Na Bieiris de Romans (; ) was a

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 ...

of the first half of the thirteenth century. She was likely from

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

near

Montélimar Montélimar (; Vivaro-Alpine dialect, Vivaro-Alpine: ''Montelaimar'' ; ) is a town in the Drôme Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is the second-largest town in t ...

. Other than her name, which includes her place of birth, nothing is known of the details of her life, which has led to a significant gap in knowledge for scholarship analyzing her work. She left behind one '' canso'', "''Na Maria, pretz e fina valors''" ("Lady Maria, in your merit and distinction"), addressed to another woman named Mary. The poem is written in the typical

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 ...

style of

courtly love Courtly love ( ; ) 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 various deeds or services for ladies b ...

, has been the source of scholarly debate, with some interpreting it as an expression of

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

desire, while others speculate that author could have been a mis-identified man, a woman writing as a man, or expressing platonic or spiritual devotion.

''Na Maria, pretz e fina valors''

(Lady Maria, in your merit and distinction) is found in a fourteenth-century ''

chansonnier A chansonnier (, , Galician and , or ''canzoniéro'', ) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally " song-books"; however, some manuscripts are call ...

''.

Interpretations

Alfred Jeanroy Alfred Jeanroy (5 July 1859 – 13 March 1953) was a French linguist. Jeanroy was a leading scholar studying troubadour poetry, publishing over 600 works. He established an influential view of the second generation of troubadours divided into tw ...

, François Zufferey,

Gianfranco Folena Gianfranco Folena (9 April 1920 – 14 February 1992) was an Italian linguist, philologist, and academic. Biography Born in Savigliano in Piedmont in 1920, from a Tuscan family. He attended the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa along with ...

and Elizabeth W. Poe have all argued that "''Na Maria''" was actually written by a man. Though initially believing Bieris to be a woman, Schultz-Gora changed his position, arguing that "''Na Bieris''" was actually a corruption of

Alberico da Romano Alberico da Romano (1196 – 26 August 1260), called Alberico II, was an Italian condottiero, troubadour, and an alternatingly Guelph and Ghibelline statesman. He was also a patron of Occitan literature. Biography Alberico was born in the cas ...

, a claim repeated by Jeanroy and Poe. Zufferey attributed the work to Gui d'Ussel, whose poems are located on the pages both before and after ''"Na Maria''." Conversely, Jean-Baptiste de Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, one of the earliest scholars of the poem, accepted that the author was a woman, but that she was simply working on behalf of a man. Similarly, Tilde Sankovitch argued that Bieiris may have been writing from the masculine point of view, fully immersing herself in the masculinity of the genre. Bieiris' lesbianism, too, has its defenders:

Pierre Bec Pierre Bec (; , ; 11 December 1921 – 30 June 2014) was a French Occitan-language poet and linguist. Born in Paris, he spent his childhood in Comminges, where he learnt Occitan. He was deported to Germany between 1943 and 1945. After returning, h ...

Magda Bogin Magda Bogin (born 1950) is a New York City, New York-based writer and literary translator who has produced a body of work that straddles fiction, poetry, opera and non-fiction. Born in Manhattan, she has lived and worked extensively in Mexico, Fra ...

, Renat Nelli,

John Boswell John Eastburn Boswell (March 20, 1947December 24, 1994) was an American historian and a full professor at Yale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue of religion and homosexuality, specifically Christianity and homosexuality ...

, Frédérique Le Nan and Judith Bennett all assert that "Na Maria" can be read as an expression of lesbian affection. Angelica Rieger has forcefully defended Bieiris' authorship but denied her lesbianism, saying that modern readers are imposing their biases onto the text. She has sought to show that Bieiris is in fact employing the language of affection popular among noblewomen of the period. Rieger supports her claims by comparing Bieiris' courtly language to that of

Azalais de Porcairagues Azalais de Porcairagues (also ''Azalaïs'') or Alasais de Porcaragues was a trobairitz (woman troubadour), composing in Occitan in the late 12th century. The sole source for her life is her '' vida'', which tells us that she came from the country ...

and Carenza. Alison Ganze expands on Rieger's assertion that Bieiris was indeed writing to another woman, but that the ''canso'' is consistent with expressions of political loyalty in the feudal system. The last stanza of her ''canso'' reads as follows:

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links