Airas Carpancho
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Galician troubadour, active in the early stage of the Galician-Portuguese poetry, whose biography, unknown until recently, was lately clarified by Yara Frateschi Vieira and José António Souto Cabo (2004).1 All indications point to him being a knight from Santiago de Compostela, whose full name was Airas Fernandes Carpancho, that was mentioned as still alive in a document dated from 1230, and we have also his will, dated from 1237. His life should then be located between c.1170 and c.1240. Coming from a gentry background based in Santiago de Compostela, with a fortified house nearby, Aires Fernandes was also the grand grandnephew of the famous Compostela Archbishop Diogo Gelmires. Two of his brothers, Adão and Nuno, would have studied in Paris, the former having even been a poet, authoring several latin-written satires. By the reference Aires Carpancho makes to the cas D. Constança (lady Contance’s house) in one of his love songs, the aforementioned researchers conclude that he frequented the house of Dona Constança Martins, wife of Dom Munio de Rodeiro, a Galician magnate in whose social circle may have occurred the first poetic Galician-Portuguese experiments.

References

1 Souto Cabo, José António e Vieira, Yara Frateschi (2004), ”Para um novo enquadramento histórico-literário de Airas Fernandes, dito «Carpancho»”, Revista de Literatura medieval, XVI/1, Universidad de Alcalá.
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