The Puy d'Arras, called in its own day the Puy Notre-Dame, was a medieval poetical society formed in

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

for holding contests between trouvères and ''pour maintenir amour et joie'' (for maintaining love and joy, i.e. the courtly love lyric). The term ''puy'' is

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

for "place of eminence", from Latin ''podium''. The president of the Puy, elected annually, was titled the ''Prince du Puy'', and he presided over the competitions, which were decided by panels of judges. The Puy was under the nominal patronage of the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, referred to as "Notre Dame du Puy d'Arras". Other ''puys'' under her patronage were founded at

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

, Boulogne-sur-Mer,

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

, Évreux, and

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

. The Puy is less well-documented than the contemporary Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras, and the two are sometimes conflated. The statutes of the Puy d'Arras do not survive, only the later ones of the Puy d'Amiens from 1471 shed any light on the nature of laws of the ''puys''. The Puy d'Arras was, unlike the Confrérie, neither social nor religious in conception. It was the creation of the urban patriciate, the wealthy and noble, plus some others, possibly those excluded from the Confrérie, who determined to maintain the courtly tradition. The Puy was thus more conservative than the Confrérie. The poets Andrieu Contredit d'Arras and Jean de Renti (criticisingly) make mention of it and its contests. Jean Bretel mentions it in his works and he is recorded elsewhere as having served a term as Prince. Undoubtedly the highest personage to attend the Puy's festivals was Theobald I of Navarre. The high standing of the Puy is evidenced in the thirteenth-century poem '' Dit artésien''. By the nature of its activities, one of the favoured verse forms of the Puy was the '' jeu parti''. Women could also participate in the Puy, both as contestants, audience members, and as judges. It has been suggested that the chansonnier known as trouvère manuscript ''R'' was compiled from oral performance at the Puy d'Arras.O'Neill, 27, citing Johan Schubert.

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{{reflist French literature Music organizations based in France