Gai Saber

The Gai Saber ( prov. "Happy science", also Gaia Sciensa ), with full name Consistori de la Subregaya Companhia del Gai Saber , was a bourgeois group of poets founded in Toulouse in 1323 . He set himself the goal of preserving the tradition of Provencal trobadord poetry , which was threatened after the Albigensian Crusades (1209–29) .

Similar to the German-speaking Mastersingers , the society assumed that poetry could be taught; With the Leys d'Amors, Guilhem Molinier created an ethically oriented, normative poetics around the middle of the 14th century , which was to serve both as poetry didactics and as a collection of criteria for literary criticism. In contrast to the old French Minnesian poetry, the themes are mainly limited to religious and moral content due to the Marian poetry emerging in Europe . The members of the Gai Saber, including Bernat de Panassac , Raimon de Cornet , Arnaut Vidal , and Guilhem de Galhac , held the Flower Games every year , a poetry competition whose award-winning songs were collected as Joias del Gai Saber ("Pleasures of Joyful Science") were.

John I of Aragón suggested the establishment of the comparable Consistori de la Gaya Ciencia in Catalonia in 1393 . Due to the effect of Gai Saber in the Provencal-speaking area, Provencal remained productive as a literary language until the end of the 15th century .

Friedrich Nietzsche named one of his books The Joyful Science , loosely referring to Provencal poetry.

literature

• Joseph Anglade: Las leys d'amors . Toulouse 1919
• Joseph Anglade: Las Flors del gay saber . Barcelona 1926