Cerverí de Girona (;

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1259 – 1285) 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 ...

born Guillem de Cervera in

Girona Girona (; ) is the capital city of the Province of Girona in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 106,476 in 2024, but the p ...

. He was the most prolific troubadour, leaving behind some 114

lyric poem Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, th ...

s among other works, including an ''

ensenhamen An (, or ) was an Old Occitan didactic (often Lyric poem, 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 century. The word has many varia ...

'' of

proverb A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...

s for his son, totaling about 130. He was a court poet to James the Conqueror and

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

. He wrote '' pastorelas'' and '' sirventes'' and his overriding concern was the complexities of court life. None of his music survives. Cerverí spent some time under the

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

and at the court of Hugh IV and Henry II of Rodez. He was in Spain in 1269, for he is found that year in the entourage of the then-''

infante Infante (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as "infant" or translated as "prince", is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to the ...

'' Peter the Great. With fellow troubadours Folquet de Lunel and Dalfinet he accompanied Peter to Toledo. On 26 April at Riello, near Cuenca, he received one '' solidus'' for his services. Cerverí's ' ("Verse in six languages") copied the metre of either Folquet's ' or Sordel's '. Cerverí wrote ', a '' planh'', on 26 August 1276 for the death of James the Conqueror. It is direct and almost personal. The troubadour asks the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

to show as much mercy to James as he showed on earth, referring to his establishing the Mercedarian Order in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. The poet Matieu de Caersi wrote a very different ''planh'', ', for James, moralising and religious in tone.

Sources

*Cabré, Miriam. '. Barcelona-Palma: Universitat de Barcelona-Universitat de les Illes Balears, 2011. . *Cabré, Miriam. ''Cerverí de Girona and his Poetic Traditions''. London: Tamesis, 1999. . *Gaunt, Simon, and Kay, Sarah. "Appendix I: Major Troubadours" (pp. 279–291). ''The Troubadours: An Introduction''. Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay, edd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. . * Riquer, Martín de. '. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.

External links

Cerverí de Girona at NARPAN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cerveri De Girona 13th-century Catalan troubadours