Taylor, Edgar [Hrsg.]; Austin, Sarah [Hrsg.]: Lays of the minnesingers or German troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: Illustr. by specimens of the contemporary lyric poetry of Provence and other parts of Europe ; With histor. and crit. notes, and engravings from the ms. of the minnesingers in the king's library at Paris, and from other sources (London, 1825)

SECTION II.

Catatonia.—Connection between the courts of Barcelona and
Provence.—Catalan language.—Remains of its poetry—
Ascendancy of the Castilian tongue.—Mosen Jordi de Sant
Jordi.—Mosen Jayme Febrer. — Jayme Roig.—Ausias
March. Castille.—Supposed Hispano-Arabic origin of
Troubadour poetry controverted.—The different classes of
early Castilian poetry.—The Spanish Trobadors.—Alexan-
dra Magno.

The intimate connection between the Troubadours
of Provence and those of Catalonia and Arragon leads
us naturally to a few observations on the obscure me-
morials, which have come down to us, of the history
and works of the poets who once graced this division
of Spain. From the earliest days of Provencal glory
its court had enjoyed the most intimate union with
that of Barcelona ; and its subsequent union with
the Arragonese crown, in the person of Alphonso the
Second, extended the empire of love and poetry over
a great portion of the south-western district of Spain.
The Provencal language seems to have been popular
at the court, and many of the Spanish poets wrote in
it; but their native tongue, which bears great affinity
to it, is one of great force and beauty, and probably
of equal antiquity. It is certainly more ancient, at
least as devoted to literary purposes, than the Casti-
lian, which was then, probably, only developing itself