Title:
Alternate names/spellings: Marcabrun
Dates: 1130 - 1150 (Dates are approximate. )
Marcabru (fl. 1130-1150) is one of the earliest troubadours with approximately forty-five known poems. Little is known about his life, because the two vidas attached to his poems are different. According to one, "Marcabrun" was from Gascony (details of the dialect of his poems support this) and was the son of a poor woman named Marcabruna. The other states that "Marcabru" was abandoned at a rich man’s door, and no one knew his origin. He was brought up by Aldric del Vilar, learned to write poetry from Cercamon, was at first nicknamed Pan-perdut and later Marcabru. He became famous, and the lords of Gascony, about whom he had said many bad things. Eventually he executed him. The link with Cercamon is doubted by most modern scholars.