Jacme Grils

Who is Jacme Grils?

Jacme or Iacme Gril was a Genoese troubadour of the mid-thirteenth century. He wrote two tensos which survive, one with Lanfranc Cigala and another one with Simon Doria.

There are several "Giacomo Grillos" mentioned in thirteenth-century documents from Genoa and it is difficult to definitively identify the troubadour with one. Chronologically, the Giacomo mentioned in an act of 15 August 1281 was probably not the troubadour. There were a Giacomo Grillo di Andrea and another di Alberto, but these are also unlikely candidates. The most likely is a judge who appeared in an act of 4 June 1257 concerning a division of property of the margraves of Ponzone. He was definitely a contemporary of Lanfranc. This is probably the same Giacomo as was responsible for providing lodging for Pope Innocent IV at Stella in 1244 and appears in an act of 7 March 1247 in the Liber Jurium Januae. He was also elected one of the fifteen reggitori della città in 1262 after the retirement of Guglielmo Boccanegra. Luca Grimaldi, another troubadour, was one of the others.

Though little is known of him and his surviving poetry is limited, Jacme was an esteemed poet to his contemporaries in Genoa.