The (Lo) Monge de Montaudon (meaning "monk of Montaudon") ( fl. 1193–1210Gaunt and Kay, Appendix I, 287.), born Pèire de Vic, was a

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteris ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

, and

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 ...

from the

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label= Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Au ...

, born at the castle of

Vic-sur-Cère Vic-sur-Cère (, literally ''Vic on Cère''; Auvergnat: ''Vic de Cera'' or ''Vic de Carladés'') is a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France. Population See also *Communes of the Cantal department The following is a lis ...

near Aurillac, where he became a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monk around 1180.Aubrey, 17. According to his '' vida'', he composed "couplets while he was in the monastery and ''

sirventes The ''sirventes'' or ''serventes'' (), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours. The name comes from ''sirvent'' ('serviceman'), from whose perspective the song is allegedly wr ...

'' on subjects that were popular in the region."Egan, 70.

Life

The Monge requested and received the

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

of Montaudon from the abbot of Aurillac. Montaudon may be identified with

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...

or perhaps with a ''Mons Odonis'' southeast of Clermont. He became so popular with local nobility that he was taken from his monastery to serve them, receiving honours and gifts in return. In this way he greatly improved the state of his priorate and, upon his request, was released from his monastic vocation by his abbot to follow Alfonso II of Aragon, whose vassal the viscount of Carlat and lord of Vic was. This is the view of his ''vida''; he may have simply abandoned holy orders. Internal evidence in his poems suggests wide wanderings, to

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 ...

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

, and

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, and the patronage of

Dalfi d'Alvernha Dalfi d'Alvernha (french: Dauphin d'Auvergne) was the Count of Clermont and Montferrand, a troubadour and a patron of troubadours. He was born around 1150 and died in 1234 or 1235. He is sometimes called Robert IV, but there is no solid evidence ...

and

Maria de Ventadorn Maria de Ventadorn (or Ventedorn) (french: Marie de Ventadour) was a patron of troubadour poetry at the end of the 12th century. Maria was one of ''las tres de Torena'', "the three of Turenne", the three daughters of viscount Raymond II of Turenn ...

. At Alfonso's court, according to his ''vida'', he ate meat, courted women, and composed songs and poems. In return he was appointed lord of the poetical society of ''Puy Sainta Maria'' (Puy-Sainte-Marie) at

Le-Puy-en-Velay Le Puy-en-Velay (, literally ''Le Puy in Velay''; oc, Lo Puèi de Velai ) is the prefecture of the Haute-Loire department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Located near the river Loire, the city is famous for its ca ...

(''Podium Aniciense'') and received a

sparrow hawk Sparrowhawk (sometimes sparrow hawk) may refer to several species of small hawk in the genus ''Accipiter''. "Sparrow-hawk" or sparhawk originally referred to ''Accipiter nisus'', now called "Eurasian" or "northern" sparrowhawk to distinguish it f ...

, the prize the society granted for superb poetry. According to his ''vida'', he held the "suzerainty" of the "court of Puy" (''cour du Puy'') until it was dissolved. After this he went to Roussillon, where he became prior of the Benedictine priory of Saint-Pierre-de-Belloc, near

Villafranca Villafranca (Basque: ''Alesbes'') is a town and municipality located in the province and the autonomous community (Comunidad Foral) of Navarre, northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo ...

, though this establishment was not, contrary to his ''vida'', a dependent of Aurillac. He is said to have "enriched he prioryand improved it" before "ending his days" there. BnF ms

Songs

The Monge's earliest song which can be reliably dated refers to the captivity of

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

(1192–1194). Though seven of his ''

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 ...

'' survive, he is most well known for the genres he probably invented: the and . He wrote four : and being two. His are "rich in feudal metaphors". Among the Monge's other works, and have been translated into English as "What I Like" and "What I Don't Like" respectively. He wrote fictional with

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. Around 1192–4 he wrote , a famous parody of a satire of

Peire d'Alvernha Peire d'Alvernhe or d'Alvernha (''Pèire'' in modern Occitan; b. c. 1130) was an Auvergnat troubadour (active 1149–1170) with twenty-oneGaunt and Kay, 287. or twenty-fourEgan, 72.Aubrey, ''The Music of the Troubadours'', 8. surviving works. ...

