Martin Codax
Galician troubadour · 13th century
- Born
- 1240 · [Vigo]
- Died
- 1270
- Period
- medieval
His work preserves an exceptional case in secular Galician-Portuguese song: seven cantigas de amigo and the music for six of them.
Martin Codax is one of the best-known names of medieval Galician-Portuguese lyric, although his life remains almost entirely unknown. The repeated presence of Vigo in his songs places his poetic world on the south-western Galician coast and suggests activity during the third quarter of the thirteenth century.
His cycle consists of seven cantigas de amigo, also transmitted by the later major songbooks. Its exceptional value lies in the Vindel Parchment, a medieval manuscript preserving all seven texts and musical notation for six of them. This witness allows the pieces to be studied as what they most likely always were: inseparable poetry and music.
The Vindel Parchment was discovered by bookseller Pedro Vindel in the early twentieth century and is now held by the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. The discovery transformed knowledge of medieval secular music in the Galician-Portuguese sphere and made Martin Codax central to both philology and music history.
Vigo and the sea
The sea of Vigo, the waves, waiting and the lovers’ meeting create a highly specific and recognisable poetic geography.
A female lyric voice
As is typical of the cantiga de amigo, the poetic voice is female, articulating desire, absence and expectation through highly concentrated forms.
Text and music
The survival of the melodies in the Vindel makes it possible to read the cantigas not simply as written poems but as medieval songs.
- c. 1250–1275Poetic activity generally placed in the third quarter of the thirteenth century · Vigo
- finais s. XIII / comezos s. XIVThe songs are copied into the manuscript now known as the Vindel Parchment
- 1914Pedro Vindel brings the parchment to scholarly attention · Madrid
- 2017The Vindel Parchment returns temporarily to Galicia for an exhibition · Vigo
- Martin Codax · Álbum de GaliciaConsello da Cultura Galega
- Pergamiño Vindel · Consello da Cultura GalegaConsello da Cultura Galega