Text: Gaunt, Harvey and Paterson 2000 (VI). – Rialto 14.xii.2004. Mss.: D (208r) Ugo catola, z (col. E) no heading, but in the Marcabru section. Critical editions: Carl Appel, Provenzalische Chrestomathie mit Abriss der Formenlehre und Glossar, Leipzig 1895, p. 125; Jean-Marie-Lucien Dejeanne, Poésies complètes du troubadour Marcabru, Toulouse 1909, p. 24; Aurelio Roncaglia, «La tenzone fra Ugo Catola e Marcabruno» in Linguistica e filologia: omaggio a Benvenuto Terracini, Milano 1968, p. 203; Simon Gaunt, Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, Marcabru: A Critical Edition, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2000, p. 98. Versification: : a8 a8 a8 b8 (Frank 44:9); fourteen coblas doblas with a constant ‘b’ rhyme. Notes: Base of the text: D. A common error indicates both Mss derive from the same defective source; there is also evidence of a faulty archetype. Both have individual careless errors. As z has more errors than D and is lacunary, D is the obvious base Ms. – Although D copies the song in its Ugo Catola section (along with BdT 293.20 and 293.43), it is clearly a dialogue with Marcabru; z attributes the song to Marcabru. Scholars tend to agree that the poem is the result of collaboration between the two poets (for example, see Roncaglia, «La tenzone», pp. 211-12). – Roncaglia («La tenzone», pp. 212-13) assigns the poem to the period 1133-37. This is because he identifies Marcabru’s interlocutor with the «charissimo amico nostro domno Hugoni Catulae», whom Peter the Venerable addresses in his letter 51 (see G. Constable, The Letters of Peter the Venerable, 2 vols, Cambridge MA, 1967,vol. I, pp. 151-52; also Physiologus Latinus, edited by F.J. Carmody, Paris, 1939, 199, 206). The man addressed in this letter is urged to keep his vow to become a monk rather than merely go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Roncaglia’s dating of the letter is based partly on the ordering of Peter’s letters in the Ms., partly on the absence of any reference to the second crusade (declared in 1146), and he concludes that the tenso predates the letter because Ugo’s stance in Amics Marchabrun is not consistent with the state of mind of a man contemplating entry into a religious order. But Constable notes that the ordering of the first 57 letters does not necessarily reflect their chronology (II, p. 180) and he further remarks that letter 51 may in fact only be explicable if read in the context of the second crusade (II, p. 131). In short, Marcabru’s Ugo Catola and the knight addressed in Peter’s letter may be one and the same person, but neither this letter, nor the tenso can be dated with any certainty. – This tenso therefore may or may not predate Cercamon’s 1137 tenso. Scholars have sought to determine whether this is the earliest surviving tenso, and have been interested in the poem’s use of debating technique and in its humour. [SGn]
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