Jeu de paume
Encyclopedia
Jeu de paume is a ball-and-court game that originated in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It was an indoor precursor of tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 played without racquet
Racquet
A racquet or racket is a sports implement consisting of a handled frame with an open hoop across which a network of cord is stretched tightly. It is used for striking a ball in such games as squash, tennis, racquetball, and badminton...

s, though these were eventually introduced. It is a former Olympic sport, and has the oldest ongoing annual world championship in sport, first established over 250 years ago. Originally spelled jeu de paulme, it is sometimes called courte paume or "real tennis
Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...

".

History

In the earliest versions of the game, the players hit the ball with their hands, as in palla
Palla
thumb|250px|"Palla eh!" game in [[Vetulonia]], 2001Palla is a traditional Tuscan ball game played in towns between Siena and Grosseto. It is also called palla EH! because players call out eh! before serving.Small hand-made balls contain a lead pellet wrapped in rubber and wool with a leather cover...

, volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

, or certain varieties of pelota
Pelota
Pelota can refer to the popular and shortened names for a number of ball games:* Baseball* Basque pelota* Bocce* Jai alai* Valencian pilota...

. Jeu de paume, or jeu de paulme as it was formerly spelled, literally means "palm game". In time, gloves replaced bare hands. Even when paddle-like bats, and finally racquets, became standard equipment for the game by the late 1600s, the name did not change. It became known as "tennis" in English (see History of tennis), and later "real tennis
Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...

" after the derived game of lawn tennis became the more widely known sport.

The term is used in France today to denote the game of tennis on a court in which the ancient or modern game might be played. The indoor version is sometimes called jeu de courte paume or just courte paume ("short palm") to distinguish it from the outdoor version, longue paume
Longue paume
Longue paume is an outdoor version of jeu de paume, an ancestor of modern lawn tennis. Hundreds of years ago it was quite popular, particularly in France. It was part of the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics, but its medal status is disputed. Today, the sport is played regionally in Picardie...

("long palm"), played on a field of variable length.

Jeu de paume at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Jeu de paume at the 1908 Summer Olympics
-References:...

 was a medal event; American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Jay Gould II won the Gold medal.

Since 1740, jeu de paume has been the subject of an amateur world championship, held each year in September. It is the oldest active trophy in international sport.

Hand

  • Basque pelota
  • Fistball
    Fistball
    Fistball is a sport which is of European origin and is similar to volleyball in that player tries to hit a ball over a net.-History:The earliest known written mention of the game is by Roman Emperor Gordian III and dates to the year 240. Rules for an Italian version of fistball were recorded by...

  • Frisian handball
    Frisian handball
    Frisian handball is a traditional Frisian sport, related to American handball and fives, that is most commonly practiced by people from the northern Dutch province of Friesland . It is believed to be one of the oldest ballgames and was an unofficial Demonstration sport at the 1928 Summer Olympics...

  • Longue paume
    Longue paume
    Longue paume is an outdoor version of jeu de paume, an ancestor of modern lawn tennis. Hundreds of years ago it was quite popular, particularly in France. It was part of the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics, but its medal status is disputed. Today, the sport is played regionally in Picardie...

  • Pallone
    Pallone
    Pallone is the name of several traditional ball games, played in all regions of Italy, with few differences in regulations...

  • Valencian pilota
    Valencian pilota
    Valencian pilota is a traditional handball sport played in the Valencian Community. Its origins are not known, but seems to be related to the French Jeu de paume....


Various other forms of handball
Team handball
Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...

 may be related to one degree or another; this is generally difficult to ascertain with certainty, and some, like the Mesoamerican ballgame
Mesoamerican ballgame
The Mesoamerican ballgame or Tlatchtli in Náhuatl was a sport with ritual associations played since 1,000 B.C. by the pre-Columbian peoples of Ancient Mexico and Central America...

 are clearly unrelated.

Racquet

  • Court tennis
  • Lawn tennis (what is usually meant by the term "tennis" today)

Various other racquet games (squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...

, badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...

, etc. may be related to one degree or another.

Cultural references

The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume is a museum of contemporary art in the north-west corner of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.The building was constructed in 1861 during the reign of Napoleon III...

, a museum of contemporary art, is housed in a former court on the north side of the Tuileries park in the centre of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

The painter Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...

's famous sketch, le Serment du jeu de paume ('the Tennis Court Oath
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789...

') now hangs in the court of the Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

. It depicts a seminal moment of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, when, on 20 June 1789, deputies of the Estates-General met at the court and vowed that they would not disband before the proclamation of a formal Constitution for France.

Le Jeu de Paume is a moral ode published in 1791 by André Chénier
André Chénier
André Marie Chénier was a French poet, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precursors of the Romantic movement...



Socialite Charles Smithson (Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...

) is seen playing jeu de paume when he returns to London in the acclaimed 1981 film The French Lieutenant's Woman
The French Lieutenant's Woman
The French Lieutenant’s Woman , by John Fowles, is a period novel inspired by the 1823 novel Ourika, by Claire de Duras, which Fowles translated into English in 1977...

.

External links

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