Guillaume le Vinier

Who is Guillaume le Vinier?

Guillaume le Vinier was a cleric and trouvère, one of the most prolific composers in the genre. He has left compositions in all the major subgenres of trouvère poetry: chansons d'amour, jeux-partis, a lai, a descort, a chanson de mal mariée and a ballade. He wrote Marian songs and even an imaginary dialogue with a nightingale. His work can be dated with some precision: the poem "En tous tens" is quoted in the Roman de la violette, which was written around 1225.

Guillaume was born into a wealthy bourgeois family of Arras, the son of Philippe le Vinier and Alent. His younger brother, Gilles le Vinier, was also a trouvère. The two exchanged at least two jeux-partis: "Frere, ki fait mieus" and "Sire frere, fetes m'un jugemen". Although a clergyman, Guillaume was also married.

Guillaume was well-connected to the other trouvères active in and around Arras. He composed jeux-partis with Colart le Boutellier, Andrieu Contredit and Adam de Givenchi for certain, and may also have collaborated with Moniot d'Arras, Thomas Herier and the King of Navarre. Colart, Adam and Jehan Erart all dedicated works to him. He expressed a debt of gratitude to Gace Brulé's style in "Voloirs de faire" and quoted Gace's "N'est pas a soi" in one of his jeux-partis with Gilles. The unaccredited Marian song "Vierge pucele roiaus", which is modelled on the Old Occitan piece "Lo clar tems vei brunezir" by Raimon Jordan, may belong to Guillaume.