Peire de Corbiac

Peire de Corbiac or Corbian was a Gascon cleric and troubadour of the thirteenth century. His most famous works are a religious piece, the "Prière à la Vierge" (prayer to the Virgin), and his "treasures", "Lo tezaurs" (c. 1225). ["Lo tezaurs" is commonly referred to as "Tezaur" or "Thezaur", also "Trésor" or "Tresaur" fr icon]

Peire was born at Corbiac near Bordeaux to a poor family.Sacerdote, 718.] He was educated at Orléans in the Scholastic tradition.Aubrey, "References", 147.] His nephew was the troubadour Aimeric de Belenoi, whose "vida" refers to him as "maestre" (master, teacher) and Peire elsewhere calls himself "maistre". Certainly Peire's "Tezaur" is didactic in nature: his purpose in writing was to convince the wise that though he was poor in material terms he was richer still. Composed in 840 alexandrines, the "Tezaur" is an encyclopaedic compilation of all that the troubadour new. The work displays a great breadth of knowledge. He expends 547 lines narrating the chief events of the Old and New Testaments, then discusses the seven liberal arts, medicine, surgery, necromancy, mythology, the lives of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and those of the contemporary French and English.

Peire was familiar with the work of Venerable Bede, of John de Holywood, and of Chrétien de Troyes. [Paris, 255, based on a reference to "rei Marc".] He also provides the modern historian with several pieces of crucial information not found elsewhere. He refers to dancing the "Sanctus", "Agnus", and the "Cunctipotens", showing that the liturgy was "performed". The "Tezaur" also contains the first mention of "contrapointamens", a century before its appearance in Latin as "contrapunctus", today's counterpoint. The "Tezaur" had a lasting influence in the Late Middle Ages. The Jew Emanuele da Roma wrote the "Ninth Meḥabbereth", a Hebrew poem based on the "Tesoretto" of Brunetto Latini, itself based on the "Tezaur" of Peire. [Sacerdote, 718–26.]

Peire was a religious man, as the dedicatory first verse of his "Tezaur" attests: it contians a dedication to Jesus and Mary and a statement of Trinitarian faith. His prayer to the Virgin, therefore, is unsurprising:

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*Aubrey, Elizabeth (1989). [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-6241%28198905%2F08%291%3A61%3A2%3C110%3ARTMIOO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W "References to Music in Old Occitan Literature."] "Acta Musicologica", 61:2 (May–Aug.), pp. 110–149.
*Aubrey, Elizabeth (1996). "The Music of the Troubadours". Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0 253 21389 4.
*Chaytor, Henry John (1912). [http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Troubadours.html "The Troubadours".] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. (1984). "The Vidas of the Troubadours". New York: Garland. ISBN 0 8240 9437 9.
*Paris, Gaston (1912). "Melanges de litterature français du moyen âge". New York: Burt Franklin. ISBN 0 8337 4311 2.
*Jeanroy, Alfred, and Bertoni, Giulio (1911). "Le Thezaur de Peire de Corbian." "Annales du Midi", 23, 289–308 and 451–71.
*Léglu, Catherine E. (2005). "The Two Versions of Peire de Corbian's "Thezaur"." "Études de langue et de littérature médiévales, offertes à Peter T. Ricketts à l'occasion de son 70ème anniversaire". Brepols: Turnhout. ISBN 2 503 51640 8.
*Sacerdote, Gustavo. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-6682%28189507%291%3A7%3A4%3C711%3ATNMOED%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 "The Ninth Mehabbereth of Emanuele da Roma and the Tresor of Peire de Corbiac."] "The Jewish Quarterly Review", 7:4 (July, 1895), pp. 711–728.

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