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The musical phenomenon that the album El mal querer, by the singer Rosalía, is assuming, has put a medieval text edited by Editum, the publisher of the University of Murcia, in the focus of attention of a young audience.
The roman de Flamenca, written in the thirteenth century, has served as inspiration and storyline for this album, which has led to the exhaustion of available copies of the book, published in 2007. The next edition is being finalized and the forecast is that may be on sale within a month, approximately.
The book includes the translation and critical study of this anonymous work of the XIII century whose only copy is in the municipal library of Carcassonne (France) since 1834. The work was done by Jaime Covarsí Carbonero for his doctoral thesis, defended at the University of Seville, and is the only translation into Spanish of this romance written in the Occitan language that tells the story of Flamenca, a fiery woman whose beauty is used to arrange a marriage with the lord of Archimbaut, a powerful knight, so that her father, the count of Nemours, get an advantageous alliance.
The admiration that Flamenca's beauty provokes awakens a deep state of jealousy in the gentleman, who encloses Flamenca in a tower and subjects her to psychological abuse and a situation of domination from which she manages to get rid with her wit and the complicity of her lover, Guillem de Nevers.
"Flamenca reveals herself against this domination of her husband and, through her sexuality, vindicates her freedom as a woman", explains Covarsí, who believes that this work can be considered as an example of the origins of feminism.
The Roman of Flamenca is based on the real story of Mathilde, submitted by Gaucher de Vienne, lord of Bourbon l'Archambault, with whom he had to marry by his father's decision.
All the songs on Rosalía's album are a journey through the motifs that are reflected throughout El román de Flamenca.
The songs are conceived as chapters in the life of a woman who faces the subjection of her husband: omen, wedding, jealousy, dispute, lament, closing, liturgy, ecstasy, conception, sanity and power.
Covarsí points out that, "although El Román de Flamenca is written a single text, without division by chapters or themes, all the reasons that can be read in the roman are those developed by Rosalía's album".
For the writer, "the adaptation he has made is very interesting, because it sadly indicates the antiquity of this social problem".
In addition, Covarsí believes that it is very important that this work be disseminated for its literary value and for its important contribution to the knowledge of life in the Middle Ages.
In fact, for the reedition that is being prepared, he has made small adjustments in the translation to make the reading of the text more fluid.
In addition, its translation is adapted to the prose, in front of the writing in verse of the original.
A transgressive work
The transcendence of this work lies in its particularity within the literary trends of the time.
In the Middle Ages, explains Covarsí, there are two forms of amorous literature: courtly love, in which the woman is the object of idyllic love, but who has very little chance of freedom and is always a bargaining chip in marriages of convenience to increase the power of his father;
and popular love, which are written in which the woman is the one who sings to love, is much more blatant and proclaims her love and even sexual freedom.
"Flamenca's roman fuses these two tendencies because Flamenca rebels against the established and against her jealous husband, who confines her in a tower and exercises psychological possession and mistreatment over her," says Covarsí.
Both the beginning and the end of the roman disappeared, but what is suggested by the original manuscript that is preserved is that, at the end of the work, Archimbaut, the jealous husband, modifies his behavior;
that is, he would send the message that his rebellion causes a change.
This is another of the signs of modernity that can be glimpsed in this well-versed text and that, according to the researcher, is one of the examples of some debate in defense of women that took place in Europe between the XVIII and XV centuries in favor of the rights of women against marriages of convenience and that is carried out by men.
In addition, through the fictionalized plot, the roman takes a tour of the type of life of the middle ages, knights, medicine, popular beliefs about conception ... it is a whole compendium of the characteristics of the average age , Covarsí highlights.
The text went almost unnoticed for centuries because, when the entire manuscript was not discussed, it was not considered for a long time of great importance.
In addition, it belonged to a noble family that during the French Revolution had to hide all its possessions, including the text.
The manuscript does not appear again until the end of the 19th century in a Carcasson library.
Jaime Covarsí discovered it when he finished his degree in Hispanic Philology, when he was looking for a subject for his doctoral thesis, and decided to face a translation into Spanish that no one had ever done before.
Jaime Covarsí defended his doctoral thesis in Spanish Philology at the University of Seville in 2005 and currently works as a professor of Language and Literature at a secondary school in Mérida.
In addition, he is also a doctor in Philosophy and writer.
His first fiction book was El cane del avellano (Ediciones Tau), which places El román de Flamenca at the center of his story.
The Flamenca roman came to the publisher of the University of Murcia by the hand of Fernando Carmona, Professor Emeritus of Romance Philology at the University of Murcia, specializing in medieval literature.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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