Dom Pedro, Count of Barcelos, between the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes

Abstract

In a poem that is part of his brief songbook, Dom Pedro, Count of Barcelos, makes an enigma- tic reflection on life, death and, above all, the divine power, which has aroused little attention from critics, and its understanding is far from satisfactory. We refer to the song «Nom quer'a Deus por mia morte rogar», whose rereading we propose to carry out in this article, taking into account the intellectual environment of the time, characterized by a marked naturalistic and Aristotelian drift. In this context, the commentaries that focused on the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes, giving priority to the latter, are particularly relevant.