1 All citations of Peire’s works are taken from the edition by René Lavaud, Poésies complètes du troubadour Peire Cardenal (1180-1278), ed. René Lavaud, Toulouse, Edouard Privat, “Bibliothèque méridionale, 2e série,” vol. 34, 1957; Vatteroni’s edition was also consulted, “Le poesie di Peire Cardenal (I),” ed. Sergio Vatteroni, Studi mediolatini e volgari, vol. 36, 1990, p. 73-259.
2 Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “insult,” http://dictionary.oed.com.echo.louisville.edu/, consulted 14 September 2010.
3 Evelyne Larguèche, L’Effet injure: de la pragmatique à la psychanalyse, Paris, PUF, 1983, cited by Catherine Léglu, “Defamation in the Troubadour Sirventes: Legislation and Lyric Poetry,” Medium Ævum, vol. 66, 1997, p. 31.
4 Suzanne Thiolier-Méjean, La Poétique des troubadours : trois études sur le sirventes, Paris, Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, “Centre d’enseignement et de recherche d’oc,” 1994, vol. 7, p. 231.
5 Catherine Léglu, “A Reading of Troubadour Insult Songs: The Comunals Cycle,” Reading Medieval Studies, vol. 22, p. 64.
6 Cf. Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales (CNRTL), Étymol. et Hist., http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/insulter, consulted 12 June 2010.
7 Friedrich Diez cited by René Lavaud, op. cit., p. 636.
8 For a discussion of medieval Occitan food and drink from a different perspective, see Roger Lassalle, “Le dit et le non-dit culinaires dans la littérature narrative de langue d’oc,” in Denis Menjot (ed.), Manger et boire au Moyen Âge: Actes du colloque de Nice (15-17 octobre 1982), Paris, Les Belles lettres, 1984, t. 1: Aliments et société, p. 441-449.
9 For another analysis of Peire’s interest in pigs, see Kathryn Klingebiel, “Peire Cardenal La trueia ten al mercat ‘esloigner la chose de huy a demain’(PC 335,55; l. 29),” Romance Notes, vol. 36, 1996, p. 163-166.
10 René Lavaud, op. cit., p. 71. The three sirventes are dated to 1212-1213 by René Lavaud (ibid., p. 74, 146, 156). I agree with Catherine Léglu in this description of the sirventes: “a song composed with the intention of moralizing, commenting on politics, satirizing a given situation or individual, or simply entertaining an audience.” See Catherine Léglu, Between Sequence and Sirventes: Aspects of Parody in the Troubadour Lyric, Oxford, European Humanities Research Centre, “Research Monographs in French Studies,” 8, 2000, p. 4.
11 Catherine Léglu, “Defamation…,” art. cit., p. 33-34.
12 Gianfranco Contini understands trueia here as referring to a “machine de guerre,” perhaps some kind of siege weapon, in “Quelques sirventés de Peire Cardenal” in Recueil de travaux offert à M. Clovis Brunel par ses amis, collègues et élèves, Paris, Société de l’École de chartes, “Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société de l’École des chartes,” 12, 1955, 1: 296. Sergio Vatteroni prefers “grueyssers que una trueia,” “bigger than a pig,” recognizing the repetition of rhyme word here and at line 4 (“Poesie I,” p. 208 and 212).
13 Claudine Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians and the Pig, transl. Carol Volk, New York, Columbia University Press, “European Perspectives,” 1997, p. 48.
14 Idem.
15 Roger Lasalle sees these lines as completing a paradox, that Esteve does not see himself as culpable in his “Proverbe et paradoxe chez Peire Cardenal, auteur de sirventès,” Annales de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines de Nice, vol. 14, Romanistique, 1971, p. 36-37. This element of “world-upside-down” is in keeping with Peire’s negative view of his current environment.
16 Vatteroni suggests that this line, which has caused difficulty for every editor, means something on the lines of a horse that cannot walk, that is knock-kneed (“Poesie I,” p. 216).
17 On the profanation of the host related to ritual murder of a child, see Claudine Fabre-Vassas, op. cit., p. 152ff.
18 René Lavaud, op. cit., understood these words to mean “on the look out.” Sergio Vatteroni translates the line as “che sempre si comporta in modo bestiale” [who always behaves like a beast] (“Poesie I,” p. 224); elsewhere he suggests “se déguiser en veau” [to disguise oneself as a calf], an activity related to New Year’s festivities, and that Peire is referring to the “attitude bestiale et violente du traître Esteve” [bestial and violent attitude of the traitor Esteve] (Sergio Vatteroni, “Pour une nouvelle édition critique de Peire Cardenal,” in Giuliano Gasca Queirazza (ed.), Atti del Secondo Congresso Internazionale della Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes, Torino 31 agosto-5 settembre 1987, Turin, Dipartimento di Scienze Letterarie e Filologiche, Università di Torino, vol. 1, p. 402, arguments re-iterated in “Poesie I,” p. 225-226). I fail to see how disguising oneself as a calf connects to Esteve’s violence, though I am convinced by Vatteroni’s argument as to the etymology of vella < vitella. I understand the line as implying that Esteve claimed the youngest (and finest) animals and that he can butcher cattle as well as he can butcher swine.
19 René Lavaud, op. cit., 157n.
20 Charles Fabre, “Études sur Peire Cardinal : Estève de Belmont,” Annales du Midi, vol. 21, 1909, p. 19.
21 It is perhaps significant that Esteve’s personal seal (“rond, de 40 mill.”) showed “un oiseau passant” (Fabre, loc. cit., p. 16; Antoine Jacotin, Preuves de la Maison de Polignac. Recueil de documents pour servir à l’histoire des anciennes provinces de Velay, Auvergne, Gévaudan, Vivaria, Forez, etc. [IXe-XVIIIe siècle], Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1989, vol. 1, p. 177). It is plausible that the bird on the seal was intended as a starling, “estornel” in Occitan, suggesting the name Esteve (see Jonathan d’Arcy Boulton, Email communication to Pfeffer, July 9, 2010).
