Bieiris de Romans

File:Bieris de Romans - Na Maria, pretz e fina valors (Ms. Bnf fr. 15211 T, fol. 208v).jpg

Manuscript page containing Bieris' canso Na Maria, pretz e fina valors from the BnF

Na Bieiris de RomansTemplate:Efn (Template:Langx; Template:Fl.) was a trobairitz of the first half of the thirteenth century. She was likely from Romans near Montélimar. Other than her name, which includes her place of birth, nothing is known of the details of her life, which has led to a significant gap in knowledge for scholarship analyzing her work. She left behind one canso, "Na Maria, pretz e fina valors" ("Lady Maria, in your merit and distinction"), addressed to another woman named Mary. The poem is written in the typical troubadour style of courtly love, has been the source of scholarly debate, with some interpreting it as an expression of lesbian desire, while others speculate that author could have been a mis-identified man, a woman writing as a man, or expressing platonic or spiritual devotion.

Na Maria, pretz e fina valors

Template:Langx (Lady Maria, in your merit and distinction) is found in a fourteenth-century chansonnier.

Interpretations

Template:Interlanguage link, Alfred Jeanroy, François Zufferey, Gianfranco Folena and Elizabeth W. Poe have all argued that "Na Maria" was actually written by a man. Though initially believing Bieris to be a woman, Schultz-Gora changed his position,Template:Efn arguing that "Na Bieris" was actually a corruption of Alberico da Romano, a claim repeated by Jeanroy and Poe. Zufferey attributed the work to Gui d'Ussel, whose poems are located on the pages both before and after "Na Maria." Conversely, Jean-Baptiste de Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, one of the earliest scholars of the poem, accepted that the author was a woman, but that she was simply working on behalf of a man. Similarly, Tilde Sankovitch argued that Bieiris may have been writing from the masculine point of view, fully immersing herself in the masculinity of the genre.

Bieiris' lesbianism, too, has its defenders: Pierre Bec, Magda Bogin, Renat Nelli, John Boswell, Frédérique Le Nan and Judith Bennett all assert that "Na Maria" can be read as an expression of lesbian affection.

Angelica Rieger has forcefully defended Bieiris' authorship but denied her lesbianism, saying that modern readers are imposing their biases onto the text. She has sought to show that Bieiris is in fact employing the language of affection popular among noblewomen of the period. Rieger supports her claims by comparing Bieiris' courtly language to that of Azalais de Porcairagues and Carenza. Alison Ganze expands on Rieger's assertion that Bieiris was indeed writing to another woman, but that the canso is consistent with expressions of political loyalty in the feudal system.

The last stanza of her canso reads as follows:

Bella doman, cui pretz e joi enansa e gen parlar, a vos mas coblas man, car en vos es gajess' e alegranssa, e tot lo ben qu'om en domna deman.

Lovely woman, whom joy and noble speech uplift, and merit, to you my stanzas go, for in you are gaiety and happiness, and all good things one could ask of a woman.

Further reading

• Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn; Shepard, Laurie; and White, Sarah. Songs of the Women Troubadours. New York: Garland Publishing, 2000. Template:ISBN.
• Dronke, Peter. Women Writers of the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

External links

• Original manuscript available at Gallica