Martin Codax

Martin Codax or Codaz, Martín Codax () or Martim Codax was a Galician medieval joglar (non-noble composer and performer, as opposed to a trobador), possibly from Vigo, Galicia in present-day Spain. He may have been active during the middle of the thirteenth century, judging from scriptological analysis. He is one of only two out of a total of 88 authors of cantigas d’amigo who used only the archaic strophic form (a rhymed distich followed by a refrain). He employed an archaic rhyme scheme whereby io / ao were used in alternating strophes. In addition Martin Codax consistently utilised a strict parallelistic technique known as leixa-pren (see the example below; the order of the third and fourth strophes is inverted in the Pergaminho Vindel but the correct order appears in the Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional in Portugal, and the Cancioneiro da Vaticana). There is no documentary biographical information concerning the poet, dating the work at present remains based on theoretical analysis of the text. Works in the Pergaminho Vindel The body of work attributed to him consists of seven cantigas d’amigo which appear in the Galician-Portuguese songbooks and in the Pergaminho Vindel (V