6 MSS: A (34v) Marcabruns, E (155-156) Marcabru, I (121r-v) Marcabrus, K (107r) Marchabras, N (269r) no heading, d (308v-309r) Marcabrus

Analysis of the manuscripts

A probable error in 20 (see the note), common to all MSS, points to a defective archetype. AIK contain only four of the nine stanzas found in E, and a common error at 21 (hypermetric). It is possible, though on balance unlikely, that A was aware of extra stanzas and left room for them. An almost foil column between XLIV and songs by Raimbaut d’Aurenga alows more than enough space for all JB’s stanzas to be added, but this was probably intended for Raimbaut’s vida (see Pakscher, Il canzioniere, p. 90), Raimbaut’s first poem is preceded by an attribution in lieu of a vida. Unusually, Raimbaut’s name is written at the foot of the blank column, on the last Ene of the folio containing poems by Marcabru, rather than at the top of the column on the next folio. It looks as if the compiler thought there would be a vida for Raimbaut, which could be inserted later into the space preceding his poems, but subsequently realised this was not the case, and so added the attribution at the foot of the column. Whether or not this conjecture is correct, spaces are common at the end of each section of poems (see for example folio 50v, and see 10v-11r, 53v-54r). A has an isolated error in 25, with 28 probably an ‘improvement’ on a puzzling inherited text. Jhas isolated errors in 18 and 26; IK 29–30 are probably wrong.

The variants of stanzas I–IV clearly indicate the division AIKN – E (see for example lines 7,12, 18-19, 21 and so on). The versification starts with coblas doblas (for the first four lines of stanzas I-IV), which suggests that N is right to make V and VI consecutive. It may be that the AIKN subarehetype transmitted only 4 stanzas (compare AD2IK in PC 112.3a, where only 5 out of 8 + 2 tornadas are transmitted), and that an immediate ancestor of N obtained stanzas V and VI by collation with an B-type text (perhaps taking only two of the five ‘extra’ stanzas because that was all it had room for). Contaminations of two traditions are not unusual in N: see Availe, Peire Vidal, p. cviii.