A ''salut d'amor'' (, ; "love letter", lit. "greeting of love") or (''e'')''pistola'' ("epistle") was an Occitanlyric poem of the troubadours, written as a letter from one lover to another in the tradition of courtly love. Some songs preserved in the Italian ''
Quattrocento
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...
chansonnier
A chansonnier (, , Galician and , or ''canzoniéro'', ) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally " song-books"; however, some manuscripts are call ...
s are labelled in the rubrics as ''saluts'' (or some equivalent), but the ''salut'' is not treated as a
genre
Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...
by medieval Occitan grammarians. The trouvères copied the Occitan song style into
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th Catalan examples (of the ''salutació amorosa'') also.
The poetic form probably derives from the classical Latin">Catalan language">Catalan examples (of the ''salutació amorosa'') also.
The poetic form probably derives from the classical Latin love letter and through a blending of the ''ars dictaminis'' and the early Occitan ''Canso (song), canso''. Occitan scholar Pierre Bec argued that the ''salut'' was tripartite, possessing an introduction, body, and conclusion. Christiane Leube believes that the Latin five-part division of ''salutatio'', ''captatio benevolentiae'', ''narratio'', ''petitio'', and ''conclusio'' formed the basis for the ''salut'', but that the ''salutatio'' and ''captatio'' blended into one segment and all but the ''conclusio'' being less rigidly delineated. Dietmar Rieger regards the ''salut'' less as a letter than as a variant of the ''canso'' intended not to be sung in performance but to be read. The Occitan ''saluts'' do not have stanzas or
refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeated in poetry or in music">poetry.html" ;"title="Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeat ...
s, but several French ones do (''salut à refrains''). Structurally they are usually octosyllabicrhyming couplets, but a few are hexasyllabic and Raimon de Miraval wrote a heterometric ''salut''.. They often end with a one-word verse, unrhymed with anything previous, that gives the addressee: ''Domna'' or ''Dompna''.
The first ''salut d'amor'' was probably ''Domna, cel qe'us es bos amics'', written by Raimbaut d'Aurenga and he served as a model for many later troubadours. Arnaut de Mareuil wrote five ''saluts'', the most of any individual, and Don Alfred Monson has crowned him the ''maître incontesté du salut'' ("the uncontested master of the ''salut''"). They served as a model for Amanieu de Sescars, who wrote two precisely datable ''saluts'' in 1278 and 1291. Falquet de Romans wrote a ''salut d'amor'' (''epistola'' in the rubric) of 254 lines. The only female author of a ''salut'' was Azalais d'Altier. Her 101 verses of rhyming couplets were designed to reconcile two lovers and were addressed to a woman, possibly Clara d'Anduza. In French the only named author of a ''salut'' with refrains is Philippe de Rémi.
''Destret d'emors mi clam a vos'' is a 708-line long anonymous Catalan ''salut''.
Cançoner Gil
The ''Cançoner Gil'' (, ) is an Occitan language, Occitan chansonnier produced in Catalonia in the middle of the 14th century. In the systematic nomenclature of Occitanists, it is typically named Manuscript, MS ''Sg'', but as ''Z'' in the reass ...