Raimon de Cornet (, also spelled ''Ramon de Cornet'';

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1324–1340) was a fourteenth-century Toulousain

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

, grammarian,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, 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 ...

. He was a prolific author of verse; more than forty of his poems survive, most in

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 ...

but two in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. He also wrote letters, a didactic poem (sometimes classed as the last ''

ensenhamen An (, or ) was an Old Occitan didactic (often Lyric poem, lyric) poem associated with the troubadours. As a genre of Occitan literature, its limits have been open to debate since it was first defined in the 19th century. The word has many varia ...

''), a

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

, and some treatises on

computation A computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that is well-defined. Common examples of computation are mathematical equation solving and the execution of computer algorithms. Mechanical or electronic devices (or, hist ...

(i.e. practical

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

). He was the "last of the troubadours" and represented ''l'esprit le plus brillant'' (the most brilliant spirit) of the "Toulousain School". He appears in contemporary documents with the titles '' En'' (sir, also ''mossen'') and '' Frare'' (brother, also ''fray'', ''frai'', or ''frayre''). Raimon's ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

'' is his ''Doctrinal de trobar'' (doctrines of composition) composed around 1324 and dedicated to

Peter, Count of Ribagorza Peter of Aragon (, ; 1305 – 4 November 1381) was an ''infante'' (royal prince) of the Crown of Aragon who served three successive kings as a soldier, diplomat and counsellor before joining the Franciscans in 1358. Peter was the Count of Ribagor ...

. The ''Doctrinal'' follows the grammar put forward later by the Consistori del Gay Saber of Guilhem Molinier and it is structurally identical to Guilhem's '' Leys d'Amors''. Both works spend a good deal of space quoting illustrative passages from the greatest troubadours of the past. The ''Doctrinal'' is considered the first work of the ''Gay Saber'' tradition. In a passage praising the pleasure of poetry, Raimon lists many of the traditional genres, which he and others like him had helped to define: Raimon strongly supported the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

and bitterly opposed the

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

Avignon Papacy The Avignon Papacy (; ) was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (at the time within the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of France) rather than in Rome (now the capital of ...

, and eventually

Philip VI of France Philip VI (; 1293 – 22 August 1350), called the Fortunate (), the Catholic (''le Catholique'') and of Valois (''de Valois''), was the first king of France from the House of Valois, reigning from 1328 until his death in 1350. Philip's reign w ...

. He wrote two "Crusade songs". The earlier one was composed in 1332, when Philip VI announced his intention of going on Crusade in July. Raimon suggests that the king should impose a tax on those men who do not join the Crusade, and in any case those who remain in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

should pray two or three times daily for those who do go to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. He notes that

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

will inevitably accompany the host and attempt to convert 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 ...

". The second song, composed in 1336, is an attack on Philip for not completing his promised Crusade. Raimon's poem ''Quar mot orne fan vers'' contains the earliest reference to

basse danse The ''basse danse'', or "low dance", was a popular court dance in the 15th and early 16th centuries, especially at the Duchy of Burgundy, Burgundian court. The word ''basse'' describes the nature of the dance, in which partners move quietly and ...

. In describing the profession of the

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 ...

s he notes that they rapidly pick up the ''bassas dansas''. This reference predates any other by a century.Aubrey, "References", p. 119. Eighteen of Raimon's lyric poems are preserved in the final, unfinished folios of the

Cançoner Gil The ''Cançoner Gil'' (, ) is an Occitan language, Occitan chansonnier produced in Catalonia in the middle of the 14th century. In the systematic nomenclature of Occitanists, it is typically named Manuscript, MS ''Sg'', but as ''Z'' in the reass ...

, known as troubadour MS ''Sg'' or ''Z'', now MS 146 in the

Biblioteca de Catalunya The Library of Catalonia (, ) is the Catalan national library, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The primary mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalan bibliographic production and that related to the ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. In 1341, possibly in Raimon's lifetime, the Catalan poet Joan de Castellnou wrote a ''Glosari al Doctrinal de Ramon de Cornet'', a gloss on the ''Doctrinal''. __NOTOC__

Works in the Cançoner Gil

;'' Canços'' *"Al mes d'abril can veyrez nutg los camps" *"Le mieus saber ioy deziran se pert" *"Ara·s fos hieu si malautz e cotxatz" *"Intrar vuyll en guerrejar si puch tan" *"Cars motz gentils fons e grans mars d'apteza" *"Cent castels e cent tors" *"En aycel tems com no sen fretg ni cauma" (titled "Saumesca") *"Amors corals me fay deios un cas" (called a ''canso'') ;''

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 ...

'' *"Jus en la font de cobeytat se bayna" *"Totz temps azir falsetatz ez engan" *"Qui dels escachs vol belamen iogar" (''com deu hom jogar als escachs'') ;''Vers'' (poems) *"Car vey lo mon de mal pugat al cim" *"Pauc homes vey de sen tan freyturos" *"Raso ni sens no pot vezer lo moble" *"Ben es vilas e mals e rustichs" *"Ab tot mon sen d'amors si pusch faray" ;'' Tenço'' *"Pres mes talens d'un pech partimen far" with Arnau Alaman, ''donzel d'Albi'' ;Unclassified *"A Sent Marcel d'Albeges, prop de Salaç"

References

*Aubrey, Elizabeth (1989)
"References to Music in Old Occitan Literature."
''Acta Musicologica'', 61:2 (May–Aug.), pp. 110–149. *Aubrey, Elizabeth (1996). ''The Music of the Troubadours''. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. . *Auroux, Sylvain (2000). ''History of the Language Sciences''. Walter de Gruyter. . * *Desmet, Piet (2000). ''The History of Linguistic and Grammatical Praxis''. Peeters Publishers. . *Paden, William D. (1995). "The Troubadours and the Albigensian Crusade: A Long View." ''Romance Philology'', 49:2 (Nov.), pp. 168–191 *Paterson, Linda (2003)
"Lyric allusions to the crusades and the Holy Land."
olston Symposium. *Zeeman, Nicolette (1988)
"The Lover-Poet and Love as the Most Pleasing ''Matere'' in Medieval French Love Poetry."
''The Modern Language Review'', 83:4 (Oct.), pp. 820–842.

External links

at Medieval Sourcebook
Cançoner provençal (Cançoner Gil)
at the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes

Notes

{{authority control 14th-century French troubadours 14th-century writers in Latin Medieval writers about the Crusades Medieval Latin-language poets Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Clergy from Toulouse Medieval linguists Linguists from France Writers from Toulouse