De Sade says, that what is termed Provencal poetry was much more cultivated by the Languedocians than by the Provencals, properly so called.

The city of Toulouse was considered as the principal seat of this earliest modern poetry, which was carried to perfection in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, under the patronage of the Counts of Toulouse, particularly Raimond V., and his son, Raimond VI.

Petrarch speaks with high praise of those poets in his Triumphs of Love.

It has been alleged that he owed them this mark of his regard for their having been so useful to him in his Italian poetry; and Nostradamus even accuses him of having stolen much from them.

But Tassoni, who understood the Provencal poets better than Nostradamus, defends him successfully from this absurd accusation.
Although Provencal poetry was a little on its decline since the days of the Dukes of Aquitaine and the Counts of Toulouse, it was still held in honour; and, when Petrarch arrived, the Floral games had been established at Toulouse during six years.[C] Ere long, however, our travellers found less agreeable objects of curiosity, that formed a sad contrast with the chivalric manners, the floral games, and the gay poetry of southern France.