Aimeric de Péguilhan, Peguillam, *circa 1170 Tuluza, †circa 1230, Provençal troubadour. He came from a family of a cloth merchant, probably from Péguilhan (around Saint-Gaudens). Initially, he was in the service of Raimon V in Toulouse, and then he led the life of a wandering singer, staying mainly at the Spanish (Alfonso VIII of Castile and Peter II of Aragon) and Italian (d’Este, Montferrat and Malaspina) courts. He also gained the favour of the German emperors, Henry VI and Frederick II, to whom he dedicated songs of praise. Aimeric de Péguilhan spread the cult of lyrical song beyond the borders of Provence. He left 53 songs, 6 of which have been preserved with musical notation. They are characterised by a variety of versification structures and a regular sequence of rhymes. In terms of musical structure, the oda continua form prevails (except for 1 canzona and descort Qui la ve, en ditz), which other troubadours followed.
Literature: W.P Schepard, F. M. Chambers The Poems of Aimeric de Péguilhan, Evaston 1950; F. Gennrich Der musikalische Nachlass der Troubadours, 3 vol., Darmstadt 1958–65; J. Boutière, A.H. Schutz Biographies des troubadours, Paryż 1964; J. Maillard Anthologie de chants de troubadours, Nice 1967; J.H.O. Maillard “Descort, que me veux-tu?”, “Cahiers de civilisation médiévale” XXV, 1982
