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Translatio Poetriae
Occitan Apprenticeship from the Latin Classroom to the Vernacular Court
abstract
The Occitan treatises on the art of poetry are among the earliest vernacular arts of poetry. However, they adapt the pedagogy of the classroom implicit in Latin treatises like the Poetria nova to the court milieu beginning in the thirteenth century. This paper illustrates this development by comparing the new vernacular art with the Latin art found in Geoffrey’s treatise and commentaries on it as well as in other treatises written and commented on in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries and beyond. The Occitan treatises were written for laymen; although ignorant of Latin, they wished to write in the style of the early troubadours but with adaptations to the new subject matters of fin’amors. Key documents include the different versions of Guilhem Molinier’s Leys d’Amors written for the Toulouse consistory as well as some Catalan courts. An important feature of this emerging vernacular art is the imitation and emulation of recognised masterpieces of the art, including the ‘ancient troubadours’ and some Latin pieces, as the vernacular art evolved under supervision of the Inquisition. These changes are evident in the works of model poets such as N’At de Mons and Ramon de Cornet on whom I focus in this paper. Latin pedagogy is evident in the Occitan treatises these authors exemplify, but with adaptations to the new vernacular. The troubadour influence went north to some French courts and beyond. The role of intermediaries that link different vernaculars will be briefly noted in conclusion, a rayonnement not unlike that identified in Woods’ study on the diffusion in Europe of the Poetria nova and commentary on it.
Keywords: N’Ar de Mons • Ramon de Cornet • Occitan art of poetry • Joglar • Latin art of poetry
