Lanfranc Cigala
Encyclopedia
Lanfranc Cigala was a Genoese
nobleman, knight, judge, and man of letters of the mid thirteenth century. He remains one of the most famous Occitan troubadour
s of Lombardy
. Thirty-two of his poems survive, dealing with Crusading
, heresy
, papal power, peace in Christendom, and loyalty in love. Lanfranc represented a tradition of Italian, Occitan-language trovatori who berated the Papacy for its handling of the Crusades.
Lanfranc's surviving corpus consists of thirty-two poems, including seven cansos
of courtly love
; four religious cansos; three sirventes
; two crusading songs; and one planh
. Among the thirty works attributed to him are nine tenso
s composed with other troubadours: four with Simon Doria
and one each with Jacme Grils
, Guilleuma de Rosers, Lantelm, Rubaut, and an otherwise unknown "Guilhem".
to the court of Raymond Berengar IV of Provence, where he probably met Bertran d'Alamanon
. In 1248, he was in Ceuta
on a mercantile expedition. He was last mentioned alive in a document dated 16 March 1257, and he was recorded as deceased on 24 September 1258. Contrary to legend, he was not assassinated in Monaco
in 1278.
. Echoing Innocent III's
declaration that the Cathars were worse than the Saracens (1208), in his poem Si mos chans fos de joi ni de solatz (directed at the Count of Provence, then Charles of Anjou), Lanfranc wrote:
This poem was written immediately after the loss of Jerusalem to the Mamelukes in 1244 and concurrent with the last Albigensian rising. More securely, it can be dated to between August 1244 and 17 July 1245. Lanfranc blamed the loss of Jerusalem on the lack of peace between Christian states, which was the first prerequisite of a successful Crusade in the East. Though he explicitly refused to lay the blame at the feet of either emperor (Frederick II
) or pope (Innocent IV
), his last words attack the pope's policy as war for profit.
In another poem, Quan vei far bon fag plazentier, written early in 1248, Lanfranc bemoaned the coming fall of Christianity with a metaphorical Sepulchre
, which the Saracens, he said, had already destroyed. Christianity, therefore, was doomed and could not be recovered, because it had already been brought down by the infidels. This extreme metaphor was only part, however, of Lanfranc's desire to encourage peace amongst Christians for the sake of the survival of their religion.
Among Lanfranc's religious songs (cansos) are three on Marian themes
, the most prominent of which is Gloriosa sainta Maria.
thus:
Among the ladies (dompnas) Lanfranc celebrated in his poetry were Berlenda and one de Villafranca, on whose surname the poet composed many puns, as in Tan franc cors de dompn'ai trobat. This last woman may have been Alasia, the daughter of Guglielmo Malaspina. Lanfranc's only planh was composed for a lady named Luresana, whom Lanfranc called chan-plor. It begins Eu non chant ges per talan de chantar.
In Francesco da Barberino's Flores novellarum, a collection of Boccaccian novellas, there is a short biography of Lanfranc in which the troubadour is torn by the "duties of hospitality" and the "claims of lady-service". This novella is taken as an example of the early date at which the scene was transferred "from the street to the human soul."
genre.
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
nobleman, knight, judge, and man of letters of the mid thirteenth century. He remains one of the most famous Occitan troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s of Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
. Thirty-two of his poems survive, dealing with Crusading
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
, heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
, papal power, peace in Christendom, and loyalty in love. Lanfranc represented a tradition of Italian, Occitan-language trovatori who berated the Papacy for its handling of the Crusades.
Lanfranc's surviving corpus consists of thirty-two poems, including seven cansos
Canso (song)
The canso is a song style used by the troubadours. It consists of three parts. The first stanza is the exordium, where the composer explains his purpose. The main body of the song occurs in the following stanzas, and usually draw out a variety of relationships with the exordium. The canso can end...
of courtly love
Courtly love
Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....
; four religious cansos; three sirventes
Sirventes
The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type...
; two crusading songs; and one planh
Planh
The planh or plaing is a funeral lament used by the troubadours, modeled on the medieval Latin planctus. It differed from the planctus in that it was intended for a secular audience...
. Among the thirty works attributed to him are nine tenso
Tenso
A tenso is a style of Occitan song favoured by the troubadours. It takes the form of a debate in which each voice defends a position on a topic relating to love or ethics. Closely related genres include the partimen and the cobla exchange...
s composed with other troubadours: four with Simon Doria
Simon Doria
Simon Doria was a Genoese statesman and man of letters, of the important Doria family. As a troubadour he wrote six surviving tensos, four with Lanfranc Cigala, one incomplete with Jacme Grils, and another with a certain Alberto...
and one each with Jacme Grils
Jacme Grils
Jacme or Iacme Gril was a Genoese troubadour of the mid-thirteenth century. He wrote two tensos which survive, one with Lanfranc Cigala and another one with Simon Doria....
, Guilleuma de Rosers, Lantelm, Rubaut, and an otherwise unknown "Guilhem".
