The songs of Bernart de Ventadorn (or Bernard de Ventadour) presented on this recording are found in the 'Manuscrit du Roi' (Paris, Bnf fr.844) which contains a group of sixty-one troubadour songs along with six hundred or so songs by various trouvères and a number of motets and lays. This is the earliest 'chansonnier' that gives the melodies with the songs. It was compiled around 1250, i.e almost a hundred years after the 'cansos' were created. Copied in northern France, the manuscript was probably prepared for Charles d'Anjou (1226-1285), brother of Louis IX. Since the troubadour songs in the volume are written in a unique hybrid language that one might call Franco-Occitan, we have used the texts as they are given in other manuscripts.
