Guerau III de Cabrera (died 1160/61), also called Guiraut (or Giraut) de Cabreira, was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

nobleman and

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 Occitan (; o ...

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) 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 troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

. He was the

viscount of Àger A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

and Cabrera from 1145. He was the son of

Ponç II de Cabrera Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera (''floruit'' 1105–1162), called Ponç Guerau (or Grau) in Catalan or Pons in Occitan, was a Catalan nobleman, courtier and military leader in the kingdoms of León and Castile. Ponce came to León in the entourage of ...

and Sancha. Guerau is today most famous for his ''

ensenhamen An ''ensenhamen'' (; meaning "instruction" or "teaching") was an Old Occitan didactic (often 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 ...

'', a long didactic poem written for his

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It 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 entertainer who ...

, Cabra. Cabra's name, which means goat and is related to the name of his master's viscounty (Cabrera), probably indicates that he was Guerau's herald, since heralds often took the names of the

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

of their lords. Guerau's arms bore a goat. The ''ensenhamen'' is divided into 216 lines. The rhyme scheme is of two four-syllable rhyming lines followed by an

octosyllabic The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent. Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the '' Vie de ...

line ending in ''-on'', repeated. The entire poem is basically a disorderly and wordy catalogue the things (names, songs, and stories) which Cabra ought to know in his capacity as public entertainer, but which in fact he does not know. The eruditeness of the work is impressive, giving evidence of Guerau's learning, the writings he would have had access to in twelfth-century Catalonia, and the typical repertoire of a contemporary jongleur. The ''ensenhamen'' begins with twenty-four lines of criticism concerning what Cabra does not do. He is accused of ''mal saps viular / e pietz chantar'': poor knowledge of how to play the

viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

and worse still of singing. He cannot finish with a proper "

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally ** Breton people ** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Ga ...

cadence" (''tempradura de breton''). Guerau goes on: Finally, Guerau lists the various genres and types of song which Cabra does not have in his repertoire: ''

sirventesc 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 ...

'', ''

balaresc A ''dansa'' (), also spelt ''dança'', was an Old Occitan form of lyric poetry developed in the late thirteenth century among the troubadours. It is related to the English term "dance" and was often accompanied by dancing. A closely related form, t ...

'', '' estribot'', ''

retroencha In the Middle Ages, the ''rotrouenge'' (Old French) or ''retroencha'' (Old Occitan) was a recognised type of lyric poetry, although no existing source defines the genre clearly. There are four conserved troubadour poems, all with refrains and three ...

'', and '' contenson''. It is clear that by Guerau's time, Occitan lyric poetry had already witnessed a proliferation of genres. To the historian of culture, these twenty-four lines are an important source for the qualifications of a good jongleur.

References

* Riquer, Martí de (1964). ''Història de la Literatura Catalana'', vol. 1. Barcelona: Edicions Ariel. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerau 03 De Cabrera 1160s deaths People from Catalonia 12th-century Spanish troubadours Year of birth unknown