Razó (Occitan literary form)

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Razó is an explanation, written in Occitan, of the circumstances that gave rise to a poem by a troubadour or trobairitz.

The word razó means "reason" in Occitan. In the chansonniers, the manuscript collections of medieval troubadour poetry, some poems are accompanied by a prose explanation whose purpose is to give the reason why the poem was composed. These texts are occasionally based on independent sources. To that extent they supplement the vidas (biographies) in the same manuscripts and are useful to modern literary and historical researchers. Often, however, it is clear that assertions in the razós are simply deduced from literal readings of details in the poems.

There is a complete collection of razós, with French translation and commentary, by Boutière and Schutz.

Biographical explications of poems are not unknown in other literatures. For a Latin example contemporary with the earliest razós see Linquo coax ranis.

[edit] References

• Biographies des troubadours ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz. Paris: Nizet, 1964.