I did quite a bit of research to produce this concept album. If you’ve enjoyed the context / content of “VIDA”, you may be interested in learning more. For anyone interested in my sources, here is a mostly-complete list of books I referenced:
Akehurst, F.R.P. and Judith M. Davis, ed, Handbook of the Troubadours, University of California Press, 1995
overview, several topics covered indepth. particularly nice literary/language related pieces
Bogin, Meg, The Women Troubadours, W.W. Norton & Co., NY, 1980
feminist look at trobaritz – women in medieval society, Occitania specifically; all women’s vidas, works
Cofrin, Al, ed., Medieval Songs and Dances of 11th-14th Century Europe, vol. 1, Al Cofrin, 1997
music & lyrics of medieval song
Herrin, Judith (ed.), A Medieval Miscellany, Weidenfeld &Nicolson Facsimile Editions, 1999
beautiful, obscure drawings, paintings; poetry, musings, documents from middle ages
Hopkins, Andrea, The Book of Courtly Love, Labyrinth Publishing (UK) Ltd, 1994
enumerated list of “rules of love“
Thiebaux, Marcelle, trans, The Writings of Medieval Women, Garland Publishing, Inc, NY and London, 1987
Yudkin, Jeremy, Music in Medieval Europe, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1989
Yudkin was my music history professor at B.U. – thanks for the inspiration!
Egan, Margarita, The Vidas of the Troubadours, Vol. 6 Series B, Garland Library of Medieval Literature, NY, 1984
English translation of all vidas
Shirley, Janet, trans., The Song of the Cathar Wars, A History of the Albigensian Crusade, Scolar Press, 1996.
info about albigensian history – long epic poem about crusade, 2 original contributors
Power, Eileen, Medieval Women, Cambridge University Press, 1975.
small volume re. politics/social standing of women
Gaunt, Simon and Sarah Kay (ed.), The Troubadours, An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
compiled articles about society, language, poetic form & voice, music form
Reese, Gustave, Music in the Middle Ages, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, New York, 1940.
scholarly background from acient cultures (rome, egypt, greece) to early renaissance.
Gives one of my favorite descriptions of Jongleurs here!
Swabey, Ffiona, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Courtly Love, and the Troubadours, Greenwood Press, 2004.
biography about Eleanor & contemporaries, troubadours, courtly love poetry
Sigal, Gale, Erotic Dawn-Songs of the Middle Ages: Voicing the Lyric Lady, University Press of Florida,1996
PN691.S54 1996
Madden, Thomas F., ed, Crusades: The Illustrated History, University of Michigan Press, 2004
lively history with lots of pictures, some info about paganistic/albigensian religions
Riley-Smith, Johathan,ed, The Oxford History of the Crusades, Oxford University Press,1999, 2002
a somewhat less lively look at similar topics