Uc, Uco, or Ugo de Pena or Penna 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 ''trobairi ...

of the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He left behind three ''

cansos The ''canso'' or ''canson'' or ''canzo'' () was a song style used by the troubadours. It was, by far, the most common genre used, especially by early troubadours, and only in the second half of the 13th century was its dominance challenged by a ...

'' and no music. His origins are found in Penne-d'Agenais, in the

Rouergue Rouergue (; ) is a former province of France, corresponding roughly with the modern department of Aveyron. Its historical capital is Rodez. It is bounded on the north by Auvergne, on the south and southwest by Languedoc, on the east by Gévaudan ...

.Egan, 109. According to his ''

vida Vida means “life” in Spanish and Portuguese. It may refer to: Geography * Vida (Gradačac), village in Bosnia and Herzegovina * Lake Vida, Victoria Valley, Antarctica * U.S. settled places: ** Vida, Montana ** Vida, Oregon ** Vida, Missour ...

'' his birthplace was a castle called "Messat" or "Monmessat". He was the son of a merchant, who first became a

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 ...

and then grew renowned for his singing and for his expansive repertoire (of the works of others). He was also reputed for his knowledge of the "great men of those regions", but he was known for his roguish style of living—gambling and frequenting taverns—for which reason, says his biographer, "he was always poor and without equipment." Eventually he travelled east to "Isla é(n) Venaissi" (probably Isle-sur-Sorgue in

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

), where he married. In one song, Uc refers to the Occitan knight Gouffier de Lastours, who carried a message from

Bohemond of Taranto Bohemond I of Antioch (5 or 7 March 1111), also known as Bohemond of Taranto, was the prince of Taranto from 1089 to 1111 and the prince of Antioch from 1098 to 1111. He was a leader of the First Crusade, leading a contingent of Normans on the qu ...

Godfrey of Bouillon Godfrey of Bouillon (, , , ; 18 September 1060 – 18 July 1100) was a French nobleman and pre-eminent leader of the First Crusade. First ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100, he avoided the title of king, preferring that of princ ...

at the critical Battle of Dorylaeum on the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic r ...

.Sweetenham and Paterson, 37. This event had probably become an important piece of Occitan crusading lore and is recorded also in the ''

Canso d'Antioca The ''Canso d'Antioca'' is a late twelfth-century Occitan epic poem in the form of a ''chanson de geste'' describing the First Crusade up to the Siege of Antioch (1098). It survives only in a single manuscript fragment of 707 alexandrines, now pr ...

'' and the ''

Gran Conquista de Ultramar The ''Gran conquista de Ultramar'' ('Great Conquest Beyond the Sea') is a late 13th-century Castilian chronicle of the Crusades for the period 1095–1271. It is a work of compilation, translation and prosification of Old French and Old Occitan ...

''. Among his other works is ''Quora que'm desplagués Amors''.

Notes

Sources

*Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. ''The Vidas of the Troubadours''. New York: Garland, 1984. . *Sweetenham, Carol, and Paterson, Linda M., edd. and trans. ''The "Canso d'Antiocha": An Epic Chronicle of the First Crusade''. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2003
Preview.
. *Rochegude, Henri Pascal de
''Le Parnasse occitanien, ou Choix de poésies originales des troubadours''.
Benichet, 1819. See page 325 for the original Occitan version of Uc's ''vida''. {{Authority control Medieval writers about the Crusades 12th-century French troubadours Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 13th-century French troubadours People from Lot-et-Garonne