«... d’amor o de tristor deus la raho continuar»: sobre un passatge de la «Doctrina de compondre dictatz»

Abstract

Can the priority of the love topic in the definition of the planh proposed by the Doctrina de compondre dictatz («... d’amor o de tristor deus la raho continuar») be linked to the author’s personal preferences? The answer may perhaps be found in the tradition of Occitan planh and its reception in Catalonia. Only 6 poems, out of 45 texts, deal with a more intimate and private affective dimension (4 planhs for the death of midons; 2 for the death of a friend) and all of them are (also or only) transmitted by troubadour manuscripts compiled in Catalan lands, especially MS Sg, which could constitute a further stage of the materials to which the author of the treatise had access. Documentary evidence supports, then, the hypothesis that, in Catalonia, the lyric type of planh ‘for the death of the Lady’ must have been one of the topical variants of this lyrical composition preferred by readers and compilers of troubadour manuscripts. And this, rather than reasons of personal preference, would explain the definition of planh in the Doctrina.