The publication is based on a complete translation of the original Old Provençal “Lives of Troubadours” of the 13th-14th centuries, which is still familiar to the domestic reader only in a few textbook excerpts. The book, however, differs in greater completeness from all existing Western editions of the “Biographies”: all of them, without exception, omit the songs of the troubadours, novelized comments to which form a significant part of the monument. In the present volume we accompany these short stories with poetic translations of the songs themselves, observing, as is customary in the Russian translation tradition, all the formal features of the original - metrics, stanzas, systems of rhymes and assonances. In the publication, authentic medieval biographies of troubadours are for the first time accompanied by a complete translation of another one, some a later monument, directly connected with them and, with all the elements of mystification inherent in it, played no less, and perhaps a greater role in the formation of European ideas about courtly culture. We are talking about the “Lives of the ancient and most famous Provençal Piites” by Jean de Nostredame (brother of the famous astrologer), published in Lyon in 1575. The reader, in addition, will find in the book extensive Additions devoted to the refraction and development of a number of plots in the lives of troubadours as in modern literature, as well as in later works. According to the plan, this volume adjoins the series of “Literary Monuments” published at different times from the field of medieval French literature - epic (“Song of Roland”, “Songs of Guillem of Orange”), knightly romance (“The Legend of Tristan and Isolde”, “Erec and Enida. Cliges” by Chrétien de Troyes), as well as Provençal literature (the novels “Flamenca”, “Songs of Bernard de Ventadorn”). CONTENTS: From the compiler (5). LIFE STORIES OF THE TROUBADOURS. Translation by M.B. Meshach and N.Ya. Rykova. Translations of poems by L.G. Arkhipov, D.V. Bobyshev, V.A. Dynnik, A.G. Naiman, S.V. Petrov (8). JEAN DE NOSTRDAME. LIVES OF THE ANCIENT AND MOST IMPORTANT PROVENCE PITS, WHO FLOURISHED DURING THE TIME OF THE PROVENCE COUNTS. Translation by S.V. Petrov (259). ADDITIONS: First addition. Parallel Provençal, Italian and Spanish sources (339). Second addition. Parallel Latin sources (361). Third addition. Literary adaptations of the plot of the “eaten heart” (434). APPENDICES: M.B. Meilakh. Medieval Provençal biographies and courtly troubadour culture (507).M.B.Meilakh. Jean de Nostredame and his “Lives of the ancient and most famous Provençal Piites” (550). M.L. Gasparov. Love textbook and love letter (Andrey Kapellan and Boncompagno) (571). M.B.Meilakh. About one early satire on courtoisie: “Precepts of Love” by Francesco da Barberino (574). Notes Lives of troubadours. Compiled by M.B. Meilakh (583). Jean de Nostredame. Lives of the ancient and most famous Provençal Piites, who flourished during the time of the Counts of Provence. Compiled by M.B. Meilakh and L.P. Kamenotrus-Zand (648). Additions (679). First addition. Parallel Provencal, Italian and Spanish sources. Compiled by M.B. Meilakh (680). Second addition. Parallel Latin sources. Compiled by M.L. Gasparov and M.B. Meilakh (688). Third addition. Literary processing of the “eaten heart” plot. Compiled by M.B. Meilakh (702). List of illustrations (705). Table des illustrations (706). Postface (707). Indexes (710). Sommaire (735).