This medieval story comes from a collection of Old Occitan Vida — “Lives” of famous and not so famous troubadour poets. It represents a particular genre popular in the very first well established secular literary culture since the fall of Rome. For the most part, troubadour poets were dedicated to ideals of courtly love, but their works also reflected events of the time, including the crusades. Although it is highly unlikely that this biography of Jaufres Rudels is rooted in reality, one can get (very incidently) a good idea of how respected the Knights Templar were during the 13th century, when this text was written. I am including a version in the original Old Occitan (taken from Revue historique, Volume 53, 1893). If you have any background in Romance languages you may be able to read a great deal of this text. It is actually used by William D. Paden in his “Introduction to Old Occitan.” This language survives today as Modern Occitan, a regional language in Southern France.
Jaufres Rudels de Blaia si fo mout gentils hom, princes de Blaia, et enamoret se de la comtessa de Tripol ses vezer, per lo gran bon qu’el n’auzi dir als pelegrins que vengron d’Antiochia, e fetz de lieis mains vers, ab bons sons, ab paubres motz. E per voluntat de lieis vezer el se crozet, e mes se en mar; e pres lo malautia en la nau, e fo condutz a Tripol en un alberc per mort. E fo fait a saber a la comtessa, et ella venc ad el al sien lieit, e pres lo entre sos braz. Et el saup qu’ella era la comtessa, si recobret lo vezer e l’auzir el flairar; e lauzet Dieu que l’avia la vida sostenguda tro qu’el l’agues vista. Et enaissi el mori entre sos braz; et ella lo fetz a gran honor sepellir en la maison del Temple. E pois en aquel dia ella si rendet monga per la dolor que ella ac de la mort de lui. [click to continue…]
A very important anniversary that should not go unnoticed this year. In 313, Emperor Constantine and Lucinius, Emperor of the eastern provinces, agreed upon proclaiming tolerance towards all religions, with Christianity obviously standing to benefit the most from this legal change in terms of its treatment by Roman officials. Traditionally, Constantine’s own conversion is attributed to him seeing a cross in the sky, accompanied with the Greek words “Ἐν Τούτῳ Νίκα” (“by this, win!”, often rendered in the Latin “in hoc signo vinces”). A humorous interpretation of this event in the image above is meant to highlight the difference between the cultural climate of modern days and that of 1700 years ago.
