Laura Kendrick the Consistori Del Gay Saber

CHAPTER ONE THE CONSISTORI DEL GAY SABER OF TOULOUSE (1323–CIRCA 1484) Laura Kendrick The Consistori del Gay Saber (Consistory of Joyous Knowledge) had its beginning in the promotional idea of seven amateur troubadours from among the burghers and lesser nobility of Toulouse. These seven men decided to extend and publicize their own private practice of getting together on Sunday afternoons in a garden to recite, correct, and improve one another’s verse according to a tradition of instruc- tive critical appreciation established by earlier troubadours (“seguen lo cors,/Dels trobadors qu’en son passat”).1 One wonders if the nuns 1 The versifi ed announcement of the fi rst contest is included in Las Leys d’Amors, ed. Joseph Anglade, 4 vols. (Toulouse: Privat, 1919–1920), 1:9–13. This edition will hereafter be referred to as Leys d’Amors. On the didactic tradition of troubadour verse, see my The Game of Love: Troubadour Wordplay (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 60–100, and “L’Image du troubadour comme auteur dans les chansonniers” in Auctor et auctoritas: Invention et conformisme dans l’écriture médiévale, ed. Michel Zimmermann (Paris: Ecole des Chartes, 2001), 507–19. The life (vida) of the late twelfth-century troubadour Guiraut de Borneill, for example, states that he established a reputation as “master” troubadour by means of his magisterial explanations of his own verse (“per que fo apellatz maestre dels trobadors, et es ancar per toz aquels [. .] qu’entendian los sieus maestrals ditz de las soas chansos”). In the summer Guiraut de Borneill travelled from court to court with his singers performing and explaining verse, while in the winter he stayed in school and taught vernacular letters (“tot l’invern estava en escola et aprendia letras”). Jean Boutière and A. H. Schutz, Biographies des troubadours, 2nd ed. (Paris: Nizet, 1973), 39. This didactic tradition was reinforced with time. In a verse letter dated 1274 beginning “Because God has given me knowledge and true understanding” (“Pus Dieu m’a dat saber/et entendement ver”), Guiraut Riquier sought from King Alfonso X of Castille recognition and authorization for himself and other late thirteenth-century troubadours who considered themselves to be teachers rather than mere entertainers. If one believes the versifi ed response to this request, Alfonso X accorded to Guiraut Riquier the title of “doctor de trobar.” For request and reply, see Les Epîtres de Guiraut Riquier, ed. Joseph Linskill (London: Association Internationale d’Etudes Occitanes, 1985), no. 11, 167–88. There is even some evidence of competition at explaining troubadour verse, such as the contest Count Henry II of Rodez is supposed to have launched in 1280 by choosing a canso by a deceased poet to be explained. Because he was the winner of this contest, 18 laura kendrick of the Augustine convent next to this garden, “nostras vezinas” (our neighbors), were within hearing distance of this secular Sunday ‘school’ and if their proximity provided encouragement to these amateur troubadours. To draw aspiring poets to their informal school of Occitan poetry and language, and with the goal of maintaining the prestige of the troubadour tradition, the “very joyous company of the seven troubadours of Toulouse” (“sobregaya companhia dels .VII. trobadors de Tholoza”) in November of 1323 announced a poetry contest for the fi rst day of May of 1324. This contest not only promised the prize of a golden violet for the best poem, but it also promised instruction in vernacular poetry. The seven troubadours were to sing and read their own poetry, entertain critiques of it from the audience, and defend and explain their work: Et adonx auziretz chantar And then you will hear sung Et legir de nostres dictatz; and read some of our compositions, E se y vezetz motz mal pauzatz and if you perceive there an ill chosen word O tal re que be non estia, or anything that is inappropriate, Vos ne faretz a vostre guia, you will change it after your fashion. Qu’a razo no contradirem. For we will not contradict reason, Mas ben crezatz que sostendrem but—believe it well—we will support So qu’aurem fayt, en disputan; what we have done by disputation, Quar responden et allegan because by answering and arguing Es conogut d’ome que sap, a man’s knowledge is recognized, Can gent razon’ e tray a cap when he reasons nobly and concludes So qu’us altres li contraditz ; by overcoming the objection another has made. E cel que reman esbahitz And the one who remains tongue-tied, Tant que so qu’ades ha retrag not knowing how to give a reasoned explanation No sab razonar, l’autruy fag of what he has just recited, appears to want Par que vol per sieu retenir, to present another’s composition as his own, Guiraut Riquier included among his collected poems his versifi ed gloss or razo explaining Guiraut de Calanso’s canso, followed by a copy (dated 1285 and said to be sealed with the Count’s seal) of a versifi ed attestation to the authority of his interpretation: “he has touched/the heart of understanding,/and we lend him authority./And so that he will be believed,/we want to give him a guarantee,/and we order that our seal/be placed there [. .].” For this razo, see Les Epîtres de Guiraut Riquier, no. 13, 273–300. The authorization Guiraut Riquier sought from secular rulers was bestowed half a century later, as we shall see, by the civic institution of the Consistory of Toulouse. .

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