Guilhem de la Tor

Who is Guilhem de la Tor?

Guilhem de la Tor was an early 13th-century jongleur-troubadour from the Périgord who spent most of his active career in northern Italy. He circulated between the courts of the Este, Malaspina, and Da Romano families.

The tor that was Guilhem's birthplace does not survive, but it was in the vicinity of the modern town of La Tour-Blanche, Dordogne. Guilhem first composed in the Occitan language in 1216–1220, during which period he produced the panegyric Pos N'Aimerics a fait mesclança e batailla, a song in which the noble women of Italy put an end to a feud for supremacy at court between Selvaggia and Beatrice di Oramala, daughters of Conrad Malaspina. The Treva, as it is called, was a sequel to an earlier work by Aimeric de Pegulhan describing the feud.

Guilhem is dignified with a long vida, but much of it cannot be trusted. Among the more trustworthy parts is this description of his character and routine:

And he knew many songs, and created and sang well and graciously, and he also invented. But when he wanted to recite his songs, he made his discussions of the explanation longer than the song itself.