Vasco Rodrigues de Calvelo
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Portuguese troubadour, probably original of a gentry lineage established in Calvelo, a village between rivers Lima and Cávado. Almost nothing is known, however, about his biography. In the Books of Lineages his surname appears only in a cerain Mor Martins de Calvelo, who married Fernão Guedaz, father of the troubadour Fernão Fernandes Cogominho. Resende de Oliveira1 located, in the 1258 royal inquiries, two daughters of a certain Vasco Rodrigues, raised in the village of Duas Igrejas, near Calvelo, and suggests that he may be our troubadour. Furthermore, in one of his compositions, there is also a piece of data that has been considered, which is the reference to the name of his senhor, Dona Maior Gil, a lady that has been identified, from two homonyms mentioned in the Books of Lineages, as Mor Gil de Jolda, related to the Bravães lineage, established near Calvelos. The new reading we make of a toponym mentioned in another love song, Luzim, a location also near Duas Igrejas and Calvelo, directing us to that same geographic area, seems to confirm these informations. It should be added that the fact that Vasco Rodrigues is present in the Ajuda Songbook means that his activity took place still in the 13th century, probably in the third quarter of that century.

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.