Peire de la Caravana (also Cavarana, Gavarana, or Cà Varana, perhaps meaning "near

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

") was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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 ...

(''trovatore'') in

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He was one of the earliest

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 ...

troubadours in Italy. He is famous for his ''

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 ...

''. Among his preserved works are the ''

'' ''D'un serventes faire'' and ''La Paz de Costanza''. Peire wrote the first encouraging the communes of northern Italy to resist German overlordship, which has been dated to as early as 1157.Scaglione, 176. However, Peire incites the Lombard cities by harkening back to the fate of the baronage of

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

who had resisted the Germans earlier:

''Lombart, beus gardaz''
''Que ja non siaz''
''Pejer que compraz,''
''Si ferm non estaz!''
''De Pulla'us sovegna''
''Dels valens baros''
''Qu'il non an que pegna''
''For de lor maisos;''
''Gardaz non devegna''
''Autretal de vos!''Vigneras, 245.

This has led some to date it to 1194, when Henry VI conquered

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

or as late as 1225, when the city-states of northern Italy renewed the old Lombard League in opposition to Henry's son,

Frederick I of Sicily Frederick II (German language, German: ''Friedrich''; Italian language, Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Em ...

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

. Writing in Lombardy in the Occitan tongue under the nominal sovereignty of the German monarch, Peire took the opportunity to poke fun at the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

, writing in a famously debated passage:

''Granoglas resembla'' 'la gent d'Alemanha''br> ''En dir''(''e''): Broder, guaz;
''Lairan, quant s'asembla''
''Cum cans enrabjaz''.Spitzer, 71.

Frogs resemble he people of Germanybr> In saying: ''Brother, watz!''
The sound of which as much resembles
Dogs barking.

The German word "watz" is said to be an

interjection An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...

resembling the clinking of glasses and proposes a toast. Peire also had ties to

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. He dedicated his ''D'un serventes faire'' to a ''senhal Malgrat de toz'', which has been identified as

Barisone II of Arborea Barison II or Barisone II was the "Judge" (standing approximately for "King") of Arborea, one of the four Judicates of Sardinia, from 1146 to 1186. He was the son of Comita II and Elena de Orrubu.Also spelled ''Orruvu''. His reign was groundbrea ...

, who was crowned

King of Sardinia The following is a list of rulers of Sardinia, in particular, of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica from 1323 and then of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1479 to 1861. Early history Owing to the absence of written sources, little ...

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

by the

Emperor Frederick I Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...

in return for 4,000 silver marks from

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, but was later deposed. Peire later had contact with the cultured

Judge of Cagliari The kings or ''judges'' (''iudices'' or ''judikes'') of Cagliari were the local rulers of the south of Sardinia during the Middle Ages. Theirs was the largest kingdom and for the eleventh through twelfth centuries contested the supremacy on the ...

, Salusio IV.

Notes

Sources

*Scaglione, Aldo.
Knights at Court: Courtliness, Chivalry, and Courtesy from Ottonian Germany to the Italian Renaissance
'. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. *Vigneras, Louis André
"Etudes sur Jean Renart I. Sur la Date du Roman de l'Escoufle."
''Modern Philology'', Vol. 30, No. 3. (Feb., 1933), pp 241–262. *Spitzer, Leo
"Review of 'Propalladia' and Other Works of Bartolomé de Torres Naharro."
de Torres Naharro, Bartolomé. ed. Gillet, Joseph E. ''Hispanic Review'', Vol. 21, No. 1. (Jan., 1953), pp 62–75. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peire De La Caravana 12th-century Italian troubadours Writers from Verona 13th-century Italian troubadours Musicians from Verona