Guilhem Molinier or Moulinier ( 1330–50) was a medieval Occitan poet from

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. His most notable work is ''Leys d'amors'' ("Laws of Love"), a treatise on

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 ...

and

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

that achieved great notoriety and, beyond the Occitan, influenced poets writing in Catalan as well as in Galician or Italian, for which they served as a reference. The occasion for its composition was the founding in 1323 of the Consistori de la Sobregaya Companhia del Gay Saber ("Consistory of the Happy Company of the Gay Science") at Toulouse. The consistory consisted of seven members who organized poetic contests and rewarded lyric poems that best imitated the style of the 12th- and 13th-century

troubadours 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 tro ...

. Molinier was not an original member of the consistory, but he was its chancellor in 1348, when he was tasked with codifying the principles of Occitan lyric poetry. In this work he had a collaborator, Marc Bartholomieu. A final version was approved by the consistory in 1356.. The original ''Leys d'amors'' dates to 1328. The archives of the present-day Académie des Jeux floraux (a descendant of the Consistory del Gay Saber) contains a folio copy of this edition under the title by which the work has become known. It contains many subsequently deleted passages and numerous editorial markings. A folio copy of the final and definitive text is also in the archive of the Académie, under the title ''Las Flors del gay saber'' ("The Flowers of the Gay Science"). It contains all the deletions, modifications and additions indicated in the unedited 1328 text. This manuscript received a

critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range i ...

in 1841–43. A copy of the latter text is also found in the Archives of the Crown of Aragon and a verse edition is found in the National Library of Catalonia. Further copies based on the Catalan manuscripts are found in Paris, Madrid and Toulouse. The ''Leys d'amors'' is divided into five parts. Part I contains some

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

, theory of poetry,

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

and rules of

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

. Part II deals with rules for versification and the issue of

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by List of narrative techniques, literary technique, Tone (literature), tone, Media (communication), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from mor ...

. Part III is about grammar and contains both classical material borrowed from Donatus, Priscian, Isidore and Alexander de Villa Dei, as well as modern material on the system of declensions in Occitan, the use of articles, the nature of the sentence and

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

. In terms of linguistic varieties, this section recommends the ''us acostumat'' ("customary usage") over local customs. Part IV discusses errors (barbarisms and solecisms) and bad verse. Part V covers practical considerations. The ''Leys d'amors'' owes a debt to Brunetto Latini's ''Li livres dou Tresor'' and Albertano di Brescia's ''Ars loquendi et tacendi''. It was in turn especially influential in Catalonia. Its influence can be seen in Luys d'Averçó's ''Torcimany'' and Joan de Castellnou's ''Compendi de la coneixança dels vices en els dictats del Gai Saber''. Its influence can even be seen in the Castilian lyrical grammar of Enrique de Villena.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Occitan-language poets 14th-century French poets