He probably worked in the middle of the thirteenth century at the courts of Ferdinand III and Alfonso X of Castile.
He is the also the author of the only known alborada (dawn song) in the Galician-Portuguese tradition: "Levad', amigo, que dormides as manhanas frías".
In 1994 António Resende de Oliveira suggested that "Torneol" might not be a part of his name, but a note added by the 16th-century editor of the Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional, Angelo Colocci, indicating the refrain (tornel) to be used in the following songs.
In 1997, however, Vicenç Beltran discovered a reference in a document of 1244 to one João Fernandes Torniol who owned a vineyard in Córdoba.
In a document of 1262 José António Souto Cable found a Fernandus Petri, dictus “Turniol” de Villari, who confirmed a sale to Archbishop Juan Arias (1238–66).