page_title: Théâtre de la foire
section_title: Foire Saint-Germain
hierarchical_section_title: Théâtre de la foire / Foire Saint-Germain
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail from the 1615 Merian map of Paris showing part of the Left Bank of the Seine with the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (lower half just to the right of center), the Foire Saint-Germain (above and more to the right), the Église Saint-Sulpice (upper right corner), and the old city wall with two gates (upper left corner)
context_page_description: Théâtre de la foire is the collective name given to the theatre put on at the annual fairs at Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent in Paris.
context_section_description: The earliest references to the annual fair date to 1176. The fairground itself was established in 1482 by Louis XI for the benefit of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and was located near the Abbey on the Left Bank southwest of the city center just outside one of the gates of the city wall built by Philip II at the beginning of the 13th century. The covered Saint-Germain market today occupies part of the former fairground site with access from the Boulevard Saint-Germain via the Rue de Montfaucon  
  (satellite view).
  The fair generally lasted three to five weeks around Easter. During the 18th century it consistently opened on 3 February and lasted until Palm Sunday.
  The fair's first actors whose names are recorded were Jehan Courtin and Nicolas Poteau, who so entertained the Parisian public in 1595 that the actors of the Hôtel de Bourgogne filed a suit against them; they probably lost because the two fairground actors returned several years later.  In 1618, André Soleil and Isabel Le Gendre met with similar success.  Later, marionette manipulators, tightrope walkers and animal trainers so delighted the fair-going public that in 1643, Paul Scarron dedicated a poem on the subject to the Duke of Orléans.
  Among the most famous artists of the Saint-Germain fair were: marionnette manipulators Jean and François Datelin (better known by the name Brioché), Jean-Baptiste Archambault, Jérôme, Arthur and Nicolas Féron; dancers Charles and Pierre Alard, Moritz von der Beek (aka Maurice), Alexandre Bertrand and Louis Nivelon; actors Louis Gauthier de Saint-Edme, Jean-Baptiste Constantini, Catherine von der Beek, Étienne Baron, Charles Dolet, Antoine Francassani, Jean-Baptiste Hamoche, Dominique Biancolelli, Francisque, and many others for whom Alain-René Lesage, Louis Fuzelier and Jacques-Philippe d'Orneval wrote numerous plays.
  Early operatic works by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny were performed at the fair: the intermède Les aveux indiscrets (7 February 1759), and the opéras bouffons Le maître en droit (13 February 1760), and Le cadi dupé (4 February 1761). François-André Danican Philidor's opéra comique Blaise le savetier was produced there on 9 March 1759, followed by Le jardinier et son seigneur on 18 February 1761.
  Among depictions of this fair is the famous miniature dated 1763 by Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe (1716–1794) at the Wallace Collection in London.
caption: The Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1615 with the Foire Saint-Germain just behind, the Église Saint-Sulpice (upper right) and the old city wall with two gates (upper left) on the Merian plan of Paris
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