Guillem de Ribes

Ruins of the castle of Ribes held by Guillem

Guillem de Ribes (born c.1140) was a Catalan nobleman and troubadour, the lord (or castellan) of Sant Pere de Ribes.[1] He was a known composer of lyric verse, but none of his works survive. In the song of Peire d'Alvernhe, probably performed for the entourage of Eleanor, daughter of Henry II of England and fiancée of Alfonso VIII of Castile, in Gascony on its way back to Castile in 1173, Guillem is one of twelve contemporary troubadours (each probably present) satired:

E•N Guillems de Ribas lo quins,
qu'es malvatz defors e dedins,
e ditz totz sos vers raucamen,
per que es avols sos retins,
e'atretan se'n fari'us chins;
e l'uoil semblan de vout d'argen.
Lord Guillem de Ribes is the fifth,
who is wicked outside and in
and recites all his poems harshly,
for his noises are terrible,
like those made by a dog;
and his eyes look like those of a silver statue.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ See Martín de Riquer (1964), Història de la Literatura Catalana, vol. 1 (Barcelona: Edicions Ariel), pp. 36–7, for an identification of the troubadour and the lord.
  2. ↑ The translation comes from Elizabeth Aubrey (1989), "References to Music in Old Occitan Literature", Acta Musicologica, 61:2 (May–Aug.), p. 118.
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