Paio Soares de Taveirós
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Certainly originary from a lineage established in Taveirós, in the current county of Estrada, Pontevedra1, Paio Soares was a galician troubadour, active in the first decades of the 13th century, but whose life is relatively obscure. We don’t dispose, in truth, of any firm documental data about the troubadour, although it may be him the “Pelagio Suerii”, husband of Urraca Rodrigues that, in 1220 and 1228, makes some transactions in locations close to Estrada.
Moreover, most of the data allowing us to trace a minimum biography come from his compositions, namely the explaining note of the tenção (exchange) he kept with Pero Velho, his brother, as the said note informs. The description of the place where the two would meet, that is, “em cas Dona Maior, mulher de Dom Rodrigo Gomes de Trastâmara” (NT: in the house of Dona Maior, wife of Dom Rodrigo Gomes de Trastâmara), has allowed to connect both Taveirós brothers to this galician magnate, whose importance in the initial stage of the galician-portuguese poetry that exchange confirms. From another of his compositions, we may deduce that he would have been, at a given moment, out of the Peninsula. Up to this moment, however, nothing more could be assessed about his biography.

References

1 Ron Fernández, Xavier (2005), “Carolina Michaelis e os trobadores representados no Cancioneiro da Ajuda”, in Carolina Michaelis e o Cancioneira da Ajuda hoxe, Santiago de Compostela, Xunta de Galicia, p. 139.
      Go to web page