Guilhem de la Tor

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Guilhem de la Tor (Latin: Guillelmus de la Turri; fl. 1216–1233) was an early 13th-century jongleur-troubadour from the Périgord who spent most of his active career in northern Italy. He circulated between the courts of the Este, Malaspina, and Da Romano families.

The tor (tower, castle) that was Guilhem's birthplace does not survive, but it was almost certainly in the vicinity of the modern town of La Tour-Blanche, Dordogne. Guilhem first appears actively composing in the Occitan language in 1216–1220, during which period he produced the panegyric Pos N'Aimerics a fait mesclança e batailla, a song in which the noble women of Italy put an end to a feud for supremacy at court between Selvaggia and Beatrice di Oramala, daughters of Conrad Malaspina. The Treva ("truce"), as it is called, was a sequel to an earlier work (now lost) by Aimeric de Pegulhan describing the feud. It is of historical interest but lack literary merit, like most of Guilhem's poetry. He is tiring and unoriginal: his Una, doas, tres e quatre is plagiarised from Cel so qui capol'e dola by Guillem de Berguedà. He left behind a total of fourteen works: eight cansos, two tensos, two sirventes, one descort, and the Treva.

Guilhem is dignified with a comparatively long vida, but much of it cannot be trusted. Among the more trustworthy parts is this description of his character and routine:

And he knew many songs, and created and sang well and graciously, and he also invented (trobaire). But when he wanted to recite his songs, he made his discussions of the explanation (razo) longer than the song itself.

The subsequent narrative of the vida is almost certainly an invention. It relates how he fell in love with a young and beautiful barber's wife in Milan and abducted her to Como, where they married and "he loved her more than anything in the world." When she eventually died, however, Guilhem went mad over the loss and began to believe that she was merely posing as dead in order to leave him. For ten days he regluarly removed her from the tomb and kissed her and hugged her and asked her to tell him if she were alive or dead and, if dead, to tell him what sufferings she were experiencing so that he could alleviate it with masses and alms. But when the leading men of the city heard this, they expelled him from there and he went wandering around looking for a sorcerer or sorceress who could bring his wife back to life. Eventually he encountered a "trickster" who told him to recite daily the entire Psalter and 150 Paternosters and to give alms to seven poor men before he ate each day for a year, then she would come back to life, but would never eat, drink, or talk. Believing the hoax, Guilhem immediately set out to do as he was told, but when after year she had not returned to him, he despaired completely and died. This bizarre legend is probably related to a partimen between Guilhem and Sordello, Un amics et un'amia, in which the former posed the dilemma of whether it is better to follow a deceased lover to death or to move on. The partimen can be dated to 1224–1226, before Sordello's kidnapping of Cunizza da Romano (Na Cuniza in the poem).

Guilhem was a Ghibelline in sympathy and he wrote Un sirventes farai d'una trista persona to attack the Guelph podestà Ponzio Amato di Cremona. He lampoons the hated Guelph politician as Porc Armat ("armed pig") de Cremona. This song was written before Ponzio's death in 1228.

Guilhem's last song was Canson ab gais motz plazens, inspired by the death in November 1233 of Giovanna d'Este. Guilhem himself is last mentioned in that same month.

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