The Cansos and Sirventes of the Troubadour, Giraut de Borneil

Amongst the troubadour poets, those writers of courtly love poetry that flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the south of France, Giraut de Borneil was one of the most important and influential. Dante thought very highly of him. Little serious attention has been paid to his work, however, largely due to the absence of a modern critical edition. Dr Sharman rectified this situation with this scrupulously-researched 1989 edition which covers Giraut's entire output. Translations into English and detailed commentaries on each poem are provided. In her introduction, Dr Sharman discusses what is known of Giraut's life and patrons. She places his work in the context of troubadour poetry while highlighting his particular originality: more than any other troubadour poet before or after, he involves the lady as an equal participant in love. His work integrates the moral and social convention of courtly love into a wider framework of Christian behaviour, and contains an extraordinarily wide range of styles, the apparently easy manner of which conceals deeper levels of meaning than have been elucidated hitherto.