Matfre Ermengau (died 1322) was a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

legist A Legist, from the Latin ''lex'' 'law', is any expert or student of law. It was especially used since the Carolingian dynasty for royal councillors who advised the monarch in legal matters, and specifically helped base its absolutist ambitions on ...

, and

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 ...

from

Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hos ...

. He had a

master of laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

(''senhor de leis'') degree. He wrote one ''

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 ...

'', whose melody survives, and one moralising ''

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 ...

''. His most famous work was an

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 ...

poetic book in 34,735

octosyllable 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 ...

s called the ''Breviari d'amor'', begun in 1288. Encyclopedic in length and diversity, its sole purpose is the reconciliation of love for God with the erotic amours of the troubadour lyric. It is divided into parts and is structured like a "tree of love". The ''Breviari'' is preserved in twelve full

codices The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

and as many fragments. It was translated into Castilian and the

Limousin dialect Limousin (French name, ; oc, lemosin, ) is a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the three departments of Limousin, parts of Charente and the Dordogne in the southwest of France. The first Occitan documents are in an early form of this ...

(once thought to be

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 ...

or ''catalanisant'' Occitan).William D. Paden, "Review of ''Le Breviari d'Amor de Matfre Ermengaud'', ed. Peter T. Ricketts", ''Romance Philology'', 37:1 (1983:Aug.), p. 109. Matfre also says that he would have written better in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

(from which he borrowed the word '' breviari'', from ''breviarium'', not found elsewhere in medieval Occitan). The work begins with popular

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, a section entitled "The Study of God and the Creation". From the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

it moves to angels,

demons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...

, then the

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and the

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. Then in a section entitled "The Study of Nature" ("Natural Law") he discusses the proper modes of

worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...

, then the temptations that affect Christians and the sins they must avoid. Exempla are drawn from daily life. Finally, in "The Love of God", he summarises the Christian creeds, the life of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

, and several hagiographies. The last section (8,000 lines) of the work, "Perilhos tractatz d'amor de donas, seguon qu'en han tractat li antic trobador en lurs cansos", structured as a dialogue between the defenders Love and her critics, is filled with citations (266 by some counts) of other troubadours and even some trouvères; Matfre cited himself six ( Jeanroy) or nine (Paden) times and cited his brother Peire twice. He was careful to cite poets from different eras, but his favourites appear to be Aimeric de Peguilhan,

Bernart de Ventadorn Bernart de Ventadorn (also Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn; – ) was a French poet-composer troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Generally regarded as the most important troubadour in both poetry and music, his 1 ...

, and Peire Vidal of the "classical era".For a thorough treatment of Matfre's citation practices, see Francesca M. Nicholson, "Branches of knowledge: The purposes of citation in the ''Breviari d'amor'' of Matfre Ermengaud", ''Neophilologus'', 91:3 (2007), pp. 375–85. The title of "Perilhos" indicates that the ''antic'' (old) troubadours were authorities on poetic and amatory matters. He even quotes in support of this

Raimon Jordan Raimon Jordan (fl. c. 1178–1195)Boase, 823. was a Toulousain troubadour and the viscount of Saint-Antonin in the Rouergue near the boundary with Quercy. His poetry was in Old Occitan. There is a '' vida'' of Jordan which exists in sever ...

using the word ''antic'' of his predecessors. Matfre's knowledge of the early troubadours came largely through reading and he indicates that the early troubadours "sung" about love, not that they wrote about it, as did Matfre and his contemporaries. After the "Perilhos", Matfre includes a letter (''epistola'') to his sister, written in

decasyllabic Decasyllable (Italian: ''decasillabo'', French: ''décasyllabe'', Serbian: ''десетерац'', ''deseterac'') is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual v ...

rhyming couplets A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

: ''Fraires Matfre a sa cara seror''. In it he explains the symbolism of a

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capon. Matfre has been credited, along with

Ferrari da Ferrara Ferrari da Ferrara, fully Ferrarino (dei) Trogni da Ferrara, was a troubadour of Ferrara in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He was a composer, anthologist, and possibly autobiographer. He was one of the last active troubadours in Italy. ...

, for pioneering the anthologising of the troubadours. Matfre is partly responsible for the later treatment of single '' coblas'' as distinct units, because he regularly quoted one ''cobla'' from a troubadour and treated it as a single thought. Matfre had become quite famous by the time Peire de Ladils lumped him together with the heroes of Arthurian romance (c.1340).

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ermengau, Matfre 1322 deaths 14th-century French troubadours Year of birth unknown People from Béziers