"Arte de Trovar" as the only Galician medieval book of poetics : analysis and translation

Bibliogr. s. 110-113

This article aims to discuss the most important issues, techniques and stylistic devices characteristic of medieval Galician‑Portuguese lyricism concerning the only surviving treatise on poetics from this cultural area, known as "Arte de Trovar". The article concludes with the first translation of the treatise into Polish, which is also its second complete translation into a modern language. The translation is based on the editions of the treatise that have been published so far, both critical and palaeographical. The interpretations by particular scholars (Monaci, d'Heur, Paxeco Machado and Machado and Tavani) are analysed and placed in the broader context of contemporary research on Galician‑Portuguese lyricism. The article begins with a brief description of the manuscript itself and a presentation of basic information on the condition of the copy, the time of the treatise's composition and its authorship. Next, the structure of the treatise, the division into individual parts, and a general characterisation of the definitions presented in it are provided in a succinct form. The main part is a detailed description of particular techniques and formal‑stylistic devices used by the troubadours, which remain unknown to the Polish researchers more widely: "palavra perduda", "cantiga atehuda", "finda", "dobre" and "mozdobre". Each concept is discussed both in the context of the poetics itself and in relation to contemporary definitions and their understanding. They are also approached from an Occitan‑Galician comparative perspective, as some of the techniques were used on both sides of the Pyrenees, with minor differences specific to each of the troubadour schools. For this reason, the Occitan‑Catalan poetics are also an important point of reference: "Leys d'Amors, Doctrina de compondre dictats" and the two treatises from Ripoll. In addition, three problematic genres mentioned by the author of the poetics, not attested in the Galician‑Portuguese corpus (as most contemporary criticism maintains), are also discussed in the article: "cantiga de joguete d’arteiro", "cantiga de risabelha", "cantiga de vilãos". The article also presents hypotheses on the possible interpretation of the meaning of those terms based on the current state of research and the author's observations.