Arnaut de Mareuil (''fl.'' late 12th century) 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 '' trobair ...

, composing

lyric poetry 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 ...

in the

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valle ...

. Twenty-five, perhaps twenty-nine, of his songs, all ''

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 ...

'', survive, six with music. According to Hermann Oelsner's contribution to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Arnaut de Mareuil surpassed his more famous contemporary

Arnaut Daniel Arnaut Daniel (; fl. 1180–1200) was an Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante as "the best smith" (''miglior fabbro'') and called a "grand master of love" (''gran maestro d'amore'') by Petrarch. In the 20th century he was laud ...

in "elegant simplicity of form and delicacy of sentiment". This runs against the consensus of both past and modern scholars:

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

, Pound and Eliot, who were familiar with both authors and consistently proclaim Daniel's supremacy His name indicates that he came from Mareuil-sur-Belle in

Périgord Périgord ( , ; ; oc, Peiregòrd / ) is a natural region and former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne department, now forming the northern part of the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is div ...

. He is said to have been a "clerk" from a poor family who eventually 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 ...

; he settled at the courts 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 fr ...

and then

Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a subprefecture of the Hérault department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hosts the famous ''Feria de Béziers'', which is centred on bullfighting. A million visitors are attra ...

. He apparently loved the countess Azalais, daughter of

Raymond V of Toulouse Raymond V ( oc, Ramon; c. 1134 – c. 1194) was Count of Toulouse from 1148 until his death in 1194. He was the son of Alphonse I of Toulouse and Faydida of Provence. Alphonse took his son with him on the Second Crusade in 1147. When Alpho ...

, married to

Roger II Trencavel Roger II Trencavel (died March 1194) was the Viscount of Carcassonne, Béziers, Razès, and Albi from 1167 or 1171 until his death. Until 1177 he used the title proconsul, usually as ''proconsul de Bitteris'' (of Béziers), but he abandoned the u ...

, and Arnaut's surviving poems may be seen as a sequence (lyric cycle) telling of his love.

Alfonso II of Aragon Alfonso II (1–25 March 1157Benito Vicente de Cuéllar (1995)«Los "condes-reyes" de Barcelona y la "adquisición" del reino de Aragón por la dinastía bellónida» p. 630-631; in ''Hidalguía''. XLIII (252) pp. 619–632."Alfonso II el Casto, hi ...

was his rival for Azalais's affections, and according to the ''

razó A ''razo'' (, literally "cause", "reason") was a short piece of Occitan prose detailing the circumstances of a troubadour composition. A ''razo'' normally introduced an individual poem, acting as a prose preface and explanation; it might, however ...

'' to one of Arnaut's poems, the king jealously persuaded her to break off her friendship with Arnaut. He fled to

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

, where he found a patron in count William VIII. Arnaut's ''cantaire'' (singer) and ''jongleur'' (minstrel, messenger) was

Pistoleta Pistoleta (; fl. 1185–1228) was a Provençal troubadour. His name (actually a nickname) means "little letter (epistle)" in Occitan. He left behind eleven songs, comprising nine '' cansos'' and two ''tensos''. Some of his pieces are assigned ...

References

*'' Biographies des troubadours'', ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz. Paris: Nizet, 1964. pp. 32–38. *Gaunt, Simon, and Kay, Sarah (edd.) ''The Troubadours: An Introduction''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. . *Johnston, R. C. ''Les poèsies lyriques du troubadour Arnaut de Mareuil.'' Paris, 1935.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnaut de Mareuil 12th-century French troubadours People from Dordogne