Folquet de Marseilla

Folquet de Marseilla (c.1160-1231) was a merchant and troubadour before joining the clergy. Joining a Cistercian monastery, he became Bishop of Toulouse in 1205. He was a personal friend of St Dominic and helped found the Dominican order with him. Despite being placed in Paradise by Dante Alighieri, Folquet seems to have been particularly brutal in persecuting heretics during the Albigensian Crusade.

Folquet composed the songs that he was later to utterly reject between 1180 and 1195. His nineteen songs, of which thirteen melodies remain, are typified by intricate poetic structure.