NOTES
Nine coblas singulars of fifteen lines, with two tornadas, each of three lines: a5’ b6 a5’ b6 a5’ b6 c2 c6 a5’ b6 c2 c6 d10’ d10’ d10’ (a: erra, osta, ilha, enda, arda, ana, òia, endre, onta; b: ar, atz, òst, itz, ortz, enc, òs, els, ir: c: ors, es, ès, o, ai, itz, ais, os, onh; d: eira, aire, anha, ella, òia, ia, atre, onda, orta). Frank 270:2. The martial rhythm is admirably suited to the subject. —The metrical scheme has been used by Albertet de Sisteron in his satirical canso 16, 11 (ed. Boutière, V); Albertet also borrows (st. 3) a number of expressions and rhymes from Raimbaut’s descort XVII.
Genre. The brilliance and charm of this lively lyrico-epic composition, one of the jewels of Provençal literature, have long been appreciated; cf. Hist. litt. XVII, 514: “le mouvement général, la hardiesse des images, la chaleur du style, la cadence des vers, l’heureux effet des rimes... nous paraissent la rendre singulièrement remarquable.” Probably the last of the lyrical poems composed by Raimbaut prior to his departure on the Fourth Crusade, the Carros is devoted entirely to the glorification of Beatrice, daughter of his patron the Marquis. Intended also to entertain the refined society of the court of Montferrat, whose culture and tastes it accurately reflects, it describes an imaginary war for the prize of merit, beauty and youth between his patroness and a band of more than twenty ladies of the Italian nobility, all celebrated for their beauty and many of them mentioned by name. As such, it belongs to the genre of the collective panegyric, inaugurated c. 1183 by the French trouvère Huon d’Oisy in his Tournoiement des Dames, and now introduced by Raimbaut into Italy, where it proved exceedingly popular, inspiring a number of imitations, among them the well-known Treva of Guilhem de la Tor (cf. Jeanroy, Poésie lyrique I, 252–4; Muratori, Antiquitates ital. II, 837, records a ladies’ mock tournament held in Treviso in 1214, in which flowers and fruit were used as weapons).
Literary qualities. While the idea of an armed conflict between aristocratic ladies may have been borrowed from Huon’s poem (cf. the introductory note to I), Raimbaut’s inspiration, invention and artistry are superior to those of the other examples of the genre. The vivid and realistic account of the campaign waged against Beatrice by the jealous ladies of the vielh comun, united in defence of their threatened rights, parodies the characteristic features of the Italian communes of the time: their leagues, their militias, their peculiar style of fighting with the carroccio or war-chariot, their podestà, their assemblies, harangues and voting procedure. Raimbaut’s mock-heroic style (earlier used for similarly satirical purposes in I) contributes to the gaiety and humour of the poem, qualities of which Jeanroy takes insufficient account when he states (loc. cit.) that the reference to Beatrice’s antagonists as “old” is offensive. Though not all these ladies have been identified, we know that Maria la Sarda (l. 61) and midons de Savoia (l. 75) were young, and that the latter was already, and the former was soon to be, related to Beatrice; they and the other ladies undoubtedly appreciated the compliment of being associated, even in a poetic fantasy, with the celebrated house of Montferrat. The satire is clearly reserved for the communes of Piedmont and Lombardy, which were proving so troublesome to the poet’s patron.
