Guillem Augier Novella

Guillem Augier[1] Novella was a troubadour from Vienne in the Dauphinois who lived most of his adulthood in Lombardy and was active as a minstrel in the early or mid thirteenth century.[2] According to his late thirteenth-century vida, "he composed good descartz and sirventes in the manner of jongleurs, in which he praised some and blamed others."[2]

Ogiers si fo uns ioglars de vianes, questet lonc temps in lombardia. . .
"Augier was a jongleur from the Viennois, who stayed a long time in Lombardy. . ."

Augier spent his early career at the court of the Emperor Frederick II, and was there associated with such figures as Guilhem Figueira and Aimery de Pégulhan, until 1230.[2] Among Augier's most famous works is his sirventes (a planh or lament) now entitled A People Grieving for the Death of their Lord, which commemorates either the murder of Raymond I Trencavel in 1167 or, as is more preferred, of Raymond Roger Trencavel in 1209.[3][4] It has been described as a "funeral oration",[3] but its contemporaneousness with the death of Raymond Roger has been called into question recently.[3] It was probably written at a much later date. The chief purpose of the sirventes may be to mourn the lost culture of Languedoc before the Albigensian Crusade and the "lord" of the story is probably a stereotype meant to represent that culture.[5] It can therefore be viewed as representative of a genre of anti-Crusading verse prevalent in the trovatore traditions of Italy at the time. On the other hand, it is said to convey a "sense of personal loss" and not "opposition to the expedition".[4]

References
  • Graham-Leigh, Elaine. The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84383-129-5.
  • Siberry, Elizabeth. Criticism of Crusading, 1095–1274. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. ISBN 0-19-821953-9.

Notes
  1. His surname is variously spelled Ogier or Ozier, and on chansonnier names him Guillem Mogier de Bezers, making him from Béziers.
  2. Graham-Leigh, 30 and n118.
  3. Graham-Leigh, 31.
  4. Siberry, 160, who believes that Augier blames the Crusaders for the murder.
  5. Graham-Leigh, 32.
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