Bernal de Bonaval
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Galician segrel, native of Bonaval, most probably the extramural quarter of the medieval Santiago de Compostela, whose hermitage he constantly mentions (including its consecration, that may have occurred in 1230, although there are no certainties).He should, then, have started his activity in the first decades of the 13th century, which complies with the placement of his songs in the songbooks, initiating a series that Resende de Oliveira1 calls “the songbook of Galician minstrels” (a series still visible in the indication that precedes his first song: Em esta folha adeante se começam as cantigas d’amor. Primeiro trobador: Bernal de Bonavalle. Translation: From this following sheet on start the love songs. First troubadour: Bernal de Bonavalle). But he still surely attended Alfonso X’s troubadourian circle (by the time he was a prince or already as a king), given the several satirical songs adressed to him by several of Alfonso’s troubadours and minstrels, most probably during the 40’s and the 50’s, since the tone used in those songs is an indication that he would belong to a prior generation.It should be added that, quite recently, José António Souto Cabo2 found new data that may alter our vision of Bernardo de Bodaval and shed a different light over his songs. Indeed, in the will of the compostelian judge Fernando Afonso, dated 1279, this researcher located a “Friar Bernardo, prior of Bonaval” that could very well be our author. Thus, he adds, “according to this hypothesis, Dom Bernardo would join the (growing in importance) fray of clerics, namely from Compostela, that actively took part in the Galician-Portuguese lyric movement”. In any case, and given that documents pertaining to the (dominican) abbey of Bonaval during this period are scarce, nothing else is known, at least at the moment, regarding the path of Dom Bernardo in the Order, or the years of his priory.

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 Souto Cabo, José António (2012), "En Santiago, seend’ albergado en mia pousada. Nótulas trovadorescas compostelanas", in Verba, 39.
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