An ensenhamen was an Occitan didactic (often lyric) poem associated with the troubadour

Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....

s. As a genre of Occitan literature, its limits have been open to debate since it was first defined in the 19th century. The word ensenhamen has many variations in old Occitan: ensenhamenz, ensenhamens, essenhamen, ensegnamen, enseinhamen, and enseignmens.

The ensenhamen had its own subgenres, such as "conduct literature" that told noblewomen the proper way to comport themselves and "mirror of princes" literature that told the nobleman how to be chivalrous. Besides these were types defining and encouraging courtly love

Courtly love

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....

 and courtly behaviour, from topics as mundane as table manners

Table manners

Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating, which may also include the appropriate use of utensils. Different cultures observe different rules for table manners...

 to issues of sexual ethics

Sexual ethics

Sexual ethics refers to those aspects of ethics that deal with issues arising from all aspects of sexuality and human sexual behavior...

.

The earliest attestable ensenhamen was written around 1155 by Garin lo Brun

Garin lo Brun

Garin lo Brun or le Brun was an early Auvergnat troubadour.-Life:Garin lived in the Diocese of Le Puy-en-Velay, where his family owned castles. He was himself lord of Châteauneuf-de-Randon in the Limousin and a vassal of Ermengarde of Narbonne and of Eleanor of Aquitaine. His origins were either...

. It is the Ensenhamen de la donsela ("Instruction of the girl"). Around 1170 Arnaut Guilhem de Marsan

Arnaut Guilhem de Marsan

Arnaut Guilhem de Marsan was a Landais nobleman and troubadour. He was descended from a cadet branch of the viscounts of Marsan and was himself lord of Roquefort and Montgaillard and co-lord of Marsan....

 wrote the Ensenhamen del cavaier ("Instruction of the knight") for a warrior audience. A decade or so later Arnaut de Mareuil

Arnaut de Mareuil

Arnaut de Mareuil was a troubadour, composing lyric poetry in the Occitan language. Twenty-five, perhaps twenty-nine, of his songs, all cansos, survive, six with music....

 wrote a long, classically-informed

Conduct book

Conduct books are a genre of books that attempt to educate the reader on social norms. As a genre, they began in the mid-to-late Middle Ages, although antecedents such as The Maxims of Ptahhotep are among the earliest surviving works...

 ensenhamen on cortesia (courtesy). In the 1220s or 1230s the subjet of honour was treated by the Italian troubadour Sordel in his Ensenhamen d'onor and by Uc de Saint Circ

Uc de Saint Circ

Uc de Saint Circ or Hugues de Saint Circq was a troubadour from Quercy. Uc is perhaps most significant to modern historians as the probable author of several vidas and razos of other troubadours, though only one of Bernart de Ventadorn exists under his name...

 in a similarly titled work. Late in the thirteenth century the Catalan

Catalan people

The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...

 Cerverí de Girona

Cerverí de Girona

Cerverí de Girona was a Catalan troubadour born Guillem de Cervera in Girona. He was the most prolific troubadour, leaving behind some 114 lyric poems among other works, including an ensenhamen of proverbs for his son, totaling about 130. He was a court poet to James the Conqueror and Peter the...

 wrote an ensenhamen of proverb

Proverb

A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...

s in 1,197 quartets for his son. Even later, another Catalan troubadour, Amanieu de Sescars

Amanieu de Sescars

Amanieu de Sescars or Amanieu des Escàs was a Catalan, possibly Gascon, troubadour of the late 13th century. Famous for his love songs in his own day, his contemporaries gave him the nickname dieu d'amor...

, composed two ensenhamens: the Ensenhamen del scudier ("Instruction of the squire") dictating ideal knightly behaviour and the Ensenhamen de la donsela ("Instruction of the girl") prescribing respectable behaviour for young women. Daude de Pradas

Daude de Pradas

Daude, Deude, Daurde, or Daudé de Pradas was a troubadour from Prades-Salars in the Rouergue not far from Rodez. He lived to an old age and left behind seventeen to nineteen cansos, including twelve on courtly love, three about sexual conquest, one tenso, one planh , and a religious song...

 wrote an ensenhamen on the four cardinal virtues

Cardinal virtues

In Christian traditionthere are 4 cardinal virtues:*Prudence - able to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time*Justice - proper moderation between self-interest and the rights and needs of others...

. Peire Lunel wrote L'essenhamen del guarso in 1326, the latest example of the genre. At de Mons

At de Mons

NAt de Mons was a troubadour of the latter half of the thirteenth century. He was from Mons near Toulouse. James I of Aragon and Alfonso X of Castile acted as his patrons and he addressed "La valors es grans e l'onors", a sirventes on the rights of kings, to James, which survives...

 and Raimon Vidal are other known contributors to the genre.

There were also mock ensenhamens designed to satirise the jongleurs. Fadet juglar by Guiraut de Calanso

Guiraut de Calanso

Giraut or Guiraut de Calanso or Calanson was a Gascon troubadour in the Occitan language. Of his lyric works that remain five are cansos, two descorts, a congé, a planh, and a vers . He also wrote a mock ensenhamen entitled Fadet juglar.Guiraut's hometown cannot be located...

 is an example. Bertran de Paris and Guiraut de Cabreira (Cabra joglar) are known to also have written this way.