PROJECTS OF THE IUA

The modern lyrics of the Western world began with the poetry of the Occitan troubadours. It was they who defined the fields of poetic inspiration and the system of forms which persist to the present day. The example set by them has allowed our civilization to complete its education in the realm of feeling.

In view of this, the culture of Western civilization cannot do without a direct knowledge of the texts of the troubadours to which it must pay the same attention as it pays to the authors of Classical Antiquity. The Corpus of the Troubadours was conceived with this aim in mind. The project is intended to combine in a complete and homogeneous collection those texts of the troubadours which are, today, scattered in a number of publications of very uneven quality, and which are not always easily accessible. The new edition would naturally have to contain critical annotations and also be an edition accessible to non-specialists. To the texts, to the critical annotations and to the historical notes, which are indispensable for purposes of interpretation, a version in modern French has to be added.

It soon became evident that the situation of Occitan studies was not ripe for the immediate realization of such a project as was envisaged. It was first necessary to resolve certain special problems, to make available working tools, and tentative editions with extensive commentary. The collection of the Subsidia, published in Italy, meets these requirements. Since 1974, twenty volumes have appeared in that collection. In particular, there have appeared a large facsimile edition of the Codex Estensis, a critical edition of the citations of the troubadours in the Breviari d'Amor (by R. Richter), a closely detailed study of 'Chansonnier H' (Careri), a study of the audiences of the troubadors (Meneghetti), together with critical editions, with extensive commentary and archival documents, of certain troubadours, such as Guillaume IX d'Aquitaine (Pasero), Bereguer de Palol (Spampinato), Gavaudan (Guida), Bemart de Venzac (Simonelli), Cercamon (Tortoreto), Bernart Marti (Beggiato), Guilhem Augier (Calzolari), Raimon Jordan (Asperti), Garin d'Apchier and Torcafol (Latella), the poetic jocs at the court of Henri de Rodez (Guida), texts of Marcabru (Pollina). A series of Tabulae of Roman song-writers is also provided (Ferrari).

The project was adopted by the UAI in 1961 as a Category C project on the initiative of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

Director : R. Aramon i Serra 1961- ; Co-director : A. Roncaglia 1982-2001 ; A. Varvaro 2001-