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Almucs de Castelnau
Almucs de Castelnau depicted in a c. 1275 manuscript
Born	c. 1140 near Avignon
Died	c. 1184
Occupation	trobairitz (female troubadour)
Notable work	Dompna n'Iseus, s'ieu saubes

Almucs de Castelnau or Castelnou (c. 1140–c. 1184) was a trobairitz (a female troubadour) from a town near Avignon in Provence.

Works

Almucs' only known work is a stanza in a two-stanza tenso (poetic exchange) with Iseut de Capio, another trobairitz. Each stanza of the song, found in a thirteenth-century manuscript chansonnier, is introduced by a razo and accompanied by an illuminated miniature. It tells how Iseut de Capio begged Almucs de Castelnau to pardon Gigo (Gui), lord of Tournon (Tornon) in the Vivarais and Iseut's knight, who had committed "a great fault" against Almucs. Gigo, however, neither repented nor sought forgiveness, and so Almucs responded to Iseut in a stanza of her own.

For other translations into English, see Bruckner and Keelan.

Some scholars assert that Almucs is mentioned (reading Dompna Na Mieils as dompna nal murs) in stanza VII of the poem Ia de chantar non degra aver talan by the trobairitz Castelloza.

Interpretations

The jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant has interpreted the stanza in live performance and in a studio album recording.

Stevie Wishart, a composer, improviser, and performer on the hurdy-gurdy and violin, directed the group Sinfonye in a recording as part of a compendium of trobairitz lyrics set to music played on reproductions of medieval instruments.

Identification

Almodis de Caseneuve

Bogin believes that Almucs can be identified with a certain Almodis of Caseneuve. Caseneuve is not far from Avignon and near Les Chapelins, which may have been the home of Iseut de Capio. Chronologically, Almodis and Almucs would have been contemporaries, and the lords of Caseneuve have documented relationships with other troubadours. Almodis was the second wife of Guirand I de Simiane, who also ruled Apt and Gordes. She gave birth to four sons, including Raimbout d'Agould, the second eldest, who, in 1173, accompanied his father on Crusade. Since Raimbout must have been old enough at the time to make such an arduous journey and Guirand's first wife had died in 1151, Almodis's marriage can be placed, according to Bogin, between that date and c. 1161, assuming that the son would have been at least twelve at the time of the Crusade. Bogin suggests that a widower of Guirand's standing would have quickly remarried, and that Almodis was therefore probably born not much later than 1140.

Wife of Guigo de Randon

It is also possible that Almucs was the wife of Guigo de Castelnou de Randon, who flourished around 1200.

Notes

1. Regarding her first name, Almucs, the following variants have been documented: Almuc, Almou, Almodis, Almurs, Aelmudis, Almaudis, Adalmudis, Adalmua, Adalmues, and Azalmuers.

References

1. ^ "MS Chansonnier occitan H: Vat. lat. 3207" (in Old Provençal and French). Rome: Biblioteca Vaticana. c. 1275. Retrieved 24 May 2024 – via DigiVatLib.
2. ^ Schultz, Oscar (1888). Die provenzalischen Dichterinnen: Biographien und Texte [The Provençal Women poets: Biographies and Texts] (in German). Leipzig: Gustav Fock. Retrieved 25 May 2024 – via Internet Archive.
3. ^ Bogin, Meg (1980) . The Women Troubadours. New York & London: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-00965-1. Retrieved 24 May 2024 – via Internet Archive.
4. Chabaneau, Camille (1885). Les biographies des troubadours en langue provençale : publiées intégralement pour la première fois avec une introduction et des notes [Biographies of troubadours in the Provençal language: published in full for the first time with an introduction and notes] (in French). Toulouse: E. Privat. pp. 74–75. Retrieved 30 May 2024 – via Gallica.
5. Rieger, Angelica (1991). Trobairitz: Der Beitrag der Frau in der altokzitanischen höfischen Lyrik. Edition des Gesamtkorpus [Trobairitz: The Contribution of Women in Old Occitan Courtly Poetry. Edition of the entire corpus] (in German). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. ISBN 978-3-4845-223-36.
6. ^ Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn; Shepard, Laurie; White, Sarah Melhado (2000) . Songs of the Women Troubadours. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 978-0-81533-568-9.
7. Keelan, Claudia (2015). Truth of my songs: poems of the Trobairitz. Richmond, California: Omnidawn. p. 39, second stanza. ISBN 978-1-63243002-1. Retrieved 30 May 2024 – via Internet Archive.
8. Cécile McLorin Salvant (5 July 2023). "Cécile McLorin Salvant at The Cloisters: Dame Iseut". Sullivan Fortner (harpsichord), Keita Ogawa (percussion). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 30 May 2024 – via YouTube.
9. Cécile McLorin Salvant (voice), Sullivan Fortner (celeste), Luques Curtis (bass), Weedie Braimah (percussion), Alix Salvant (translator) (2023). Track 14, Dame Iseut (in Occitan & Haitian Creole) in Mélusine (CD). New York: Nonesuch Records.
10. Stevie Wishart (violin, hurdy-gurdy), Paula Chateauneuf (oud), Jim Denley (percussion: bendir, pandeiro), Vivien Ellis (voice) (1993). Track 2, Domna N'Almucs, Si-us Plages (in Occitan) in The Sweet Look and the Loving Manner: Music of Medieval Provence (CD). London: Hyperion Records. Retrieved 30 May 2024 – via YouTube.
11. de Sainte-Marie, Père Anselme (1726) . Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, des pairs, grands officiers de la Couronne, de la Maison du Roy et des anciens barons du royaume [...] [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France, the peers, great officers of the Crown, the House of the King and the former barons of the kingdom ] (in French). Vol. 2 (3rd ed.). Paris: La Compagnie des Libraires. p. 240. Retrieved 24 May 2024 – via Gallica.

• 1140s births
• People from Provence
• 12th-century French women writers
• 12th-century French troubadours
• Trobairitz
• 12th-century deaths
• French women poets