Guilhem Peire Cazals de Caortz or Guilhem Peire de Cazals was a

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 ...

of the first half of the thirteenth century. He was born or lived in

Cahors Cahors (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the western part of Southern France. It is the smallest prefecture among the 13 departments that constitute the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Region. The capital and main city of t ...

Quercy Quercy (; , locally ) is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and Auverg ...

, from which his name "de Caortz". Eleven of his works, including one ''

tenso A ''tenso'' (; ) 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 exist in whic ...

'', survive. The only sure way to date Guilhem Peire's life and work is by his ''tenso'' with Bernart de la Barta, who was alive in 1229, and by a '' sirventes'' of Guilhem Figueira, ''Un nou sirventes ai en cor que trameta'', composed in 1240, which mirrors ''D'una leu chanso ai cor que m'entremeta'', a '' canso'' by Guilhem Peire, in metre and rhyme and therefore gives a ''

terminus ante quem A ''terminus post quem'' ('limit after which', sometimes abbreviated TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ('limit before which', abbreviated TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items.. A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest date t ...

'' for the ''tensos composition. Nine of Guilhem Peire's poems are dedicated to a certain friend and

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term 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 enterta ...

known only by the affectionate '' senhal'' ''Ardit''.''Senhal'' is Occitan for "signal" or "sign". ''Ardit'' appears in the '' tornada'' of ''Be.m plagr'ueymays qu'ab vos dona, .m valgres'': "A mon Ardit que mos cantars romansa." Generally he wrote in the trobar ric genre, and in his ''leu chanso'' (''canso'' 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 audienc See also *'' Trobar ric'' *''Trobar clus ''Trobar clus'' (), or closed form, was a complex and obscure ...

, referred to above) he mentions using words are opposite to the courtly norm to describe the lover that abandoned him that. Guilhem Peire was also one of the earliest poets to adopt the

sestina A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse, fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The wor ...

form of

Arnaut Daniel Arnaut Daniel (; floruit, fl. 1180–1200) was an Occitans, Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante Alighieri, Dante as "the best smith" (''miglior fabbro'') and called a "grand master of love" (''gran maestro d'amore'') by Petra ...

: his ''Eras, pus vey mon benastruc'' imitates the Arnaut's ''mots-refranh''. In it the poet is rather optimistic because his lady has shown him favour.

Notes

Sources

* Riquer, Martín de. ''Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos''. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975. {{authority control 13th-century French troubadours People from Cahors