Bretel Jehan, *ca. 1210, †August or September 1272, trouvère from northern France. He came from a wealthy bourgeois family from Arras. Together with his brother Robert, he owned an estate in Beaurains-les-Arras. Around 1256, he served as sergans iretavles de la riviere Saint-Vaast at the Abbey of Saint-Vaast. He was a member of the Confrérie des Jongleurs et Bourgeois d’Arras and acted as Prince du Puy d’Arras. He held this position for a long time. During his tenure, the association achieved a very high position, becoming the main centre of poetic and musical creativity in northern France in the second half of the 13th century and bringing together the most outstanding trouvères around Arras, who often dedicated their works to Bretel (e.g. Jehan de Grieviler, Jehan Erart, Jaque li Vinier, Colart li Boutellier, Mahieu de Gant and others). He abandoned this activity after 1265. He is credited with over 90 jeux partis, performed during singing tournaments. The musical significance of these works is minor, but due to the dedications, political, social and cultural allusions contained in their lyrics, they are an important testimony to the customs of the time, the social status of their creators and a source of information about the musical culture of Arras. In addition, seven textual transcriptions of Bretel’s songs have survived.
Literature: A. Guesnon Nouvelles recherches biographiques sur les trouvères artésiens, in: Le Moyen Âge 1902; G. Raynaud Les chansons de Jehan Bretel, in: Mélanges de philologie romane, Paris 1913; A. Långfors Recueil général des jeux partis français, vol. 1, Paris 1926; H. Petersen Dyggve Onomastique des trouvères, «Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae» B, XXX, Helsinki 1934; J. Maillard Anthologie de chants de trouvères, Paris 1967; R. Crespo Il ragruppamento dei jeux-partis nei canzonieri A, a e b, in: Lyrique romane médiévale. La tradition des chansonniers, ed. M. Tyssens, Liège 1991.
