[490] Barcelona was a prize often fought for successfully by Moors and Christians, but it was finally rescued from the misbelievers in 985 or 986. (Zurita, Anales de Aragon, Lib. I. c. 9.) Whatever relates to its early power and glory may be found in Capmany, (Memorias de la Antigua Ciudad de Barcelona, Madrid, 1779-1792, 4 tom. 4to,) and especially in the curious documents and notes in Tom. II. and IV.
[491] The members of the French Academy, in their continuation of the Benedictine Hist. Litt. de la France, (Paris, 4to, Tom. XVI., 1824, p. 195,) trace it back a little earlier.
[492] Catalan patriotism has denied all this, and claimed that the Provençal literature was derived from Catalonia. See Torres Amat, Prólogo to “Memorias de los Escritores Catalanes,” and elsewhere. But it is only necessary to read what its friends have said in defence of this position, to be satisfied that it is untenable. The simple fact, that the literature in question existed a full century in Provence before there is any pretence to claim its existence in Catalonia, is decisive of the controversy, if there really be a controversy about the matter. The “Memorias para ayudar á formar un Diccionario Crítico de los Autores Catalanes,” etc., by D. Felix Torres Amat, Bishop of Astorga, etc., (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo,) is, however, an indispensable book for the history of the literature of Catalonia; for its author, descended from one of the old and distinguished families of the country, and nephew of the learned Archbishop Amat, who died in 1824, has devoted much of his life and of his ample means to collect materials for it. It contains more mistakes than it should; but a great deal of its information can be obtained nowhere else in a printed form.
[493] See the articles in Torres Amat, Memorias, pp. 104, 105.
[494] The poem is in Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. III. p. 118. It begins—
Per mantas guizas m’ es datz
Joys e deport e solatz.
The life of its author is in Zurita, “Anales de Aragon” (Lib. II.); but the few literary notices needed of him are best found in Latassa, “Biblioteca Antigua de los Escritores Aragoneses,” (Zaragoza, 1796, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 175,) and in “Histoire Littéraire de la France” (Paris, 4to, Tom. XV. 1820, p. 158). As to the word coblas, I cannot but think—notwithstanding all the refined discussions about it in Raynouard, (Tom. II. pp. 174-178,) and Diez, “Troubadours,” (p. 111 and note,)—that it was quite synonymous with the Spanish coplas, and may, for all common purposes, be translated by our English stanzas, or even sometimes by couplets.
[495] For Pierre Rogiers, see Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. V. p. 330, Tom. III. pp. 27, etc., with Millot, Hist. Litt. des Troubadours, Paris, 1774, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. 103, etc., and the Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XV. p. 459. For Pierre Raimond de Toulouse, see Raynouard, Tom. V. p. 322, and Tom. III. p. 120, with Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XV. p. 457, and Crescimbeni, Istoria della Volgar Poesia, (Roma, 1710, 4to, Tom. II. p. 55,) where, on the authority of a manuscript in the Vatican, he says of Pierre Raimond, “Andò in corte del Re Alfonso d’Aragona, che l’accolse e molto onorò.” For Aiméric de Péguilain, see Hist. Litt. de la France, Paris, 4to, Tom. XVIII., 1835, p. 684.
[496] Sismondi (Hist. des Français, Paris, 8vo, Tom. VI. and VII., 1823, 1826) gives an ample account of the cruelties and horrors of the war of the Albigenses, and Llorente (Histoire de l’Inquisition, Paris, 1817, 8vo, Tom. I. p. 43) shows the connection of that war with the origin of the Inquisition. The fact, that nearly all the Troubadours took part with the persecuted Albigenses, is equally notorious. Histoire Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. p. 588, and Fauriel, Introduction to the Histoire de la Croisade contre les Hérétiques Albigeois, Paris, 1837, 4to, p. xv.