22 Catherine Léglu, “A Reading…,” art. cit., p. 66.
23 Vatteroni offers “ez embla porcx e froment e moutos” [and steals pigs and grain and sheep] (“Poesie I,” p. 241), though he accepts that the rhyme in “bacos” might be original (ibid., p. 248). Though Vatteroni’s text is not as strong as that of Lavaud, it still includes a reference to pork products.
24 Claudine Fabre-Vassas, op. cit., p. 301.
25 Catherine Léglu would call it slander (see her “Defamation…,” art. cit., p. 34).
26 Suzanne Thiolier-Méjean touches on this idea, but does not relate it directly to Peire Cardenal (op. cit., p. 110-111).
27 René Lavaud, op. cit., 183n. He notes further that he has found no other examples of the locution, “‘vie qui vaut, qui dure’réelle et éternelle, étant procuré dans le ‘fruit de vie’” [life that is worthy, which lasts, real and eternal, procured from the fruit of life] (idem). I think Matfre’s letter to his sister moves in the same direction, perhaps building on Peire’s image here. See Wendy Pfeffer, “Christmas Gifts in Medieval Occitania: Matfre Ermengaud’s Letter to His Sister,” in Keith Busby and Christopher Kleinhenz (eds.), Courtly Arts and the Art of Courtliness: Selected Papers from the Eleventh Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 29 July-4 August 2004, Woodbridge, Suffolk, D. S. Brewer, 2006, p. 517-525.
28 As Peire notes further (PC 335.27, ll. 61-63): “Merces vol – e Dieus o manda – /que hom son aver espanda/lai on es nessieira granda.” In times of famine, Peire reminds his audience to feed the poor. This appeal is not only for the general public but also for himself – he wants a meal too.
29 Thiolier-Méjean observes, “Si le troubadour se présente en homme qui peut établir une réputation, il sous-entend, par la même occasion, combien il lui serait facile de défaire celle qu’il jugerait usurpée” (op. cit., p. 250). For an analysis of audience reception, she points to M. L. Meneghetti, Il pubblico dei trovatori. La ricezione della poesia cortese fino al XIV secolo, Turin, Einaudi, 1992.
30 The text was published by Bouillon-Landais, “Un procès pour une chanson, Marseille, 1380 : Antoine Bariac contre Jean Pellenc,” Revue de Marseille et de Provence, vol. 11, 1865, p. 161-170.
31 Fabre-Vassas reminds us that in Catalonia, bunyols, puffed-up cakes/doughnuts/fritters (she offers all three translations) are a traditional snack during Lent (op. cit., p. 234).
32 Catherine Léglu publishes a parallel court case, in which a cleric named Roger sued Jean Nicolas of Pignans (Var) over a defamatory song (“Defamation…,” art. cit., p. 34-35). Jean Nicolas detailed Roger’s bad deeds in his lyric (with no references to food). I do not think Jean was as skilled a versifier as Joan Pellenc. This item is listed by Clovis Brunel as 113 bis in his Bibliographie des manuscrits littéraires en ancien provençal, Paris, E. Droz, “Société de publications romanes et françaises,” 1935, p. 36.
33 The fourteenth-century Catalan cookbook known as the Sent Sovi includes a recipe for these fritters. See Llibre de Sent Soví. Llibre de totes maneres de potatges de menjar, ed. Rudolf Grewe, rev. Amadeu-J. Soberanas and Joan Santanach, Barcelona, Editorial Barcino, 2004, p. 85-86.
34 Bruno Laurioux reminds us that many medieval households did not have kitchens and that the concept of carry-out or take-away existed in the Middle Ages, as people purchased food for consumption in the street; see his “L’apparition des livres de cuisine et la codification des pratiques culinaires,” in Bruno Laurioux, Écrits et images de la gastronomie médiévale, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, coll. “Conférences Léopold Delisle,” 2011. In another work, he offers several recipes for medieval fastfood, noting that “pâtés de Paris” are pork-filled (Bruno Laurioux, “‘Il n’est bon bec qu’à Paris’: la naissance d’une capitale gastronomique à la fin du Moyen Age,” Être parisien. Actes du Colloque organisé par l’École doctorale d’histoire de l’Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne et la Fédération des Sociétés historiques et archéolo giques de Paris-Île-de-France [26-28 septembre 2002], Claude Gauvard and Jean-Louis Robert (eds.), Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 2004, p. 209-229), whereas the “pâtés de lorais” found in Viandier manuscripts could be made of poultry but might not have a pastry crust. The Sent Sovi offers a recipe for “panades de pols” (Rudolf Grewe, op. cit., chapter 139, p. 172) which may approach the snack mentioned in this lyric.
35 Rudolf Grewe reminds us that it was the baker who made food items such as these (op. cit., p. 20-21).
36 See Bouillon-Landais, loc. cit., p. 164.
37 Ibid., p. 166.
38 Claudine Fabre-Vassas, op. cit., p. 298.
39 Bouillon-Landais, loc. cit., p. 165.
40 Catherine Léglu, Between Sequence …, op. cit., p. 104.
41 Compare Catherine Léglu, “Defamation…,” art. cit., p. 38.
42 “Un sirventes trametrai” (PC 335.68) is preserved in C and R; “D’Esteve de Belmon m’enueia” (PC 335.19) is preserved in CR and T.