Date. The reference to Maria la Sarda, who in July 1202 married a nephew of the Marquis Boniface in Piedmont, and the mention in l. 30 of hostilities involving the Marquis, have led many scholars to date the poem between the marriage referred to and the departure of the Crusaders in Oct. of the same year (cf. Cerrato, Giorn. stor. IV, 108; Savio, Guglielmo III di Monf., p. 164; Schultz-Gora, Dichterinnen, p. 14, n. 81). De Bartholomaeis however has convincingly shown (loc. cit.) that the poem must have been composed between the summer of 1200 and the spring of 1201. He argues as follows: 1. The gaiety of the poem would have been unappreciated in the period immediately preceding the departure of the Crusaders, when Montferrat was a centre of great diplomatic and military activity. 2. The reference in l. 30 is not to the imminent Crusade, but to a conflict already begun. Had the poet intended to refer to the Crusade, he would have expressed himself differently. 3. The expression tornatz in the same line refers to the recrudescence in the spring of 1200 of hostilities between Montferrat and Asti and other communes, which ended only in the spring of 1202 (cf. Epic Letter II, 4, note; Brader, pp. 115–76). As the allusion makes it clear that the recrudescence was a recent event, and as the Marquis was fully engaged in other activities following his election as leader of the Crusade at the beginning of 1201, the poem was probably composed in the autumn of 1200.
3. esta terra. The instigators of the war against Beatrice are here expressly stated to belong to Piedmont and Lombardy, and Restori points out (Giorn. dantesco IX, 203 ff.) that it was natural for the poet to select as Beatrice’s antagonists those ladies from neighbouring areas who would be well-known in Montferrat: a victory over more distant and lesser-known rivals would have been less pleasurable. The geographical limitation has thus no significance for the extent of the diffusion of the Provençal lyric at this moment, as Torraca believed (Donne ital. nella poesia prov., p. 15). —The majority of the ladies mentioned in the poem have been identified by Torraca (loc. cit.), Bertoni, Giorn. stor. XXXVIII. 140, Restori (loc. cit.), Bergert, Damen, pp. 172 ff., De Bartholomaeis (loc. cit.).
4. vilas. As the poet is comparing the war to the hostilities between Montferrat and the inhabitants of Asti and other communes, we prefer the interpretation of Lommatzsch and Zingarelli (Bel Cavalier, p. 568) to the rendering “città” of Crescini; we do not however accept Zingarelli’s view that Beatrice is merely a symbol for the house of Montferrat.
6. volon. B.-K., Crescini: cuidan (M).
24. manta. B.-K., Crescini: dura (M).
29–30. Cf. supra the note on the date of the poem.
31. Versilha. The coastal region of Tuscany, area of Pietrasanta. —The ladies of Versilia, Tuscany and Romagna (l. 44) are alluded to only in general terms, but cf. note to l. 3.
33–4. Sebeli, Guilha and Riqueta have not been identified, and it is not certain that they belonged to Versilia (whose leading families are mentioned by De Bartholomaeis). Crescini compares the masculine form of Sebeli with Fr. Isabeau, Eng. and Sp. Isobel.
35–6. Both the mother and the daughter from Ancisa or Incisa (near Acqui, prov. of Alessandria) were called Damicella. De Bartholomaeis refers to a deed of 1190 by which the mother, widow of Albert I of Incisa, donated Montaldo and other districts to Asti; this act resulted in renewed hostilities between Asti and Montferrat (cf. Brader, pp. 42–3).
38. Lenta. On the river Sesia, north of Vercelli. prov. of Novara. According to De Bartholomaeis, Agnes probably belonged to the Avogadro family.
40. Guilhelm’. Unidentified.
43. Canaves. A district of Ivrea, north of Turin; Peire Vidal speaks of the welcome he received there (ed. Anglade, XXXVII, 26).
44. Toscana. This reading of R has been adopted by all the editors except B.-K., who read Surian (with MSg); but Restori has pointed out that the unimportant valley of Soriano (prov. of Viterbo) is out of place alongside the larger regions of the Canavese and Romagna mentioned in the same passage. Possibly the ancestor of MSg anticipated Soranha in the following line.
45. Tomazin’. Unidentified.
Soranha. Soragna is in the Parma area, and according to De Bartholomaeis the lady mentioned here was the wife of the Marquis Guido I Lupi, podestà of Parma in 1202 (cf. Salimbene, Chron., p. 334, in Mon. Germ. Hist. XXXII, who refers to Guido’s sons as “Marchiones de Soragna, magni barones... habitabant in Parma”). The lady Sandra mentioned in the Treva of G. de la Tor belonged to the same family, cf. Reston, Rendiconti d. Ist. Lombardo, 1892, p. 318, note.
46–9. None of the ladies here mentioned can be definitely identified, but they may have been well-known in Montferrat, and perhaps even related to Boniface.
46. Engles. Not to be confused with the “senhal” for the Marquis Boniface.
47. Auditz. A lady of this name, belonging to the family of Carrù, is known to have married into the house of Ventimiglia at this time (cf. Bertoni and Bergert).
48. Aud’. An Alda Embriaco was married to Otto del Carretto (1171–1227), cf. Bergert.
Berlenda. A Berlenda of Lunigiana is mourned by Lanfranc Cigala in his planh 282, 7 (ed. Appel, Prov. Ined., p. 182).
49. Agnes. There are two possible candidates: (1) Agnes of Saluzzo, daughter of Manfred II and Adelasia, sister of Boniface of Montferrat (and therefore a cousin of Beatrice) married in 1202 Mariano, brother of Maria la Sarda. at the same time as the latter married Agnes’ brother Boniface (cf. note to l. 61). (2) Agnes of Montferrat. Beatrice’s aunt, was still unmarried in 1202 (cf. the deed of Trino referred to in the Introduction, I, 11, note 81). Beatrice’s sister Agnes cannot be considered, as she was extremely young at this time (cf. XXII, 62, note.) For the relevant documents, cf. De Bartholomaeis.
53. las domnas de Ponso. At least three ladies from Ponzone (south of Acqui, prov. of Alessandria) may be considered, if there were three Marquises of Ponzone at this time. An Isabella del Carretto, daughter of Enrico Guercio, lord of Savona, married in 1191 Enrico, son of Hugo, Marquis of Ponzone. The Treva of G. de la Tor mentions an Emilia, wife of Enrico’s brother Ponzio (cf. Bergert and De Bartholomaeis) .
55. Mon Senitz. The road across the Alps from Susa in N. W. Piedmont to Savoy led through this pass.
57. Contesso. Though this diminutive of contessa was applied to several ladies of the house of Savoy in the 13th century, it is now generally agreed that we have here a proper noun (= Contessina, attested for the same period, cf. Crescini, Rassegna bibl. d. lett. ital. IV, 210, Manualetto, LXXVIII, n. 1; De Lollis, Sordello, p. 286; Bergert, p. 88). A Comtessons del Carrel is mentioned in the Treva, but the context shows that in our poem Contesso belongs to Savoy, though she is not apparently the midons de Savoia of l. 75. —B.-K. read contenso.
59. sos gens cors. This refers to Beatrice and is the subject of tol; De Bartholomaeis, Cavaliere and Bergin mistakenly consider it to be the object.
Damizella. Cf. note to ll. 35–6.
60. fresqu’ e novella. For this phrase, cf. I, 55, and note to l. 53 (ibid.).
61. Maria la Sarda. Daughter of Comita II, ruler of Torres, Maria married Boniface of Saluzzo on July 25th 1202 in Vercelli, cf. note to Agnes, l. 49; the marriage contract is reproduced in Moriundus, Mon. Aquens. II, 640 (a few days before, Boniface of Montferrat had made a peace treaty with this city as part of his general settlement with the communes of Piedmont prior to his departure in August for the Crusade; cf. Brader, pp. 174 ff.). Maria in all probability had visited Montferrat some time before her marriage.
62. domna de sant Jortz. Possibly the San Giorgio in Montferrat is meant here, but it may also be the one in Ivrea, belonging to the Count of Biandrate. Savio (loc. cit., p. 111) believes that the latter’s wife was a cousin of Beatrice,. and that Berta and Bastarda in the following line were similarly related to her; this could explain their being mentioned together.
63. Berta. Savio (loc. cit.) identifies her with Berta of Cravesana, who c. 1201 married Beatrice’s brother, the future William IV of Montferrat; mentioned in the Treva along with Sandra, she belonged, like the latter and the lady of Soragoa, to the Lupi family. The grounds for Bertoni’s identification with Berta of Incisa, sister of Damizella of l. 59, have been invalidated by Restori, loc. cit. An identification with Berta, daughter of the Marquis of Busca, is also possible, cf. De Bartholomaeis.
·l Bastarda. In view of the article, possibly a nick-name for a natural child (De Bartholomaeis).
74. Troia. The name is in keeping with the epic tone of the poem; but there may also be a play on the homonym trueia of l. 95 (i.e. troia, “sow”).
75. midons de Savoia. Beatrice Margerita, daughter of Count William I of Geneva and wife of Count Thomas I of Savoy (1178–1233); she died in 1257. Celebrated by Albertet de Sisteron 16, 2 (ed. Boutière, I) and Elias de Barjols 132, 6 (ed. Stronski, IX), she must have been about twenty years old at the time of the Carros (cf. Cerrato, Giorn. stor. IV, 113, and Bergert). Her election as podestà is explained by the close ties which existed between the houses of Montferrat and Savoy; Count Thomas had earlier been a ward of Boniface.
77. en arrenc. Possibly an Italianism (Crescini).
79. lo vielhs comuns. As we have seen, a number of ladies belonging to the “commune of the elderly” were in fact young; the allusion to their age merely emphasises the comparative youth of Beatrice. It has also been suggested, however, that joven (90) has here the meaning “nobility of mind” rather than “youth” (cf. Carducci, Cavalleria, p. 60, and also Bertran de Born 80, 7, ed. Stimming, 40).
81. chascuna desrenc. Kolsen (Archiv, 134, p. 426, n. 3), followed by Lommatzsch and Bergin, reads chascun’ ades renc; but, quite apart from the spelling derrenc of M, the communal militia had not yet entered the field. —Raynouard V, 82 mistranslates desrenc as “détale”.
84. estai. B.-K.: es tan.
86. aunitz. B.-K., Crescini: c’aunitz (R).
88. cria. For the disappearance of intervocalic t in this rhyme-word, cf. I, introductory note; the consonant is preserved in cridon 90, 118.
90. “Sia!”. De Bartholomaeis would substitute for this MS. reading the official formula of approbation fiat used in the popular assemblies. Ugolini points out however that the sense does not require the adoption of the Latinism fia, unattested in Provençal.
92. carros. This word, not found in any other Provençal text, represents carroccio (which may be of Lombard origin, cf. REW 1721, It. carrozza, Fr. carrosse) , and it designates the large state chariot of the north Italian communes. Protected by picked troops, it served in battle as a rallying-point and symbol, and its loss could spell disaster (cf. ll. 131 ff.). First mentioned in the 11th century in connection with Milan, the carraccio was used in Italy and other countries until the 14th century. It proved a conspicuous success in the celebrated victory of the Milanese League over the troops of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa at Legnano in 1176.
100. nos. De Bartholomaeis and Cavaliere err in considering this a subjunctive form. The reduction of final tz to s, necessitated here by the rhyme, is normal in the 13th century troubadours.
107. castels. The variant carells of M, adopted by B.-K., is an anticipation of l. 111.
115. joves. B.-K., Crescini: gentills (M).
120. De Bartholomaeis, Cavaliere and Bergin appear to consider genh the object of trazon, which they render “traggono”.
124–6. B.-K. and Crescini place a full stop after ferir in l. 124 and follow the version of R in l. 126.
128, 129. pres, tanta. B.-K., Crescini: prop, mainta (M).
130. B.-K., Crescini: Si que l. f. partir (M).
139. Zingarelli (Bel Cavalier, p. 569), pointing out that Bel Cavalier has no connection with the subject of the poem, suggests that this second tornada may merely be the equivalent of the poet’s signature.
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