Guiot de Provins (EN)

Guiot de Provins, *ca. 1145, †after 1208, trouvère from northern France. He traveled extensively while serving at numerous courts, including, in 1184, at the court of Frederick Barbarossa in Mainz. He also spent a considerable amount of time in the service of the Count of Champagne, who resided in Provins. As a participant in the Third Crusade, he travelled to Syria and Palestine. It was probably during this time that he composed his song Mout avrai lonc tens demouré (preserved in two melodic versions). Around 1195, he joined the Benedictine order; two of his works with moralising content date from this period: La Bible Guiot (1208), in which he included a number of autobiographical details, and L’armure du chevalier. He is also the author of six songs, preserved to this day, composed between 1170 and 1190, including Ma joie premeraine, whose melody served as a model for the song Ich denke under wîlen by Friedrich von Hausen. Nevertheless, it is thought that the work of Guiot de Provins, representing the early phase of the trouvères’ activity and based largely on the models of German minnesang, did not gain much popularity. Of his entire surviving poetic and musical legacy, only four works have musical notation; these are the two songs mentioned above and Mout me merveil de ma douce dame et de moi. Guiot de Provins was also attributed with the authorship of Les ouselés de mon pais; however, the composer of this work was Gace Brulé. Guiot de Provins is sometimes identified as the successor to Chrétien de Troyes, whom Wolfram von Eschenbach calls “Kyot der Provenzâl”.

Literature: A. Baudler Guiot von Provins, Halle 1902 (thesis); J. Orr Les oeuvres de Guiot de Provins, poète lyrique et satirique, «Publications de l’université de Manchester», série française I, Manchester 1915; F. Gennrich Grundriss einer Formenlehre des mittelalterlichen Liedes, Halle 1932; Ph. A. Becker Kyot der Provenzale, “Romanische Forschungen” LIX, 1947; M. Delbouille Du nouveau sur “Kyot der Provenzâl”, “Marche romane” III, 1953; W. Mohr Wolframs Kyot und Guiot de Provins, in Festschrift for H. de Boore, Tübingen 1966; R. J. Taylor The Art of the Minnesinger, Cardiff 1968; J. C. Payen Sens et structure d’une chanson courtoise: “Molt avrai lonc tans demoré” de Guiot de Provins, “Cahiers de civilisation médiévale” XII, 1969.