Azalais d'Altier

Azalais or Azalaïs d'Altier was an early 13th-century trobairitz. She was from Altier in the Gévaudan. She has sometimes been confused with Almucs de Castelnau.

Azalais wrote "Tanz salutz e tantas amors", the only "salut d'amor" by a woman. It comprises 101 verses of rhyming couplets. Its purpose was to reconcile two lovers and it was addressed to a woman, possibly Clara d'Anduza. Its similarity in tone to Clara's "canso" "En greu esmay et en greu pessamen" gives the impression that it may have been written in response. Azalais was well-known in troubadour circles, for Uc de Saint-Circ addressed his "Anc mais non vi temps ni sazo" to her in its "tornada". Nonetheless the great troubadour ignored her when composing the "vidas".

Azalais herself was a woman of learning and she must have been familiar with the Matter of Rome through the "Roman de Troie" of Benoît de Sainte-Maure, which she references in her "salut":There is today a street named "Rue Azalais d'Altier" in Montpellier.

Notes

ources

*Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. "The Trobairitz" in: "A Handbook of the Troubadours", edd. F. R. P. Akehurst and Judith M. Davis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 052 007 976 0.
*Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn; Shepard, Laurie; and White, Sarah. "Songs of the Women Troubadours". New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0 8153 0817 5.
*Klinck, Anne Lingard; Rasmussen, Ann Marie. "Medieval Woman's Song: Cross-Cultural Approaches". Pittsburg: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. ISBN 0 81223 624 6.