A Museum of Flatulent History
Ye olde
butt trumpet
“Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce the effect of singing.”
— Saint Augustine, City of God, XIV.24 (c. 426 AD)
Welcome to the Museum
A Journey Through Ye Ages
From Saint Augustine's astonished documentation in the 5th century, through the professional farters of medieval Ireland and England, to the illuminated manuscripts where monks drew figures blasting trumpets from their posteriors — this museum presents the real, documented, and surprisingly well-sourced history of flatulence as performance art, social commentary, and enduring artistic motif.
Roland le Petour: Ye King's Farter
The most documented professional flatulist of the Middle Ages was Roland le Petour (also recorded as Rollandus le Pettus and Roland le Fartere). He was literally paid with land for his farting act: Roland held Hemingstone Manor in Suffolk — approximately 110 acres of land — by serjeanty, a feudal tenure requiring a specific personal service to the monarch. Crucially, Roland appears in the Liber Feodorum (Book of Fees) as a legitimate court entertainer — not merely a joke or legend, but a documented feudal obligation recorded in official government records.
His service, performed every Christmas Day before King Henry II, was recorded in precise Latin:
“Seriantia que quondam fuit Rollandi le Pettour in Hemingeston in comitatu Suff', pro qua debuit facere die natali Domini singulis annis coram domino rege unum saltum et siffletum et unum bumbulum.”
Translation: “The serjeanty which formerly was held by Roland the Farter in Hemingstone in the county of Suffolk, for which he was bound to perform every year on the birthday of our Lord before the king one jump, one whistle, and one fart.”
— Liber Feodorum (Book of Fees), 13th century
The three acts — saltum (a jump), siffletum (a whistle), and bumbulum (a fart, from the onomatopoeic Latin for “little boom”) — were to be performed simul et semel (simultaneously and at once). Far from being a lowly tavern joker, Roland was a landholder of significant substance. His 110-acre fee placed him closer in material wealth to the lesser nobility than to common peasants.
By 1205, the manor had passed through Roland's son Hubert de Afleton to his granddaughter Agnes and her husband Alexander de Brompton — the tenure was legally hereditary. The service was eventually deemed “indecent” and commuted to an annual rent of 16 shillings and 8 pence.
Ye Irish Braigetóirí
In medieval Ireland, professional farters held a legally codified position. Known as braigetóirí (from the Old Irish braigid, “to fart”), they were documented in the Brehon Laws — the ancient Irish legal system — as a recognised class of entertainer with a specific lóg n-enech (honor-price).
The Uraicecht Becc (The Little Primer), a 7th–8th century law tract on social status, lists the braigetóirí among various types of performers who, while lacking the high status of bards, held recognised legal standing. A 12th-century diagram in the Book of Leinster — the Tech Midchuarta (Banqueting Hall) — illustrates seating at the Hill of Tara and explicitly assigns a table for the braigetóirí alongside fuirseoiri (buffoons) and clisamain (jugglers).
According to a poem describing the Fair of Carman, their allotted portion at the feast was “the fat of the shoulder.” The 12th-century satirical tale Aislinge Meic Con Glinne further describes a scholar-monk performing bragitoracht (buffoonery and farting) as entertainment.
The Cultural Paradox
While the braigetóirí were accepted as court entertainers, accidental flatulence was considered extreme disgrace in Gaelic society. English observers noted that Irish lords were known to divorce their wives for a single accidental fart — described as “a fault as light as wind.” Thomas Nashe wrote in 1592 that an Irishman would “draw his dagger” to kill anyone who broke wind in his company. This suggests a stark distinction between intentional, rhythmic performance (regarded as skill) and unintentional flatulence (regarded as profound insult).
Ye Olde Butt Trumpet
A common motif in medieval manuscript marginalia,
depicting the “anti-music” of the posterior
Museum Placard
Roland le Petour
Irish Legal Classification
Class: Entertainers / Buffoons
Rank: Doer-nemed (Non-noble status)
Term: Braigetóir (pl. braigetóirí)
Etymology: Old Irish braigid (“to fart”)
Diet: The fat of the shoulder
Sources: Uraicecht Becc, Book of Leinster
“Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce the effect of singing.”
