Jacques Bretel

Jacques Bretel or Jacques Bretex (dates of birth and death unknown) was a French language trouvère, best known for having written Le Tournoi de Chauvency.

His only known work, signed and dated, le Tournoi de Chauvency, is a long poem of about 4,500 verses recounting the events of a tournament held during six days of feasting given by Louis V, Count of Chiny in October 1285 at Chauvency-le-Château. It is without doubt a masterpiece of French Middle Ages literature and, in any case, one of the best digests of courtly art of the period.

Le Tournoi de Chauvency is kept in a manuscript (reference: Douce 308) at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.

Sources

• Jacques Bretel, Le Tournoi de Chauvency, 1285 (manuscripts: Mons MS 330-215 and Oxford MS Douce 308).
• Maurice Delbouille, Le Tournoi de Chauvency.
• Dominique Henriot-Walzer, Dictionnaire du Tournoi de Chauvency, 1285

External links

• Translation into modern French of Tournoi de Chauvency, 1285 by Jacques Bretel