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This thirteenth-century illumination depicts the Jongleur of Notre Dame, the iconic protagonist of the French poem, Our Lady’s Tumbler. This poem from around 1200 tells the story of a tumbler (later reconfigured as a jongleur) who is dismayed by his inability to participate in the liturgical offices like the monks in the monastery he has joined. Our protagonist decides that he will instead perform acrobatics before a statue of the Virgin Mary to express his devotion, and begs her to consider it a valid form of worship. In the poem, the Virgin Mary is pleased, and fans the sweat-drenched tumbler. When the tumbler falls ill and dies only a short time later, the Virgin Mary personally oversees the tumbler’s ascent to Paradise. The illumination captures the jongleur just as he completes his acrobatic ceremonials, still contorted into a backbend before the Virgin Mary and Child. An angel extends a towel from the heavens. The tumbler's vielle, a stringed instrument the size of a modern viola, lays at the feet of the Virgin and Child.
In the illumination, the Virgin Mary is illustrated in her aspect as Queen of Heaven. Although she is unhaloed, she wears a crown and an elegant red mantle and wields considerable authority. Both the illumination and poem suggest that currying favor with the Queen of Heaven results in great benefit, whether through her graceful assistance or heavenly access. Veneration of Notre Dame (a French title for the Virgin Mary) is simultaneously a worship of the Child, as Mary’s prayers to her son carry particular weight. Our Lady’s Tumbler indicates that the ability to read and write and profession as a monk are not the only ways to win God's favor. Instead, Our Lady’s Tumbler implicitly contends that an individual’s internal devotion, sincerity, and purity can contribute to salvation.
Our Lady’s Tumbler and this illumination contribute to a complex discourse on the place of jongleurs in medieval communities. While entertainers were given privileged positions in Romanesque statuary, the Gothic period apparently saw a marked decline in the status of jongleurs and tumblers. Images of entertainers in that period were placed in locations of lesser importance like the underside of choir seats (known as misericords) or in the marginalia of manuscripts. The conventional opinion was that jongleurs were foolish, irresponsible charlatans. However, Carol Symes contends that some jongleurs held regional power through "crafty management of pre-existing structures and conventions” and their aptitude for effective communication. Regardless of their place in medieval social hierarchy, Our Lady’s Tumbler and the illumination suggest that entertainers had the potential to gain God's grace for their community as well as for themselves. But God, who knew his [the tumbler's] intentions And his great sense of duty And the love for which he did his acts Did not wish to hide his deeds; Thus the Lord wished and bid That the works of His friend Be known and manifested, Because he had joyfully served His mother, And so that each one would know And understand and see That God refuses no one Who in love trusts himself to Him, No matter how he does his duty, So long as he loves God and does right.
Translated by Everett C. Wilkie, Jr. Allegorica 4 (1979): 99