Elias de Barjols was a bourgeois Aquitainiantroubadour who established himself in Provence and retired a monk. Eleven of his lyricssurvive, but none of his music. According to his vida Elias was the son of a merchant and came from Agenais. The name of his birthplace is peiols in the manuscripts, but such a name can not be found in Agenais nor elsewhere: the most recent edition suggests that peiols is a scribal error for Poiols, ancient name of Pujols, castle placed in Agenais, about 25 km from Agen. The identification of peiols as Pérols-sur-Vézère, as Stronski proposed in 1906, is untenable, because this place was not a castle and was not in Agenais, but in Limousin. According to his vida he was the greatest singer of his age and he travelled widely from court to court as a jongleur with a fellow jongleur named Oliver. They eventually found favour with Alfonso II of Provence: a document dated to 1208 seems to confirm this. Alfonso gave them wives and land in Barjols, where Elias is witness in a document of Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Provence in 1222. According to his vida Elias fellin love with Garsenda of Sabran, the widow of Alfonso II, and composed songs for her "as long as she lived", but none of his songs names her explicitly, whereas three of them are dedicated to Beatrice of Savoy, wife of Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Provence. The vida is therefore inaccurate in this case. He later entered a hospital of the Fratres Pontifices founded by Beneic in Avignon, where he died. Elias was a practitioner of the trobar leu style. Among his works are a descort, a partimen, and nine cansos; a sirventes, two cansos and another descort have a questionable attribution. Probably around 1200 Elias wrote a poem describing the cavaliersoissebut with his characteristics taken from his contemporaries, in imitation of a work by Bertran de Born in which the domna soissebuda is described by features of the exemplary noblewomen of Bertran's time. Elias constructs this knight for his lady from the "elegance" of Aimar, the "affability" of Giraut IV Trencaleon d'Armagnac, the "generosity" of Randon, the "good responses" of Dalfi d'Alvernha, the "wits" of Peir cui es Monleos, the "chivalry" of Brian, the "wisdom" of Bertran, the "courtesy" of a Bels Castellas, the "conviviality" of a certain Neblos, the "songs" of Raimon de Miraval, the "gaiety" of Pons de Capdoill, and the "probity" of Bertran II de la Tor. Another poem, Ben deu hom son bon senhor, written probably around 1225, has two tornadas referring to Beatrice of Savoy, husband of Ramon Berenguer IV of Provence, and the lord Blacatz respectively. The stanza preceding them is full of praise for the Emperor Frederick II, suzerain of Provence, who had good relations with both Raymond Berengar and Blacatz at the time. Besides Beatrice and Blacatz, Elias wrote poems to Jaufre Reforzat de Trets and Ferdinand III of Castile-León.
