The inventor of the sestina, Arnaut Daniel, belonged to a group of twelfthcentury poetsthe troubadourswho needed, for their fame and fortune, to shock, delight, and entertain. . . The troubadours first appear in southern France in the twelfth century. Their name is most certainly extracted from the verb trobarmeaning to invent or compose verse. They were famous, celebrated, much in fashion, and eventually very influential on the European poetry of the next few centuries. . . They sangtheir poems were always accompanied by musicfor French nobles like the Duke of Aquitaine or the Count of Poitiers. They competed with one another to produce the wittiest, most elaborate, most difficult styles. This difficult, complex style was called the trobar clus. The easier, more open one was called the trobar leu. The sestina was part of the trobar clus. It was the form for a master troubadour.

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