''La poésie lyrique des troubadours''. Toulouse: Privat. 1934. *

Meyer, Paul Paul Meyer may refer to: * Paul Meyer (clarinetist) (born 1965), French clarinetist * Paul Meyer (philologist) (1840–1917), French philologist * Paul Meyer (rower) (born 1922), Swiss rower * Paul Meyer (sport shooter) (born 1961), Zimbabwean spo ...

. ''Guillaume de la Barre, roman d'aventures par Arnaut Vidal de Castelnaudari, publie pour la premiere fois d'apres le manuscrit unique''. Paris, 1895. {{authority control 14th-century French troubadours People from Castelnaudary