Consistori del Gay Saber

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An initial from the first page of the Leys d'amor

The Consistori del Gay Saber (Occitan: [kunsisˈtɔɾi ðel ˈɣaj saˈβe]; "Consistory of the Gay Science")[a] was a poetic academy founded at Toulouse in 1323 to revive and perpetuate the lyric poetry of the troubadours.

Also known as the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals or Académie des Jeux Floraux ("Academy of the Floral Games"), it is the most ancient literary institution of the Western world. It was founded in 1323 in

Chateaubriand, Voltaire, Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo and Frédéric Mistral
.

Foundation

The Consistori was founded by seven literary men of the bourgeoisie, who composed a manifesto, in Old Occitan verse, pledging to award prizes to poetry in the troubadouresque style and emulating the language of classical period of the troubadours (roughly 1160–1220). The academy was originally called the Consistori dels Sept Trobadors ("Consistory of the Seven Troubadours") or Sobregaya Companhia dels Set (VII) Trobadors de Tolosa ("Overjoyed Company of the seven troubadours of Toulouse"). In its efforts to promote an extinct literary koiné over the evolving dialects of the fourteenth century, the Consistori went a long way to preserving the troubadours' memory for posterity as well as bequeathing to later scholarship an encyclopaedic terminology for the analysis and historiography of Occitan lyric poetry. Chaytor believed that the Consistori "arose out of informal meetings of poets held in earlier years".[b]

The Consistori was governed by a chancellor and seven judges or mantenedors (maintainers).[c] In 1390 John I of Aragon, one of the earliest Renaissance humanists to sit on a European throne, established the Consistori de Barcelona in imitation of the Toulousain academy.[d][e]

Activities

Clémence Isaure (Clemença Issaura), imaginary patroness of the Jocs Florals, by Jules Joseph Lefebvre

The Consistori held an annual poetry contest at which one contestant, the "most excellent poet" (plus excellen Dictador), would receive the violeta d'aur (golden violet) for the poem or

Jocs Florals. The best dança earned its creator a flor de gaug d'argen fi (a fine silver marigold),[g] and the best sirventés, pastorèla or vergièra garnered a flor d'ayglentina d'argen (a silver dog rose).[h]

The first prize was awarded on 3 May 1324 to

Virgin Mary. The contests were held intermittently until 1484, when the last prize was awarded to Arnaut Bernart de Tarascon. From this period of 160 years survive the record of around a hundred prizes.[i] During that century and a half, the Consistori saw participants from both south of the Pyrenees and north of Occitania, both men and women. In an unknown year, possibly 1385, an anonymous Catalan woman submitted a planh to the seven maintainers for judgement. The planh (lament) is that of a faithful woman for her lover, who has been absent several years.[j]

It was in order to judge these contests that the Consistori first commissioned an Occitan grammar, including the laws of poetry, be written up. The first compiler was

Leys d'amor
was completed between 1328 and 1337. It went through two subsequent redactions. Several other grammatical treatises and glosses were produced by poets associated with the Consistori.

By 1471 the Consistori was losing its Occitan character. It awarded the golden violet to

Louis XIV. Later, Victor Hugo
received a prize at the jeux. It still exists today.

Character and legacy

Toulouse France Silver Medal, 1819. Clémence Isaure, 1450–1500 (obverse).

The Consistori, in its nostalgic attempt to preserve what had gone out of style, is often credited with fostering a monotonous form of poetry devoid of vibrance and feeling.

dolce stil novo and the Renaissance in Italian and the work of Ausiàs March in Catalan
.

alexandrine".[n]

It is the inspiration for Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science, 1882. It is the namesake of the Italian folk group Gai Saber.

Associated troubadours

Statue of Clémence Isaure by Antoine-Augustin Préault in the Reines de France et Femmes illustres series in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Notes

  1. ^ The consistory goes by many names in different languages. Consistori de la Gaya Sciensa is an alternate Occitan name; gai an alternate spelling; and consistòri is consistent with modern orthography.
  2. ^ Chaytor 1933, p. 198
  3. ^ Fraser 1993, p. 52, who seems also to distinguish between the Sobregaya Companhia of seven troubadours and an apparently pre-existing Consistori del Gay Saber. Chaytor 1933, p. 198, does likewise, making the Consistori the committee which appointed the chancellor and maintainers.
  4. ^ Boase 1977, pp. 6–7
  5. ^ Riquer 1964, p. 565
  6. ^ E per tal que miels s'alezer / Cascús en far obra plazen, / Dizem que, per dreyt jutjamen, / A cel que la farà plus neta / Donarem una violeta / De fin aur, en senhal d'onor, / No regardan pretz ni valor, / Estamen ni condició / De senhor ni de companhó, / Mas sol maniera de trobar, in Las leys d'amors.
  7. ^ E per mays creysher lo deport / D'aquesta festa, dam per dansa / Am gay so, per dar alegransa, / Una flor de gaug d'argen fi, in Las leys d'amors.
  8. ^ E per sirventés atressí, / E pastorelas e vergieras, / Et autras d'aquestas manieras, / A cel que la farà plus fina / Donam d'argen flor d'ayglentina, in Las leys d'amors.
  9. ^ For a full list of laureates (1324-1694) with the flowers awarded and winning works, see Gélis 1912, p. 285.
  10. ^ Riquer 1964, p. 528
  11. ^ Paden 1995, p. 183
  12. ^ Riquer makes this criticism, p. 523.
  13. ^ Cerverí has un to i una força (a tone and force) that the Toulousains lack (Riquer, 523).
  14. ^ "tiranitzar pels monòtons alexandrins" (Riquer, 532).

References

  1. ^ M. de Ponsan, Histoire de l' Académie des Jeux floraux (Toulouse, 1764), p. 4, French.

Bibliography

  • Boase, Roger (1977). The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love: A Critical Study of European Scholarship. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
    ISBN 0-87471-950-X
    . Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  • Chaytor, Henry John (1933). A History of Aragon and Catalonia. London: Methuen Publishing. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  • Duboul, Axel (1901). Les Deux Siècles de l'Académie des Jeux floraux I–II.
  • Fraser, Veronica (1993). "The Influence of the Venerable Bede on the Fourteenth-Century Occitan Treatise". Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric. 11 (1). University of California Press: 51–61.
    JSTOR 10.1525/rh.1993.11.1.51
    .
  • Gélis, François de (1912). Histoire critique des jeux floraux depuis leur origine jusqu'à leur transformation en Académie (1323-1694) (in French). p. 285. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  • Paden, William D. (1995). "The Troubadours and the Albigensian Crusade: A Long View". Romance Philology. 49 (2): 168–191.
  • Riquer, Martí de (1964). Història de la Literatura Catalana. Vol. 1. Barcelona: Edicions Ariel. Retrieved 8 June 2015.

External links

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