Airas Pais
Jogral medieval


Nationality: Galega?

Biographical Note:

Judging by the attributive item in his love songs, he was a minstrel. And by the reference, in a cantiga de amigo, to the hermitage of Santa Maria de Reça, it’s probable that he was a native of Reça, in the region of Ourense, Galicia. Based on this data, Resende de Oliveira1 located one Dom Airas Pais, citizen of Ourense which in 1284, together with his wife Urraca Anes, buys the rent of a few houses in this village, and that may possibly be our minstrel. He most certainly would be the minstrel Airas Pais that appears in documents from the chancellery of Castilian king Sancho IV, in 1293. Still according to Oliveira, that quotes Menendéz Pidal, he would have moved latter to the court of Navarra, and from there to Aragon (1303/1304). All these data are critically analyzed in a recent study by Carlo Rettore (2020)2.


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 Rettore, Carlo (2020), "Memoranda: dettagli dimenticati intorno ad Airas Paez (RM 15) e nuova edizione di una cantiga d'amor atipica", in Carte Romanze.
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Read all cantigas (in Cancioneiros' order)


Cantigas (alphabetical order):


Dizem pela terra, senhor, ca vos amei
Cantiga de Amor

Maior guarda vos derom ca soíam, senhor
Cantiga de Amor

Por vee'lo namorado, que muit'há que eu nom vi
Cantiga de Amigo

Quer'ir a Santa Maria e, irmana, treides migo
Cantiga de Amigo