Arnaut Daniel

Arnaut Daniel (; fl. 1180–1200) was an Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante as “the better craftsman” (miglior fabbro) and called a “grand master of love” (gran maestro d’amore) by Petrarch. In the 20th century he was lauded by Ezra Pound in The Spirit of Romance (1910) as the greatest poet to have ever lived. Life According to one biography, Daniel was born of a noble family at the castle of Ribérac in Périgord; however, the scant contemporary sources point to him being a jester with pernicious economic troubles: Raimon de Durfort calls him “a student, ruined by dice and shut-the-box”. His Vida, preserved in Troubadour Manuscript B, is as follows: Arnautz Daniels si fo d’aquella encontrada don fo Arnautz de Maroill, de l’evescat de Peiregos, d’un chastel que a nom Ribairac, et fo gentils hom. Et amparet ben letras e deleitet se en trobar et en caras rimas, per que las soas chanssons non son leus ad entendre ni ad aprendre.Et amet una auta dompna de Gascoigna, moiller d’En Guillem de Buonvila, mas non fo crezut qez anc la dompna li fezes plazer en dreich d’amor. Per que el ditz: Eu sui Arnautz q’amas l’aura e caz la lebre ab lo boue nadi contra suberna. “And Arn