The songs of Bernart de Ventadorn (or Bernard de Ventadour) presented on this recording are found in the 'Manuscrit du Roi' (Paris, Bnf fr.844) which...

The songs of Bernart de Ventadorn (or Bernard de Ventadour) presented on this recording are found in the 'Manuscrit du Roi' (Paris, Bnf fr.844) which contains a group of sixty-one troubadour songs along with six hundred or so songs by various trouvères and a number of motets and lays. This is the earliest 'chansonnier' that gives the melodies with the songs. It was compiled around 1250, i.e almost a hundred years after the 'cansos' were created. Copied in northern France, the manuscript was probably prepared for Charles d'Anjou (1226-1285), brother of Louis IX. Since the troubadour songs in the volume are written in a unique hybrid language that one might call Franco-Occitan, we have used the texts as they are given in other manuscripts.