(b Le Puy-en-Velay, ?1180; d ?Montpellier, ?1278). French troubadour. His place of birth, in the modern département of Haute-Loire, is known through his vida; a number of members of his family are also traceable there. The estimated date of his birth is based on a document which mentions a certain ‘Petrus Cardinalis’ who was employed as a clerk in 1204 by Raimon VI, Count of Toulouse. The vida tells us that Peire lived to be nearly 100 years old, and that he probably died in Montpellier, the principal residence of Jaime I, King of Aragon (1213–76). As a small boy, Peire attended a clerical school in order to learn reading and singing. It is doubtful whether he ever became a priest, but he did write a large number of Marian poems.
Over 90 poems have been attributed to him, of which three only have survived with melodies. It is evident from the vida that at least some of the others were intended to be sung: we are told that he kept a jongleur to sing his sirventes. Topical references and bitter attacks on both the nobility and the clergy are often the dominant themes of his poems, many of them inspired by the Albigensian crusade. Two of the three extant melodies are contrafacta of songs by troubadours of an earlier generation.
Editions:Poésies complètes du troubadour Peire Cardenal, ed. R. Lavaud (Toulouse, 1957) [complete text edn]Der musikalische Nachlass der Troubadours, ed. F. Gennrich, SMM, iii (1958) [complete music edn]Las cançons dels trobadors, ed. I. Fernandez de la Cuesta and R. Lafont (Toulouse, 1979) [complete music edn]The Extant Troubadour Melodies, ed. H. van der Werf and G. Bond (Rochester, NY, 1984) [complete music edn]
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Ar mi posc eu lauzar d'amor, PC 335.7 [contrafactum of: Guiraut de Bornelh, ‘Non posc sofrir qu'a la dolor’, PC 242.51] (composed 1204–8, according to Lavaud) |
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Rics hom que greu ditz vertat a leu men, PC 335.49 [contrafactum of: Raimon Jordan, ‘Vas vos soplei, domna Premeiramen’, PC 404.11] |
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Un sirventes novel voill comensar, PC 335.67 (composed 1232–3, according to Lavaud) |
K. Vossler: Peire Cardinal, ein Satiriker aus dem Zeitalter der Albigenserkriege (Munich, 1916)
S. Vatteroni: ‘Le poesie di Peire Cardenal’, Studi mediolatini e volgari, xxxvi (1990), 73–259; xxxix (1993), 105–218; xl (1994), 119–202; xli (1995), 165–212; xlii (1996), 169–251
For further bibliography see Troubadours, trouvères
ROBERT FALCK