Berenguer d'Anoia or de Noya (fl. c. 1300) was a Catalan

troubadour A troubadour (, ; ) 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 equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

from the

Kingdom of Majorca The Kingdom of Majorca (, ; ; ; ) was an insular realm off the east coast of modern day Spain, which included the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The islands were conquered from the Almohad Caliphate by James I of Aragon, ...

. He wrote the ''Mirall de trobar'', 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, spoken in parts o ...

poetic Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to formu ...

, and

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

al treatise in the tradition of the ''Razos de trobar'' of

Raimon Vidal Raimon Vidal de Bezaudu(n) ( Catalan: ''Ramon Vidal de Besalú'') (flourished early 13th century) was a Catalan troubadour from Besalú. He is notable for authoring the first tract in a Romance language (Occitan) on the subject of grammar and poe ...

and the ''Regles de trobar'' of Jofre de Foixà, a genre always popular in Catalan country. Berenguer's parents were noble Catalans, originally from the village of

Sant Sadurní d'Anoia Sant Sadurní d'Anoia () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Alt Penedès in Catalonia; and the centre of production of a sparkling wine known as '' cava''. It is situated in the north-east of the Penedès Depression at the confluence ...

, who settled at

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

in Majorca following its

conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

by James the Conqueror. This information concerning his family and origins is found hidden in his own writings in the form of an

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

which states: The ''Mirall'' commences with a prologue explaining its division into four chapters that study rhetorical forms and major poetic errors. It begins thus: Everything is illustrated with examples drawn from the compositions of previous troubadours, but not always in the correct form. Berenguer himself does not have any work to his own name, though some otherwise unattributable fragments from his treatise are assumed to be his work. The following short section is taken from his illustration of the religious ''

alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English-language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingd ...

'': : : : : : : : : : : The Institut Berenguer d’Anoia, founded in Inca in 1970, was named after the troubadour.

Sources

Els trobadors. Trobadors catalans. Berenguer d'Anoia (cap a 1300).Institut Berenguer d’Anoia.
{{Authority control People from the Kingdom of Majorca People from Mallorca 14th-century Catalan troubadours Year of death unknown Inca, Spain Year of birth unknown