Gautier d'Espinal

Gautier d'Espinal (also d'Epinal, d’Épinal or d'Espinau) (active before 1231). Grove states that while details of his life are lacking, some documents of the time mention a Gautier d'Espinal active between 1232 and 1272, but it is uncertain if this is the trouvère, as some of the songs attributed to him suggest an earlier date. Most likely Gautier was one of the seigneurs of the city of Epinal. However, Robert Lug's more recent (2007) study of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés chansonnier (Trouvère MS U) shows that Gautier is not the person in the mentions cited by Grove, but was in fact a cleric, a nephew of the bishop of Metz.