Cercamon (,

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 ...

1135-1145) was one of the earliest

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. His true name and other biographical data are unknown. He was apparently a

Gascony Gascony (; ) was a province of the southwestern Kingdom of France that succeeded the Duchy of Gascony (602–1453). From the 17th century until the French Revolution (1789–1799), it was part of the combined Province of Guyenne and Gascon ...

-born jester of sorts who spent most of his career in the courts of

William X of Aquitaine William X (Occitan: ''Guillém X''; 1099 – 9 April 1137), called the Saint, was Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, and Count of Poitou (as William VIII) from 1126 to 1137. Early life William was the son of William IX by his second wife P ...

and perhaps of Eble III of Ventadorn. He was the inventor of the '' planh'' (the Provençal dirge), of the ''

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 ...

'' (a sort of rhymed debate in which two poets write one stanza each) and perhaps of the ''

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 ...

''. Most of the information about Cercamon's life is nothing but rumour and conjecture; some of his contemporaries credit him as Marcabru's mentor, and some

circumstantial evidence Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact, such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without need ...

points to his dying on crusade as a follower of

Louis VII of France Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), called the Younger or the Young () to differentiate him from his father Louis VI, was King of France from 1137 to 1180. His first marriage was to Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and ...

. About seven of his lyrics survive, but not a single melody; the works that most contributed to his fame among his contemporaries, his '' pastorelas'' or pastourelles, are lost. ''Cercamon'' means "world searcher" in medieval

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 ...

. The fossil primate '' Cercamonius'' was named after him.

References

Alfred Jeanroy Alfred Jeanroy (5 July 1859 – 13 March 1953) was a French linguist. Jeanroy was a leading scholar studying troubadour poetry, publishing over 600 works. He established an influential view of the second generation of troubadours divided into tw ...

(1966). ''Les Poésies de Cercamon''. Paris: Libraire Honoré Champion. *Wolf, George and Rosenstein, Roy (1983). ''The Poetry of Cercamon and Jaufre Rudel''. London: Garland Publishing, Inc. *''Biographies des troubadours'' ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz (Paris: Nizet, 1964) pp. 9–13.

External links

Complete works, in Provençal, with English translations
{{Authority control Gascons 12th-century French troubadours Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown