Publisher's Synopsis
This book is designed to make the poetry of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century Occitan troubadours accessible to English-speaking readers. Its centerpiece is a bilingual anthology with critically edited Occitan texts and original English translations on facing pages. Generous selections include ninety poems by thirty poets. The extensive introduction examines the major aspects of this poetry: the courtly-love theme, the satirical writings, the cultural-social climate, the poets and their works, poetic genres, language, versification, themes, origin theories, and the manuscript tradition. Copious notes offer additional information and interpretation.