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A '''''planctus''''' ("[[:wikt:plaint|plaint]]") is a [[lament]] or [[dirge]], a song or poem expressing grief or mourning. It became a popular literary form in the [[Middle Ages]], when they were written in Latin and in the vernacular (e.g., the ''[[planh]]'' of the [[troubadour]]s). The most common ''planctus'' is to mourn the death of a famous person, but a number of other varieties have been identified by [[Peter Dronke]]. The earliest known example, the ''[[Planctus de obitu Karoli]]'', was composed around 814, on the death of [[Charlemagne]].<ref>Peter Godman (1985), ''Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), 206–211.</ref>

Other ''planctus'' from the ninth century include vernacular laments in a woman's voice, Germanic songs of exile and journeying, and ''planctus'' on biblical or classical themes (like the Latin ''[[Planctus cygni]]'', which is possibly derived from Germanic models). The earliest examples of music for ''planctus'' are found in tenth-century manuscripts associated with the [[Abbey of Saint Martial of Limoges]]. From the twelfth century Dronke identifies a growing number of laments of the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]] (called a ''planctus Mariae'') and ''complaintes d'amour'' (complaints of love) in the [[courtly love]] tradition.<ref>Stevens, "Planctus".</ref> From the mid-thirteenth century survives an early [[Catalan language|Catalan]] Marian lament, ''[[Augats, seyós qui credets Déu lo Payre]]'', and around 1300 the ''[[Lamentations of Mary (Old Hungarian)|Lamentations of Mary]]'' were composed in [[Old Hungarian language|Old Hungarian]]. The [[Mongol invasion of Europe]] drew a ''planctus'' from an anonymous monk in the entourage of [[Béla IV of Hungary]], the ''[[Planctus destructionis regni Hungariae per Tartaros]]'' (1242).

The term may have been the source of the Irish [[planxty]], a song written in tribute to a person, although etymologies from [[Irish language|Irish]] are also suggested.<ref>''Notes and Queries''. (1871:41). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.</ref>
==References==
*{{Cite Grove |last=Stevens |first=John |title=Planctus}}

==Notes==
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