Uc de Saint Circ - Prose

Prose

Late in his life, at the da Romano court, Uc became a representative of the academic prose style then coming into fashion. In this vein he composed a collection of vidas and razos. Most of these were written in Italy and the numerous historical errors they contain have been attribute to the time and distance between the lives and events they describe, for, judging by the Italianisms which had crept into Uc's vocabulary by the time they were written, he must have been in Italy a while before he began their composition. The razos have been dated to 1227–1230 and no post-1219 events are recorded in them. Uc's earliest attempt at biography, however, is the collection of razos of Bertran de Born, which were possibly penned in Languedoc or shortly after his arrival in northern Italy; in his later works he refers to the razos of Bertran as l'autr'escrit: "the other writings". The sole vida to contain a direct claim of authorship is that of Bernart de Ventadorn, which says: Et ieu, N'Ucs de Saint Circ, de lui so qu'ieu ai escrit si me contet lo vescoms N'Ebles de Ventadorn ("And I, Lord Uc of Saint Circ, have written about him what the viscount Lord Ebles of Ventadorn told me").

Among the vidas he is supposed to have written is one of Sordello, a troubadour at the court of Ezzelino III and Alberico da Romano. In it he presents what is probably the "official" court version of the kidnapping of Cunizza: that Ezzelino ordered him, who lived at the court of Cunizza's erstwhile husband, Rizzardo di San Bonifacio, to take her back to him. Uc wrote an exchange with Peire Guilhem de Luserna, an Italian troubadour, concerning Cunizza, in which Uc attacked her and Peire defended her.