A Handbook of the Troubadours (Publications of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance) [Paperback]

F. R. P. Akehurst (Author), Judith M. Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1995 | Series: Publications of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance (Book 26)

This book is a reference volume and a digest of more than a century of scholarly work on troubadour poetry. Written by leading scholars, it summarizes the current consensus on the various facets of troubadour studies.
Standing at the beginning of the history of modern European verse, the troubadours were the prime poets and composers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the South of France. No study of medieval literature is complete without an examination of the courtly love which is celebrated in the elaborately rhymed stanzas of troubadour verse, creations whose words and melodies were imitated by poets and musicians all over medieval Europe.
The words of about 2,500 troubadour songs have survived, along with 250 melodies, and all have come under intense scholarly scrutiny. This Handbook brings together the fruits of this scrutiny, giving teachers and students an overview of the fundamental issues in troubadour scholarship. All quotations are given in the original Old Occitan and in English. The editors provide a list of troubadour editions and an index, and each chapter includes a list of additional readings.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"The Handbook provides an extensive apprenticeship tour into medieval Occitan studies, illustrating richly their challenges and rewards. A wonderful resource for the novice as well as the specialist, a vast mine of up-to-date information."--Michel-André Bossy, editor of Medieval Debate Poetry

"This work will certainly be a must for every scholar working on the troubadours, and perhaps also for non-specialist medievalists. Its attention to the nitty-gritty of scholarship--manuscripts, editing, language, rhetoric, etc.--is what makes it so unique and helpful. It will be on the top of my bibliography when I teach the troubadours."--Stephen G. Nichols, author of Romanesque Signs

About the Author

F.R.P. Akehurst is Professor of French at the University of Minnesota. He is the translator of The Coutumes de Beauvaisis of Philippe de Beaumanoir (1992). Judith M. Davis is Professor of French and Humanities at Goshen College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 508 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; Second printing edition (November 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520079760
• ISBN-13: 978-0520079762
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Handbook of the Troubadours: giving voice to fin'amor, December 14, 2000

By 

John Bromka (Marcellus, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Handbook of the Troubadours (Publications of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance) (Paperback)

This book is a must for anyone with an interest in troubadour music, the medieval world, and the myth of perfect love. If you have shelf space for only one book on the subject, aside from an anthology of troubadour works, this should well be it. Expertly written and readable, too, the Handbook is comprised of an interlocking series of articles by leading scholars in musicology, linguistics, social history, and poetic topoi ("the treasury of subjects and forms that constitute the common fund of tradition and culture").

The troubadour tradition poses many questions: Is there any basis to the myth that these 12th c poet/composers from southern France invented the idea of romantic love as we know it today? What is the true nature of fin'amor, the troubadours' art of longing? Why was this intense longing always directed to the senhor's wife? How completely was this love ever consummated? Were the 'vidas' and 'razos' (lives and reasons) given in the medieval chansonniers truly biographical? How can we do justice to reinterpreting these cansos and songs in modern performance when the medieval notation gives so few clues? How can it be that the cansos were not even written down until 200 years after they were composed? What was the power and esteem of the troubadour cansos that they remained so well intact through 200 years of oral remembrance? You'll be able to draw your own surprising and cogent conclusions through this handbook..

I have used this book in preparation for a master class in troubadour music, Lo Gai Saber, given by Joël Cohen of the Boston Camerata, and gained immeasurably thereby.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for troubadours' lovers, October 24, 2005

By 

Sebastian Krajewski (Warsaw, Poland) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Handbook of the Troubadours (Publications of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance) (Paperback)

'A Handbook of the Troubadours' is a fine collection of essays on different aspect of troubadours' heritage. Everyone interested in academic studies may use it as a simple reference book, while every lover of the Occitan legend can verify one's knowledge, according to the newest research.