Jongleurs

Jongleurs (Old Fr. jogleor, juglere, Ital. giocolatore, from the Lat. joelulator), among Provencals and northern Frenchmen, a class of minstrels during the middle ages who sang and often composed poems, songs, and fabliaux, and who frequented courts, tournaments, castles, and towns for that purpose. They made a trade of song, poetry, and story-telling, and often of jesting and buffoonery, and are distinct from the knightly poets, the Troubadours and Trouvères. They were often for their special gifts retained in the service of particular lords, and we find them also named indifferently ménestrels or ménestriers. Two of their number, Jacques Grure and Hugues-le-Lorrain, founded the church of St Julien in 1331. See Freymond, Jongleurs und Ménestrels (Halle, 1883).