Lecturae Tropatorum (May 2014)
Anonimo, "L’autr’ier al quint jorn d’aprieu" (BdT 461.145)
Abstract
Although published more than once, "L’autr’ier al quint jorn d’aprieu" continues to pose problems, due especially to the large number of anomalies that affect the versification. This paper offers a new edition of the poem based on a first-hand examination of the only manuscript that transmits the text (Chansonnier f): in the manuscript, lines 7 and 8 of each stanza are never separated by a dot, which leads to the hypothesis that in line 7 of each cobla, the anonymous song had not two tetrasyllabic verses, as suggested by previous scholars, but a single octosyllabe with internal rhyme; the only exception is in the last stanza where the absence of internal rhyme underscores the ideological (and anachronistic) positions of the Anonymous troubadour, inspired by Marcabru. This new structure coincides with the (very rare) rhyme scheme (but not in the type of verses) of Cerveri’s sirventes, "Ara∙m lunya joy e chan" (BdT 434a.4), which in turn is a contrafactum of Thibaut de Blaison’s pastorela, "Hu main par un ajornant". The presence of a French model in Catalan lands and the fact that the anonymous text was composed in Languedoc neighbouring Catalonia, suggest the possibility that the anonymous troubadour came into contact autonomously with Thibaut de Blaison’s pastorela, without the mediation of Cerveri’s poem.
