date_of_death jean renart
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages ( ___MASK44___  ___MASK49___ ). Since the word " troubadour " is etymologically masculine , a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz . Old Occitan ( Modern Occitan : " occitan ancian "), also called Old Provençal , was the earliest form of the Occitano - Romance languages , as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries . Old Occitan generally includes Early and Old Occitan . Middle Occitan is sometimes included in Old Occitan , sometimes in Modern Occitan . As the term " occitanus " appeared around the year ___MASK38___ , Old Occitan is referred to as " Romance " ( Occitan : " romans ") or " Provençal " ( Occitan : " proensals ") in medieval texts . 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 . 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 . Guillaume de Dole is `` generally regarded as his chef d ' oeuvre . '' 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 . The date of composition is usually placed early in the thirteenth century . Trouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur , is the Northern French ( langue d ' oïl ) form of the langue d ' oc ( Occitan ) word " trobador ". It refers to poet - composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours ( composers and performers of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages ) but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France . The first known " trouvère " was Chrétien de Troyes (" fl ". 1160s - 1180s ) ( Butterfield , ___MASK96___ ) and the " trouvères " continued to flourish until about ___MASK38___ . Some 2130 " trouvère " poems have survived ; of these , at least two - thirds have melodies . A lai ( or " lay lyrique ", " lyric lay ", to distinguish it from a " lai breton ") is a lyrical , narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance . " Lais " were mainly composed in France and Germany , during the 13th and 14th centuries . The English term " lay " is a 13th - century loan from Old French " lai ". The origin of the French term itself is unclear ; perhaps it is itself a loan from German " Leich " ( reflected in archaic or dialectal English " lake ", " sport , play "). The terms " note ", " nota " and " notula " ( as used by Johannes de Grocheio ) appear to have been synonyms for " lai ". Johannes de Grocheio ( Grocheo ) ( c . ___MASK18___  c . 1320 ) was a Parisian musical theorist of the early fourteenth century . His French name was Jean de Grouchy , but he is more commonly known by his Latinized name . A Master of Arts , he is the author of the treatise " Ars musicae " (" The art of music ") ( c . ___MASK38___ ), an attempt to describe the music of his time as it was practiced in and around Paris . The High Middle Ages or High Medieval Period was the period of European history around the 11th , 12th , and 13th centuries ( c . ___MASK89___  ___MASK38___ ). The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages , which by convention end around 1500 . Chrétien de Troyes (" Christian ") was a late - 12th - century French poet and trouvère known for his work on Arthurian subjects , and for originating the character Lancelot . This work represents some of the best - regarded of medieval literature . His use of structure , particularly in " Yvain , the Knight of the Lion ", has been seen as a step towards the modern novel . Little is known of his life , but he seems to have been from Troyes , or at least intimately connected with it , and between ___MASK98___ and 1172 he served at the court of his patroness Marie of France , Countess of Champagne , daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine , perhaps as herald - at - arms ( as Gaston Paris speculated ).