Pero Dornelas
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Portuguese troubadour, coming from a gentry lineage established in the place of Dornelas, close to Amares (Braga), and where to this day this family’s old medieval tower subsists. It will certainly be this troubadour a certain Pero Fernandes d'Ornelas mentioned in the books of lineages (LL44A6), concerning his marriage with a maiden whose name they omit (but that would be called Sancha Domingues, according to a document cited by Resende de Oliveira1). Still according to the data gathered by this researcher, Pero Dornelas would be son of Fernão Fernandes Anes Dornelas, being documented as already an adult with children in 1288. On the other hand, José Augusto Pizarro2 quotes a document, dated 1265 and concerning a niece of Dom Afonso Lopes de Baião, Guiomar Dias de Baião, in which, between the confirmands, one Pero Dornelas, that we believe to be the troubadour, appears. It would equally be this troubadour the Pero Dornelas that, in 1304, bears witness to a document concerning the assets of one Fernão Raimundo, grandson of the troubadour Martim Soares (document transcribed by Pedro de Azevedo3). These data indicate, thus, that he would have lived in the second half of the 13th century and beginning of the next.
It should be added that it is possible that he had familiar relations of affinity with the troubadour Rodrigo Anes de Vasconcelos (natural of the same region), since one João Fernandes Dornelas, that might be his brother, married Teresa Anes, a sister of this troubadour.

References

1 Oliveira, António Resende de (1994), Depois do espectáculo trovadoresco. A estrutura dos cancioneiros peninsulares e as recolhas dos séculos XIII e XIV, Lisboa, Edições Colibri.

2 Pizarro, José Augusto (1999), Linhagens medievais portuguesas: genealogias e estratégias 1279-1325, vol. I, Porto, Centro de Estudos de Genealogia, Heráldica e História da Família da Universidade Moderna, p. 291, nota 16.
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3 Azevedo, Pedro de (1918), "O trovador Martim Soares e sua família", in Revista Lusitana, XXI , p. 253.
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