Episode 1319
Bonfilh
Sun, 2020-Dec-13 00:33 UTC
Length - 2:47
Direct Link
Welcome to random Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a random Wikipedia page every day.
The random article for Sunday, 13 December 2020 is Bonfilh.
Bonfilh or Bonfils (meaning "godson") was a Jewish troubadour from Narbonne. He is the only known Jew who wrote in the troubadour style and language, Old Occitan. His only known work is a partimen (debate) with Guiraut Riquier, Auzit ay dir, Bofil, que saps trobar ("I hear tell, Bonfilh, that you know how to compose"). It has been suggested that Bonhilh may have been a poetic invention of Guiraut and not a historical person, or that he was the same person as the Jewish poet Abraham Bedersi. There is a lacuna in the only surviving manuscript version of this song that lasts from the middle of the third stanza through to the middle of the fifth. The seventh stanza is also missing the ending of its final line. Each stanza has eight lines, but the last two are tornadas of four each.
The poem starts off amicably, but ends on bad terms, with Guiraut resorting to antisemitism (he names Bonfilh as having hurt Jesus). Riquier poses a polylemma for his debate partner: does Bonfilh sing out of fear, because a lady makes him do it, "to ply the joglar's trade" (that is, for money), or to advance his fame? Bonfilh's responds that it is out of joy and for his lady that he sings. He also reproaches Guiraut for using the formal second-person pronoun vos with his lady, while he, Bonfilh, uses the familiar and intimate tu. This is unusual, however, as the troubadours universally use vos with ladies (even those of low rank, as in pastorelas). It is not a Jewish custom, as the fourteenth-century Roman de la Reine Esther by Crescas Caslari puts vos in the mouth of the king, Assuérus, when addressing Esther. Both Guiratu and Bonfilh submit their partimen to Bertran d'Opian (fl. 1229–42), a knight of Narbonne, for judgement. He was known to Guiraut.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:33 UTC on Sunday, 13 December 2020.
For the full current version of the article, see Bonfilh on Wikipedia.
This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Visit wikioftheday.com for our archives, sister podcasts, and swag. Please subscribe to never miss an episode. You can also follow @WotDpod on Twitter.
Abulsme Productions produces the current events podcast Curmudgeon's Corner as well. Check it out in your podcast player of choice.
This has been Joanna Neural. Thank you for listening to random Wiki of the Day.
|
|
Buy WotD Stuff!!
