If you are new to Troubadour studies you must get:
A Handbook of the Troubadours, edited by F.R.P Akehurst and Judith M. Davis. University of California Press (1995) ISBN 0-520-07975-2
To quote from the introduction, "This book is intended to be a reference book and a digest of the material known to every troubadour specialist."
It is an invaluable reference, with an extensive bibliography. If you are serious about the troubadours, you need this book. The paperback edition is very reasonably priced.
A fun, very readable introduction to the troubadours can be found in:
Pilgrims, Heretics and Lovers by Claude Marks, Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc. New York (1975)
This is a very enjoyable read, though a bit hard to find. You may have to get this one on Inter-Library Loan.
Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouveres, An Anthology and a History, by Frederic Goldin, pub. Peter Smith, Gloucester, Mass. (1983)
This one is also hard to find, but well worth the effort.
If you wish to learn Old Provencal in order to read the Troubadours in the original language, the only book I am aware of is:
An Old Provencal Primer, by Nathaniel B. Smith and Thomas G. Bergin. Garland Publishing, Inc. New York And London (1984) ISBN 0-8240-9030-6
William D. Paden was supposed to have published an Introduction to Old Occitan in 1995, but the latest information I have is that the release date for this has been pushed back to Summer of 1998.
A good source for hard to find books is: Amazon.com
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