Profile

My area of interest is the Medieval Mediterranean with a concentration on the Corona de Aragón and Occitania. I study and teach the lyrical tradition in Romance tracing its vestiges from Al-Andalus up through Occitania and on to Italy. I am also interested in the later efforts to preserve the dying art of the troubadours like Guiraut Riquier’s letter to Alfonso X asking the sovereign to define the difference between "troubadour" and "joglar"; the Consistori of Toulouse and Jocs Florals of Barcelona; and of greatest interest to me, the work of Raimon Vidal de Besalù who is at once a troubadour, teacher, and the first literary and linguistic theoretician of Romance Languages. My book project is Ars Amatoria·Ars Grammatica: the Linguistic, Literary, and Amatory Theories of Raimon Vidal.