Occitan for ‘life’, used of biographical narratives such as the Vida sant Honorat, and most frequently of the short prose biographies of the troubadours, composed from the early 13th c. onwards. Sometimes only a few sentences long, vidas are fairly accurate when stating a poet's social rank and place of origin, but are considered generally untrustworthy as regards other circumstances of his career, such as his amorous attachments. Vidas serve as prefaces to author sections in some troubadour chansonnier manuscripts. An analogous genre, the razo, is used to preface an individual song, ‘explaining’ the circumstances of its composition. Some razos are early instances of novellas. Both genres are chiefly interesting as early documents in the history of reception.
[Sarah Kay]
