Pero Garcia Burgalês
Trovador ou Jogral medieval

Biographical Note:

Castillian troubadour or minstrel, certainly natural of Burgos, as his name shows. Until recently, nothing was known regarding his biography, except what can be deduced from his compositions, which show him as part of the generation of troubadours around Alfonso X (prince and king). Recently, however, Ron Fernández1 brought to light some documents that would concern him, one of them, related to one Pero Garcia and prior to 1250, places him as living in Santo Domingo de la Calzada (east of Burgos). The other two, dated with more precision, concerning lands received in the repartimentos of Valencia (1238) and Xerez (1264), which seems to correspond to the chronological arc of what may have been his period of activity.
It should be added that the will of Count Dom Pedro of Barcelos (1350) mentions one Pero Garcia, minstrel of Burgos, father-in-law of a man called Aparizio Pérez to whom Dom Pedro owed 1500 maravedis (the name of the minstrel serving to identify this Aparizio), both already dead at the time of the will. Although Carolina Michaëlis2 thinks that we can not identify the burgalese with this “late minstrel from Burgos” (the classification “late” is from Dona Carolina) it doesn’t seem to us completely impossible, especially given the role that the name of the minstrel plays in that document, and the fact that it seems to indicate a figure from another generation but still well-known (at least in the troubadourean environment of Dom Pedro).
On another set of ideas, it should also be added a suggestion by Joaquim Ventura3, that may be plausible: that of Pero Garcia Burgalês also being the Pedro Agudo, minstrel of Burgos satirized (as “cornudo”, (“horned”, meaning cuckold)) in two songs by Pero da Ponte (1, 2) and yet alluded to in another by Gonçalo Anes do Vinhal. This being so, and despite the preference that Pero Garcia seems to demonstrate for the enlightened genre of the love song, his condition as minstrel would be certain (and in accordance to the Pedro Garcia, minstrel, mentioned in the will of Dom Pedro).

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.
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2 Vasconcelos, Carolina Michaëlis de (1990), Cancioneiro da Ajuda, vol. II, Lisboa, Imprensa nacional - Casa da Moeda (reimpressão da edição de Halle, 1904), p. 345.

3 Ventura, Joaquim (2000), “Pedr'Agudo: insult generic o sàtira contra Pedro Garcia Burgalés?”, Actas del VIII Congreso Internacional de la Asociacion Hispanica de Literatura Medieval (1999), Santander.