.Aubrey, 8. In it he insults his contemporaries, such as

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 la ...

Arnaut de Maruelh Arnaut de Mareuil (''fl.'' late 12th century) was a troubadour, composing lyric poetry in the Occitan language. Twenty-five, perhaps twenty-nine, of his songs, all '' cansos'', survive, six with music. According to Hermann Oelsner's contribution to ...

Folquet de Marselha Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse (c. 1150 – 25 December 1231) came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He is known as a trobadour, and then as a fiercely anti ...

Gaucelm Faidit Gaucelm Faidit ( literally "Gaucelm the Dispossessed" c. 1156 – c. 1209) was a troubadour, born in Uzerche, in the Limousin, from a family of knights in service of the count of Turenne. He travelled widely in France, Spain, and Hungary. His ...

Guilhem Ademar Guilhem Ademar (; also spelled Guillem, Adamar, or Azemar; fl. 1190/1195–1217) was a troubadour from the Gévaudan in France. He travelled between the courts of Albi, Toulouse, Narbonne, and Spain. He achieved fame enough during his life to b ...

Guillem de Saint Didier Guilhem de Saint-Leidier, also spelled Guilhem de Saint Deslier, Guillem de Saint Deidier and Guilhèm de Sant Leidier was a troubadour of the 12th century, composing in Occitan. He was lord of Saint Didier-en-Velay, was born at some date before ...

Peire Vidal Peire Vidal ( fl. 12th century) was an Old Occitan troubadour. Forty-five of his songs are extant. The twelve that still have melodies bear testament to the deserved nature of his musical reputation. There is no contemporary reference to Peire o ...

Peirol Peirol or PeiròlIn Occitan, ''peir'' (French "pierre") means "stone" and ''-ol'' is a diminutive suffix, the name Peirol being understood as the equivalent of "Little Stone" but also "Petit Pierre" (Lil' Peter) or "Pierrot" (Pete or Petey); howev ...

Raimon Jordan Raimon Jordan (fl. c. 1178–1195)Boase, 823. was a Toulousain troubadour and the viscount of Saint-Antonin in the Rouergue near the boundary with Quercy. His poetry was in Old Occitan. There is a '' vida'' of Jordan which exists in sever ...

, and

Raimon de Miraval Raimon de Miraval(h) (c. 1135/1160 – c. 1220) was a troubadour (fl. 1180–1220) and, according to his '' vida'', "a poor knight from Carcassonne who owned less than a quarter of the castle of Miraval."Graham-Leigh, 28. Favoured by Raym ...

. Two of his melodies survive. One of these, the music for the was borrowed from a , , of Bertran de Born: the only piece of Bertran's music to survive.Aubrey, 112. Only one melody by the Monge himself—for a entitled —survives. Nonetheless, this lone piece of work is characterised by phrase variation and motivic transformation, with an unexpected ending. The poem was appended to a set of four by the Monge in the 13th century, but it is probably a work of Jausbert de Puycibot.Chambers, 320–322.

Sources

*Aubrey, Elizabeth. ''The Music of the Troubadours''. Indiana University Press, 1996. . *Chambers, Frank M
"On the Attribution of a Provençal Poem."
''Modern Language Notes'', Vol. 62, No. 5. (May, 1947), pp. 320–322. *Egan, Margarita (trans.) ''The Vidas of the Troubadours''. New York: Garland, 1984. . *Gaunt, Simon, and Kay, Sarah (edd.) ''The Troubadours: An Introduction''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. . *Kehew, Robert (ed.) ''Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours''. Ezra Pound and William De Witt Snodgrass, trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. . *Routledge, Michael J. ''Les Poésies du Moine de Montaudon''. Montpellier: 1977.

External links

Complete works in Old Occitan
on trobar.org

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montaudon, Monge de 13th-century French troubadours French Benedictines Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 12th-century French troubadours People from Cantal