A ''salut d'amor'' (, ; "love letter", lit. "greeting of love") or (''e'')''pistola'' ("epistle") 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 ...
lyric poem
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
of the
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 ...
s, written as a letter from one lover to another in the tradition of
courtly love
Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...
. Some songs preserved in the Italian ''
Quattrocento
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...
'' and ''
Cinquecento''
chansonnier
A chansonnier ( ca, cançoner, oc, cançonièr, Galician and pt, cancioneiro, it, canzoniere or ''canzoniéro'', es, cancionero) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings o ...
s are labelled in the
rubric
A rubric is a word or section of text that is traditionally written or printed in red ink for emphasis. The word derives from the la, rubrica, meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th cent ...
s as ''saluts'' (or some equivalent), but the ''salut'' is not treated as a
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
by medieval Occitan grammarians. The
trouvère
''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French (''langue d'oïl'') form of the ''langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word ''troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to poet- ...
s copied the Occitan song style into
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
as the ''salut d'amour''. There are a total of nineteen surviving Occitan ''saluts'' and twelve French ones, with 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 ...
examples (of the ''salutació amorosa'') also.
The poetic form probably derives from the
classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods ...
love letter and through a blending of the ''
ars dictaminis
''A''rs dictaminis (or ''ars dictandi'') refers to the art of letter-writing. The art of letter-writing often intersects with the art of rhetoric.
History of Letter-Writing
Greco-Roman Theory
Early examples of letter-writing theory can be ...
'' and the early Occitan ''
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 ...
''. Occitan scholar
Pierre Bec Pierre Bec (; oc, Pèire Bèc; 11 December 1921 – 30 June 2014) was a French Occitan-language poet and linguist. Born in Paris, he spent his childhood in Comminges, where he learnt Occitan. He was deported to Germany between 1943 and 1945. Aft ...
argued that the ''salut'' was tripartite, possessing an introduction, body, and conclusion. Christiane Leube believes that the Latin five-part division of ''salutatio'', ''captatio benevolentiae'', ''narratio'', ''petitio'', and ''conclusio'' formed the basis for the ''salut'', but that the ''salutatio'' and ''captatio'' blended into one segment and all but the ''conclusio'' being less rigidly delineated. Dietmar Rieger regards the ''salut'' less as a letter than as a variant of the ''canso'' intended not to be sung in performance but to be read. The Occitan ''saluts'' do not have
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
s or
refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...
s, but several French ones do (''salut à refrains''). Structurally they are usually
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 ...
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 ...
, but a few are
hexasyllabic and
Raimon de Miraval
Raimon de Miraval(h) (c. 1135/1160 – c. 1220) was a troubadour (fl. 1180–1220) and, according to his '' vida'', "a poor knight from Carcassonne who owned less than a quarter of the castle of Miraval."Graham-Leigh, 28. Favoured by Raym ...
wrote a heterometric ''salut''.
[.] They often end with a one-word verse, unrhymed with anything previous, that gives the addressee: ''Domna'' or ''Dompna''.
The first ''salut d'amor'' was probably ''Domna, cel qe'us es bos amics'', written by
Raimbaut d'Aurenga
Raimbaut of Orange (c. 1147 – 1173) or, in his native Old Provençal, Raimbaut d'Aurenga, was the lord of Orange and Aumelas. His properties included the towns of Frontignan and Mireval. He was the only son of William of Aumelas and of Tib ...
and he served as a model for many later troubadours.
Arnaut de Mareuil
Arnaut de Mareuil (''fl.'' late 12th century) was a troubadour, composing lyric poetry in the Occitan language. Twenty-five, perhaps twenty-nine, of his songs, all ''Canso (song), cansos'', survive, six with music. According to Hermann Oelsner's co ...
wrote five ''saluts'', the most of any individual, and Don Alfred Monson has crowned him the ''maître incontesté du salut'' ("the uncontested master of the ''salut''").
[ They served as a model for ]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). ...
, who wrote two precisely datable ''saluts'' in 1278 and 1291. Falquet de Romans wrote a ''salut d'amor'' (''epistola'' in the rubric) of 254 lines. The only female author of a ''salut'' was Azalais d'Altier
Azalais or Azalaïs d'Altier was an early-13th-century trobairitz. She was from Altier in the Gévaudan. She has sometimes been confused with Almucs de Castelnau.
Azalais wrote "Tanz salutz e tantas amors", the only '' salut d'amor'' by a woman. I ...
. Her 101 verses of rhyming couplet
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 ...
s were designed to reconcile two lovers and were addressed to a woman, possibly Clara d'Anduza Clara d'Anduza was a trobairitz from the first third of the 13th century, probably born to the ruling family of Anduze. Her only surviving work is a '' canso'' beginning ''En greu esmay et en greu pessamen''. She was mentioned in a long ''razo'' to ...
. In French the only named author of a ''salut'' with refrains is Philippe de Rémi.
''Destret d'emors mi clam a vos'' is a 708-line long anonymous Catalan ''salut''.
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
Folio 8r
from the Cançoner Gil
The ''Cançoner Gil'' (, ) is an Occitan chansonnier produced in Catalonia in the middle of the 14th century. In the systematic nomenclature of Occitanists, it is typically named MS ''Sg'', but as ''Z'' in the reassignment of letter names by F ...
, showing Cerverí de Girona
Cerverí de Girona (; fl. 1259 – 1285) was a Catalan troubadour born Guillem de Cervera in Girona. He was the most prolific troubadour, leaving behind some 114 lyric poems among other works, including an ''ensenhamen'' of proverbs for his s ...
's ''Apres lo vers comença del comte la lissos'', a ''pistola'' according to the rubric
{{Western medieval lyric forms
Western medieval lyric forms
Occitan literary genres
Medieval poetry