Biography
Lanfranc was first mentioned in 1235 as a iudex (judge). In 1241, he was an ambassador from the Republic of GenoaRepublic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
to the court of Raymond Berengar IV of Provence, where he probably met Bertran d'Alamanon
Bertran d'Alamanon
Bertran d'Alamanon, also spelled de Lamanon or d'Alamano , was a Provençal knight and troubadour, and an official, diplomat, and ambassador of the court of the Count of Provence...
. In 1248, he was in Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
on a mercantile expedition. He was last mentioned alive in a document dated 16 March 1257, and he was recorded as deceased on 24 September 1258. Contrary to legend, he was not assassinated in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
in 1278.
Religious poetry
Lanfranc was both a critic of the crusading policies of the Papacy and a supporter of the Albigensian CrusadeAlbigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...
. Echoing Innocent III's
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
declaration that the Cathars were worse than the Saracens (1208), in his poem Si mos chans fos de joi ni de solatz (directed at the Count of Provence, then Charles of Anjou), Lanfranc wrote:
Coms Proensals, tost fora deliuratz
Lo Sepulchres si vostra manentia
Poges tan aut com lo prets qui vos guia, . . .
Mas del passar non ai cor que'us destregna,
C'obs es qe sai vostra valors pro tegna
A la gleiza d'aitals guerreiadors.
Ja de lai mar non queiratz Turcs peiors!
Count of Provence, would soon be freed
The [Holy] Sepulchre if your means
Corresponded to the esteem you inspire, . . .
But I do not have the heart to urge you to cross [the sea],
Because there is need for you valour to defend
The Church from its attackers.
On the other side of the sea there are not Turks who are worse!
This poem was written immediately after the loss of Jerusalem to the Mamelukes in 1244 and concurrent with the last Albigensian rising. More securely, it can be dated to between August 1244 and 17 July 1245. Lanfranc blamed the loss of Jerusalem on the lack of peace between Christian states, which was the first prerequisite of a successful Crusade in the East. Though he explicitly refused to lay the blame at the feet of either emperor (Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
) or pope (Innocent IV
Pope Innocent IV
Pope Innocent IV , born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was pope from June 25, 1243 until his death in 1254.-Early life:...
), his last words attack the pope's policy as war for profit.
In another poem, Quan vei far bon fag plazentier, written early in 1248, Lanfranc bemoaned the coming fall of Christianity with a metaphorical Sepulchre
Sepulchre
The rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel are a group of hundreds of rock-cut tombs constructed in Israel in ancient times. They were cut into the rock, sometimes with elaborate facades and multiple burial chambers. Some are free-standing, but most are caves. Each tomb typically belonged to a...
, which the Saracens, he said, had already destroyed. Christianity, therefore, was doomed and could not be recovered, because it had already been brought down by the infidels. This extreme metaphor was only part, however, of Lanfranc's desire to encourage peace amongst Christians for the sake of the survival of their religion.
Among Lanfranc's religious songs (cansos) are three on Marian themes
Mariology
Roman Catholic Mariology is theology concerned with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ as developed by the Catholic Church. Roman Catholic teachings on the subject have been based on the belief that "The Blessed Virgin, because she is the Mother of God, is believed to hold a certain...
, the most prominent of which is Gloriosa sainta Maria.
Love poetry
Some of Lanfranc's work presaged the dolce stil nuovo, as when he wrote in his poem Quant en bon luec that ques amors pren en lejal cor naissenza (love is born in loyal hearts). His poetry idealised women and emphasised the need for loyalty. In another poem, Lanfranc praised the deceased countess of EsteEste
The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. It is split into two branches; the elder is known as the House of Welf-Este or House of Welf historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph...
thus:
. . . la vol dieus en cel far regnar,
e si tot sai en reman dechaenza
li saint angel la'n portaran chantan.
Among the ladies (dompnas) Lanfranc celebrated in his poetry were Berlenda and one de Villafranca, on whose surname the poet composed many puns, as in Tan franc cors de dompn'ai trobat. This last woman may have been Alasia, the daughter of Guglielmo Malaspina. Lanfranc's only planh was composed for a lady named Luresana, whom Lanfranc called chan-plor. It begins Eu non chant ges per talan de chantar.
In Francesco da Barberino's Flores novellarum, a collection of Boccaccian novellas, there is a short biography of Lanfranc in which the troubadour is torn by the "duties of hospitality" and the "claims of lady-service". This novella is taken as an example of the early date at which the scene was transferred "from the street to the human soul."
Other work
Lanfranc also wrote a violent sirventes beginning Estier mon grat mi fan dir vilanatge attacking Boniface II of Montferrat in July 1245. A lighter composition was Escur prim chantar e sotil, a defence of the trobar leuTrobar leu
The trobar leu , or light style of poetry, was the most popular style used by the troubadours. Its accessibility gave it a wide audience, though modern readers may find its somewhat formulaic nature tiresome after a while....
genre.