Dalfinet ( 1220–1269?) was a nobleman 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 ...

from

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

. Earlier scholarship presumed him to be a son of

Dalfi d'Alvernhe Dalfi d'Alvernha () 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 for the name Robert, and ...

. That ''Dalfinet'' is a nickname derived from his place of origin, however, seems to be indicated by a pair of lines in his own poem, which puts his inheritance in ''Dalfi'', probably the town of Dauphin in the

county of Forcalquier The County of Forcalquier was a large medieval county in the region of Provence in the Kingdom of Arles, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named after the fortress around which it grew, Forcalquier. The earliest mention of a castle at For ...

.Francesca Cresci
''Dalfin d’Alvergne: edizione critica e commento''
PhD diss. (University of Siena, 2023), p. . A Dalfinet is attested in documents between 1220 and 1241. He was an adherent of Count Ramon Berenguer V.Robert A. Taylor
''A Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Troubadours and Old Occitan Literature''
Research in Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 2 (Kamloops: Medieval Institute Publications, 2015), p. 389. He may have been a son of lord Raimbault of Dauphin. A Dalfinet, possibly the troubadour, was in Spain in 1269 in the entourage of the future

Peter III of Aragon Peter III of Aragon (In Aragonese, ''Pero''; in Catalan, ''Pere''; in Italian, ''Pietro''; November 1285) was King of Aragon, King of Valencia (as ), and Count of Barcelona (as ) from 1276 to his death. At the invitation of some rebels, he con ...

when the latter visited

Alfonso X of Castile Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, ; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, Kingdom of León, León and Kingdom of Galicia, Galicia from 1 June 1252 until his death in 1284. During the April 1257 Imperial election, election of 1 ...

in Toledo. On 26 April 1269, at Riello near

Cuenca Cuenca may refer to: People * Cuenca (surname) Places Ecuador * Cuenca Canton, in the Azuay Province ** Cuenca, Ecuador, capital of Cuenca Canton and Azuay Province ** Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cuenca Peru * Cuenca District, Huarochirí ...

, he was paid three ''

solidi The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; : ''solidi'') or ''nomisma'' () was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Later Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. It was introduced in the early 4th century, replacing the aureus, and its weight of about 4 ...

''. Other troubadours in Peter's entourage at the time include

Folquet de Lunel Folquet de Lunel (c. 1244 – c. 1300) was a troubadour from Lunel (in the modern Hérault) in the Languedoc. He left behind nine recorded lyric poems, including five ''cansos'', two ''partimens'', and two ''sirventes''. He also wrote one longe ...

Paulet de Marselha Paulet de Marselha (fl. 1262–1268) was a Provençal troubadour from Marseille. Three of his eight surviving works are dedicated to Barral dels Baus, the viscount of Marseille. Three were love songs composed in Marseille during an era of pea ...

and

Cerverí de Girona Cerverí de Girona (; fl. 1259 – 1285) was a Catalan troubadour born Guillem de Cervera in Girona. He was the most prolific troubadour, leaving behind some 114 lyric poems among other works, including an ''ensenhamen'' of proverbs for his s ...

. Only one song he wrote, ''De meg sirventes ai legor'', survives. It is 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 "lyrical adaptation" date back to the 9th century in Gregor ...

, directly or indirectly, of Giraut de Borneil's ''No puesc sofrir qu'a la dolor'' and

Bertran de Born Bertran de Born (; 1140s – by 1215) was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the 12th-13th century. He composed love songs (cansos) but was better known for his political songs (sirventes). He ...

's ''Be.m platz lo gais temps de pascor''. It is a ''

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 ...

'' (servant song), specifically a ''mieg-sirventes'' (half-''sirventes'').Billee A. Bonse
''"Singing to Another Tune": Contrafacture and Attribution in Troubadour Song''
PhD diss. (The Ohio State University, 2003), p. 161n. It is noted for its "restless, arrogant tone and the sarcastic pomposity of language".Taylor, ''A Bibliographical Guide'', citing Guida.

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