Elias Fonsalada

Elias, from a 13th-century chansonnier

Elias (de) Fonsalada (fl. late 12th/first quarter of the 13th century)^[1] was a troubadour from Bergerac in the Périgord (the Diocese of Périgueux according to his vida).^[2] Only two cansos of his survive.

His vida goes further in describing him as a handsome man of the middle class, the son of a burgher and jongleur, who himself became a jongleur.^[3] The biographer did not regard him as an accomplished trobaire (troubadour/composer/inventor of poetry) but as a noellaire.^[2] This word has been open to interpretation. Boutière and Schutz in their French compilation of the vidas of the troubadours translate it as "auteur d'un genre particulier" (author of a particular genre) or "beau parleur" (good conversationalist).^[2] Later Levy traced its etymology to novelador, "auteur de novelles" (author of novas, novels), and Egan, in her English translation, has taken this up as "storyteller".^[2] A nova was probably a narrative, as opposed to lyric, work.^[4] Thus Elias' vida provides a rare glimpse of narrative vernacular writing in Occitan at the height of the troubadour art.

The poem En Abriu is assigned to Elias in manuscript C (a 14th-century work now known as f.f. 856 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris).^[5] This attribution, however, is contradicted by other sources and the poem is usually given to Marcabru.

Notes

Sources