Jean Renart

Jean Renart, also known as Jean Renaut, was a Norman trouvère from the end of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th to whom three works are firmly ascribed: two metrical chivalric romances, L'Escoufle ("The Kite") and Guillaume de Dole, and a lai, Lai de l’Ombre. Nothing else is known of him or his life. He is praised for his realism and his psychological insight.^[1]

Vigneras proposed in 1933 that the dates for Jean Renaut would have to be moved forward: while other scholars dated his activities to between 1195 and 1215, he dated L'Escoufle to after 1245.^[2] Guillaume de Dole is "generally regarded as his chef d'oeuvre."^[3] It is a longer narrative poem, notable for its incorporation of a large number of shorter lyric poems, including a number of chansons de toile.^[4] The date of composition is usually placed early in the thirteenth century.^[5]

References

1. "Renart, Jean".
2. Vigneras, 241.
3. Durling, 2.
4. "Chanson de toile".
5. Terry and Durling, 1.

Bibliography

• "Chanson de toile". Harvard Dictionary of Music. Harvard UP. 2003. p. 161. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
• Durling, Nancy Vine (1997). "Introduction". In Nancy Vine Durling. Jean Renart and the art of romance: essays on Guillaume de Dole. UP of Florida. pp. 1–10. ISBN 978-0-8130-1495-1. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
• "Renart, Jean". Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Columbia University Press. 2007. Retrieved 2010-11-14.
• Terry, Patricia; Nancy Vine Durling (1993). The Romance of the Rose or Guillaume De Dole. U of Pennsylvania P. ISBN 978-0-8122-1388-1.
• Vigneras, Louis André (1933). "Etudes sur Jean Renart I. Sur la Date du Roman de l'Escoufle". Modern Philology. 30 (3): 241–262. doi:10.1086/388040. JSTOR 434445.