Mester de Juglaría

Mester de juglaría ("Ministry of jongleury") is a Spanish literature genre from the 12th and 13th centuries, comprising oral poetry performed by "juglares". Examples include epics such as the Cantar de Mio Cid and ballads in the romancero tradition. Mester de juglaría has generally been contrasted with the genre of Mester de clerecía, comprising the literary poetry written by clerics. Compared to the poets of the Mester de Clerecía, juglares were uneducated, dealt with popular topics, and used simple language and irregular metric forms. However, in the twentieth century, critics began to question the rigid distinction between these two genres.

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 said to derive from Latin ministerium, meaning "minister" and, at that time, "official."