Jean Renart, also known as Jean Renaut, was a Picard 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]