Lanfranc Cigala (or Cicala) (, ; fl. 1235–1257) was a Genoese nobleman, knight, judge, and man of letters of the mid thirteenth century. He remains one of the most famous

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

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 ...

s of

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

. Thirty-two of his poems survive, dealing with Crusading,

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

, papal power, peace in Christendom, and loyalty in love. Lanfranc represented a tradition of Italian, Occitan-language '' trovatori'' who berated the

Papacy The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

for its handling of the Crusades. Lanfranc's surviving corpus consists of thirty-two poems, including seven '' cansos'' 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 ...

; four religious ''cansos''; three '' sirventes''; two

crusading song A Crusade song (, , ) is any vernacular lyric poem about the Crusades. Crusade songs were popular in the High Middle Ages: 106 survive in Occitan language, Occitan, forty in Old French, thirty in Middle High German, two in Italian language, Italian ...

s; and one '' planh''. Among the thirty works attributed to him are nine '' tensos'' composed with other troubadours: four with Simon Doria and one each with Jacme Grils, Guilleuma de Rosers, Lantelm, Rubaut, and an otherwise unknown "Guilhem".

Biography

Lanfranc was first mentioned in 1235 as a ''iudex'' (judge). In 1241, he was an ambassador from the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Maritime republics, maritime republic from the years 1099 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italy, Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in ...

to the court of Raymond Berengar IV of Provence, where he probably met Bertran d'Alamanon. In 1248, he was in

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

on a mercantile expedition. He was last mentioned alive in a document dated 16 March 1257, and he was recorded as deceased on 24 September 1258. Contrary to legend, he was not assassinated in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

in 1278.

Religious poetry

Lanfranc was both a critic of the crusading policies of the

and a supporter of the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade (), also known as the Cathar Crusade (1209–1229), was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, what is now southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted pri ...

.Throop, 395. Echoing Innocent III's declaration that the Cathars were worse than the

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

(1208), in his poem ''Si mos chans fos de joi ni de solatz'' (directed at the

Count of Provence The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, then

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou or Charles d'Anjou, was King of Sicily from 1266 to 1285. He was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily. Between 1246 a ...

), Lanfranc wrote: This poem was written immediately after the loss of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

to the

Mamelukes Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

in 1244 and concurrent with the last Albigensian rising.Throop, 402. More securely, it can be dated to between August 1244 and 17 July 1245. Lanfranc blamed the loss of Jerusalem on the lack of peace between Christian states, which was the first prerequisite of a successful Crusade in the East. Though he explicitly refused to lay the blame at the feet of either emperor ( Frederick II) or pope (

Innocent IV Pope Innocent IV (; – 7 December 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254. Fieschi was born in Genoa and studied at the universities of Parma and Bolo ...

), his last words attack the pope's policy as war for profit. In another poem, ''Quan vei far bon fag plazentier'', written early in 1248, Lanfranc bemoaned the coming fall of Christianity with a metaphorical Sepulchre, which the

, he said, had already destroyed. Christianity, therefore, was doomed and could not be recovered, because it had already been brought down by the infidels. This extreme metaphor was only part, however, of Lanfranc's desire to encourage peace amongst Christians for the sake of the survival of their religion. Among Lanfranc's religious songs (''cansos'') are three on Marian themes, the most prominent of which is ''Gloriosa sainta Maria''.

Love poetry

Some of Lanfranc's work presaged the '' dolce stil nuovo'', as when he wrote in his poem ''Quant en bon luec'' that ''ques amors pren en lejal cor naissenza'' (love is born in loyal hearts). His poetry idealised women and emphasised the need for loyalty. In another poem, Lanfranc praised the deceased countess of Este thus: Among the ladies (''dompnas'') Lanfranc celebrated in his poetry were Berlenda and one ''de Villafranca'', on whose surname the poet composed many puns, as in ''Tan franc cors de dompn'ai trobat''. This last woman may have been Alasia, the daughter of Guglielmo Malaspina. Lanfranc's only ''planh'' was composed for a lady named Luresana, whom Lanfranc called ''chan-plor''. It begins ''Eu non chant ges per talan de chantar''. In Francesco da Barberino's ''Flores novellarum'', a collection of Boccaccian novellas, there is a short biography of Lanfranc in which the troubadour is torn by the "duties of hospitality" and the "claims of lady-service". This novella is taken as an example of the early date at which the scene was transferred "from the street to the human soul."Jenkins, lv.

Other work

Lanfranc also wrote a violent ''sirventes'' beginning ''Estier mon grat mi fan dir vilanatge'' attacking

Boniface II of Montferrat Boniface II (July 1202 – 12 May 1253), called the Giant, was the eleventh Marquis of Montferrat from 1225 until his death. He became the titular King of Thessalonica in 1239. Boniface was the son of William VI and his second wife, Berta ...

in July 1245. A lighter composition was ''Escur prim chantar e sotil'', a defence of the trobar leu genre.

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Branciforti, F. (ed.) ''Il canzoniere di Lanfranco Cigala'' Firenze: Biblioteca dell'Archivium Romanicum, prima serie, (1954) *Bertoni, Giulio. ''I Trovatori d'Italia: Biografie, testi, tradizioni, note''. Rome: Società Multigrafica Editrice Somu, 1967

915 Year 915 ( CMXV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Battle of Garigliano: The Christian League, personally led by Pope John X, lays siege to Garigliano (a fortified Ar ...

*Jenkins, T. Atkinson
"On Newness in the Novel."
''PMLA'', Vol. 41, Appendix. (1926), pp. xliii–lix. *Luciani, Vincent
"Bibliography of Italian Studies in America."
''Italica'', Vol. 25, No. 4. (Dec., 1948), pp. 338–340. *Puckett, Jaye
"'Reconmenciez novele estoire': The Troubadours and the Rhetoric of the Later Crusades."
''MLN'', Vol. 116, No. 4, French Issue. (Sep., 2001), pp. 844–889. * Riquer, Martín de. ''Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos''. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975. *Spiers, A. G. H
"Dolce Stil Nuovo — The Case of the Opposition."
''PMLA'', Vol. 25, No. 4. (1910), pp. 657–675. *Throop, Palmer A
"Criticism of Papal Crusade Policy in Old French and Provençal."
'' Speculum'', Vol. 13, No. 4. (Oct., 1938), pp 379–412.

External links

Complete works
at trobar.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Cigala, Lanfranc 1257 deaths Ambassadors of the Republic of Genoa 13th-century Italian judges 13th-century Italian troubadours 13th-century Genoese people Year of birth unknown Medieval Italian knights