Designing Satisfaction

[Hidden] Technology in the «Cantigas» of Pero Meogo

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships between cognition and the design of verses, strophes, poems and an entire sequence in the cantigas d’amigo of the 13th century Galician poet Pero Meogo. The brain rewards itself for correctly predicting phenomena. Tension is greatest when a surprise delays a predicted event. In the ninth and last cantiga of Meogo we find unique virtuosity in the handling of leixa-pren and a unique change in rhyme-scheme just before the end of the poem and the sequence. There is, moreover, an extraordinary correspondence between Meogo 9 and a mother-daughter dialogue in a Serbian ballad transcribed in the early 18th century.