Peire Lunel de Montech ( fl. 1326–1384), also known as Cavalier Lunel or Peire de Lunel, was a lawyer, politician and author of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

. His name indicates he was a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

(''cavalier'' in Occitan) from

Montech Montech (; oc, Montuèg) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. On the Canal de Garonne is the unique Montech water slope, a type of canal inclined plane built in 1974. The slope has been out o ...

.Also spelled Monteg. Occitan "ch" and final "g" are pronounced identically, similar to "tch" in English "catch". In his youth he was a

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 ...

. A ''

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 ...

'', a

Crusading song A Crusade song ( oc, canso de crozada, ca, cançó de croada, german: Kreuzlied) is any vernacular lyric poem about the Crusades. Crusade songs were popular in the High Middle Ages: 106 survive in Occitan, forty in Old French, thirty in Middle High ...

, a ''

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 ...

'', an ''

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 ...

'' and some moralising ''

coblas esparsas A ''cobla esparsa'' ( literally meaning "scattered stanza") in Old Occitan is the name used for a single-stanza poem in troubadour poetry. They constitute about 15% of the troubadour output, and they are the dominant form among late (after 1220) au ...

'' survive of his work. The Crusading song is dated to around 1326. It is a critique of King Charles IV for promising a Crusade and doing nothing. Lunel's ''sirventes'', was written at the height of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

in 1348. In 1326 Lunel composed the ''Ensenhamen del garso'' ("instruction of the boy"), the latest surviving ''ensenhamen''. Written in ''

arlabecca The ''arlabecca'' () was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry. First mentioned in an ''ensenhamen'' by Peire Lunel, the genre was supposed by François Raynouard to be a lament or dirge, and Emil Levy thought it a "kind of poetry". It may derive fr ...

'' form, it is modeled on the ''Ensenhamen del escudier'' of

Amanieu de Sescars Amanieu de Sescars or Amanieu des Escàs ( fl. 1278–1295) was a Catalan, possibly Gascon, troubadour of the late 13th century. Famous for his love songs in his own day, his contemporaries gave him the nickname ''dieu d'amor'' (god of love). ...

. The boy (''garso'') for whom Lunel composed it was an aspiring poet looking for advice on how to compose. Lunel's advice is an important source for understanding the troubadours' own conception of the ''ensenhamen'' genre. Lunel was recorded as a ''doctor en leys'' (

doctor of laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

) in the register of the members of the

Toulouse Consistory The Consistori del Gay Saber (; "Consistory of the Gay Science") was a poetic academy founded at Toulouse in 1323 to revive and perpetuate the lyric poetry of the troubadours. Also known as the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals or Académie des Jeux ...

in 1355, the first year for which we have records. In 1384 Lunel was a municipal official in

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, an ...

Sources

* Jeanroy, Alfred (1934). ''La poésie lyrique des troubadours''. Toulouse: Privat. *Paterson, Linda (2003)
"Lyric allusions to the crusades and the Holy Land."
Colston Symposium. *Ricketts, Peter T., ed

Notes

{{authority control 14th-century French jurists Musicians from Toulouse Crusade literature 14th-century French troubadours