HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This book is both a collection of self-contained essays and a textbook. The first three chapters offer an introduction to the historical context of the troubadour lyric, and then to the two main genres of the troubadour tradition, the canso and sirventes. The next five are broadly speaking literary-historical and offer an overview of the troubadours with chapters on the three main periods of troubadour production, on the women troubadours, and on Spanish and Italian troubadours, the aim being to show how the tradition evolved both in Occitania and abroad. The following five chapters give an account of the critical preoccupations of recent troubadour scholarship. The final three chapters deal, albeit selectively, with medieval reception. Each chapter gives a selective account of past scholarship, but also makes an original contribution to the field.

All references are keyed either to the bibliography or to Appendices 1 and 3. Unless otherwise stated troubadours are cited from the editions given in Appendix 1. The Appendices are intended both for reference and as tools for further research. Appendix 1 offers thumb-nail sketches of what is known of the lives and work of some fifty-six troubadours and includes references to the best available editions. Appendix 2 offers a glossary of Occitan terms. Appendix 3 is a critical introduction to research tools. Appendix 4 is a list of extant chansonniers.

We hope that The Troubadours: An Introduction can profitably be read as a book, but you may wish to consult it more selectively either by reading chapters on particular themes or issues, or by consulting the index of troubadours and their songs.