Bernart de Bondeills (or Bondeilhs) was a 13th-century Occitan troubadour known from only one composition, the

canso The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) is a representative body of companies that provide air traffic control. It represents the interests of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). CANSO members are responsible for supporting ov ...

''Tot aissi·m pren com fai als Assesis'', found in

chansonnier A chansonnier ( ca, cançoner, oc, cançonièr, Galician and pt, cancioneiro, it, canzoniere or ''canzoniéro'', es, cancionero) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings o ...

M, BnF Paris, f.f. 12474. Although originally from the Auvergne, he worked at the court of the north Italian nobleman Ottone del Carretto, a prolific patron of troubadours.Bibliografia Elettronica dei Trovatori, v. 2.5
Sapienza Università di Roma (2012). ''Tot aissi·m pren com fai als Assesis'' is a love poem. Bernart begins by comparing himself to an Assassin in his devotion to love: "Just as the Assassins serve their master unfailingly ... so I have served Love with unswerving loyalty".''Tot aissi·m pren com fai als Assesis''
''qe fan tot so qe lurs seinhers lur di'' . . .
''Tot eissamen hai ieu estat aclis''
''e fins e francs vas amor, so·us afi''. This is in contrast to the use of the same trope in Aimeric de Peguilhan, written about the same time, who considers himself an Assassin in devotion to his lady. The Assassins were an Islamic sect whose devotion to their leader, the Old Man of the Mountain, had become legendary in Europe through the Crusades. The first troubadours to use the name, like Bernart and Aimeric, associate the term primarily with fanatical devotion and not

political murder Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not hav ...

.Frank M. Chambers (1949), "The Troubadours and the Assassins", ''Modern Language Notes'', 64(4), 245–51. In the tornada, Bernart sends his poem "to the brave marquis of Carretto" () in a place called ''Point'', probably Ponti, not far from

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandria ...

. Ottone and his son Ugo possessed a castle there in 1209, when they sold it to the city of

Asti Asti ( , , ; pms, Ast ) is a ''comune'' of 74,348 inhabitants (1-1-2021) located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed t ...

. It was reacquired by the Carretto family at some point before 1269. The most likely date for the poem, however, is the 1220s, when Ottone's patronage was at its height and he still possessed economic and feudal rights in Ponti.Francesca Sanguineti, "Bernart de Bondeills, ''Tot aissi·m pren com fai als assesis'' (BdT 59.1)"
Text
an

at Rialto: Repertorio informatizzato dell'antica letteratura trobadorica e occitana (2017).

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