Mester de Juglaría

Mester de juglaría ("Ministry of jongleury") is a Spanish literature genre from the 12th and 13th centuries, transmitted orally by "juglares" who made their living by reciting and singing these stories for the recreations of nobles, rulers, and the general public. These were people of humble origins, traveling comedians who also engaged in circus acts like juggling, tightrope walking, and acrobatics, or acted as clowns who told jokes or played simple instruments, or danced and sang versions of simple mime or puppet pieces, or, importantly, recited verses composed by other authors, called troubadours, either in public places (town squares, above all), or in castles of feudal lords for whom they were housed; much of the time they also supported themselves by the visual arts.

According to Ramón Menéndez Pidal, in his study of the poetry of juglares and the origins of romantic literature (Madrid 1957), the word juglar comes from the Latin jocularis, joculator, and it signifes "joker, or man of jokes." The word mester is also said to derive from Latin ministerium, meaning "minister" and, at that time, "official."

There were two types of juglares: epic juglares, who recited narrative poetry, and lyrical juglares, who dedicated themselves to the cultivation of sentimental poetry and performed poetic compositions such as serenades, couplets, songs of troubadours, etc. From the 10th to 13th centuries, the former type were more numerous, whereas the latter half of the 13th century to the 14th century were dominated by the latter type.

According to Menéndez Pidal, there were different specializations. There was the remedador who was dedicated to imitation; the cazurro who practiced the plebeian arts; the juglar de gesta, the goliardo, somewhere between student and vagabond, who understood musical instruments and how to compose for them. Also included in the word is the concept of a musician, the types of which were quite diverse, from tavern singers and the richly adorned ones who sang in palaces and accompanied nobles on voyages, to those who sang and played dramas in churches with all sorts of musical instruments (the flute, the dulcimer, the drum, and handheld stringed instruments like the vihuela or the rabel). Although some composed their own lyrics, generally they repeated other people's texts.

These anonymous stories were mostly cantar de gesta. Although versified to make it easier to memorize, juglares probably often changed the story a little bit as they passed it to others.

There are more theories regarding the origin of these texts. The individualist theory states that these texts were the creation of one poet and they didn't change much. On the other hand, the traditionalist theory says that it is a collective work of the public and it was totally changed on its route.

Compared to the Mester de Clerecía the authors weren't educated, treated popular topics, used simple language and the metrics of the verses is irregular.

The most known examples of the works that can be classified as Mester de Juglaría is El Cantar de Mio Cid and Representación de los Reyes Magos.