gai saberpoetry Old Provençal: “gay knowledge” or “gay science”

Main

the art of composing love poetry; especially the art of the Provençal troubadours as set forth in a 14th-century work called the Leys d’amors. The Old Provençal phrase gai saber is associated with the Consistòri del Gai Saber, originally the Sobregaya compannia dels VII Trobadors de Tolosa (“Very Gay Company of the Seven Troubadours of Toulouse”), a group of seven citizens of Toulouse who in 1323 organized yearly competitions to encourage troubadour poetry, by then in serious decline.

Citations

MLA Style:

"gai saber." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 07 Jan. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/223499/gai-saber>.

APA Style:

gai saber. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 07, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/223499/gai-saber

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "gai saber" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

A-Z Browse

Image preview