Jocelin de Dijon

Who is Jocelin de Dijon?

Jocelin de Dijon was an Old French trouvère, presumably from Dijon, with two surviving songs to his name and two more credited to an otherwise unidentifiable "Jocelin" in the Berne Chansonnier but which may be the work of Jocelin de Dijon.

Of the two pieces attributed to him, only A l'entree del dous commencement can be confidently dated. It was written around 1220 and refers to the absence of a certain Andriu and the Seigneur d'Arsie. It is independently known that André III de Montbard and Jehan I, Seigneur d'Arcis-sur-Aube, joined the Fifth Crusade in 1218; Jehan never returned. Whereas the poetry is divided into four- and five-line strophes, the melody in the Noailles Chansonnier is divided into five- and four-line groups. It was used as a model for the anonymous song Vers Dieu mes fais desirrans sui forment. Jocelin's other piece is Par une matinee en mai.