
Gau(s)bert Amiel or Gausbertz Amiels was a 13th-century
Gascon 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 '' trobai ...
. His only surviving song (''
canso'') is ''Breu vers per tal que meins y poing'', a humorous
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
of contemporary
courtly poetry. This lone example of Gausbert's work is well represented in the manuscripts, however, appearing six, labelled A, D, I, K, N, and V. The poem is only ascribed to him in MS "D", where a marginal note names "Gibert Amiels" as the author. Based on the manuscripts, the poem must have been written between 1200 and 1254.
All that is known of Gausbert that cannot be gleaned from his poem is found in his ''
vida'', which, however, seem to use, as its primary source, his poem. He is described as "a poor knight, courteous and skilled in arms", and "he never fell in love with a dame nobler than he". The purpose of his surviving poem is to attack the ''rics'' (rich men, implying nobility and rank as well as material wealth) and their pursuance of younger women, who are poor Gausbert's targets. There are affinities in content with the work of
Marcabru
Marcabru (; fl. 1130–1150) is one of the earliest troubadours whose poems are known. There is no certain information about him; the two '' vidas'' attached to his poems tell different stories, and both are evidently built on hints in the poems; ...
.
Sources
*Egan, Margarita (ed. and trans.) ''The Vidas of the Troubadours''. New York: Garland, 1984. .
*
Riquer, Martín de. ''Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos''. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.
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Gascons
13th-century French troubadours