— Saint Augustine, De Civitate Dei (City of God), Book XIV, Chapter 24, c. 426 AD
Latin original: “Nonnulli ab imo sine utore ullo ita spiritum ventris emittunt, ut cantare videantur.”
Ye Butt Trumpet in Medieval Art
The depiction of figures playing trumpets with their posteriors — known as “drolleries” — is one of the most widespread motifs in medieval manuscript marginalia. These images were not mere toilet humour: they served as coded visual satire, subverting the sacred by replacing divine music with “anti-music” from below.
Symbolism & Meaning
Medieval scholars have identified several layers of meaning in the butt trumpet motif. At its most basic, it represented satire of speech — farting was a metaphor for “speaking nonsense” or “vain preaching.” Scribes used butt trumpets in manuscript margins to mock friars or nobles who spoke “hot air.”
More broadly, the butt trumpet was part of the mundus inversus (world turned upside down) tradition — where the low replaces the high, the anus replaces the mouth, and bodily noise replaces musicality. By turning a trumpet (an instrument of divine music and royal heraldry) into a vehicle for posterior wind, the artist created a gross parody of sacred authority.
Some scholars have also argued that the display of the rear and flatulence served an apotropaic function — the belief that such exposure could frighten away demons and avert evil. The butt trumpet thus occupied a strange intersection of humour, satire, theology, and superstition.
The butt trumpet motif: turning the herald's
trumpet into a “bottom-wind” parody
Known Manuscripts Containing Butt Trumpet Marginalia
Gorleston Psalter
c. 1310–1324
The most famous source of butt trumpet imagery. Features figures playing trumpets with their posteriors, often interpreted as satire of both heraldry and sacred "announcements."
Ref: British Library Add MS 49622
Smithfield Decretals
c. 1340
Rabbits and hybrid creatures performing scatological acts. The butt trumpet here serves as visual satire — the low (the anus) replacing the high (the mouth and musicality).
Ref: British Library Royal MS 10 E IV
Roman de la Rose
14th Century
Contains various figures playing instruments from their posteriors, part of the broader tradition of "mundus inversus" — the world turned upside down.
Ref: Multiple manuscripts
The Luttrell Psalter
c. 1325–1340
Features grotesques and drolleries in its margins, including scatological humor and musical posterior imagery.
Ref: British Library Add MS 42130
The Maastricht Hours
Early 14th C.
Contains marginal illustrations with characteristic Flemish elaboration of the butt trumpet motif.
Ref: British Library Stowe MS 17
Beinecke MS 229
Late 13th C.
Illustrates the butt trumpet as satire of heraldry — the figure "announces" with its posterior in a parody of the herald's trumpet call.
Ref: Yale, Beinecke Library
A Timeline of Flatulent History
From Augustine's astonished observation in 426 AD to Le Pétomane's Moulin Rouge debut in 1892 — nearly 1,500 years of documented flatulent performance, legal codification, and artistic expression.
Saint Augustine writes in City of God (XIV.24): "Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce the effect of singing." The earliest known written acknowledgement of flatulence as performance art.
The Irish Brehon Laws codify the braigetóirí (professional farters) as a recognised class of entertainer. The Uraicecht Becc law tract assigns them legal status and an honor-price alongside jugglers and acrobats.
The Tech Midchuarta diagram in the Book of Leinster illustrates seating at the Hill of Tara, explicitly assigning a table for the braigetóirí (farters) alongside fuirseoirí (buffoons) and clisamain (jugglers). Their diet: the fat of the shoulder.
Roland le Petour (Roland the Farter) enters the service of King Henry II of England. He holds Hemingstone Manor in Suffolk — 110 acres — by serjeanty, obliged to perform every Christmas: "unum saltum et siffletum et unum bumbulum" (one jump, one whistle, and one fart).
The Aislinge Meic Con Glinne, an Irish satirical tale, describes a scholar-monk performing "buffoonery and farting" (bragitoracht) as entertainment for his host — evidence the art persisted in Gaelic literary tradition.
The Gorleston Psalter (British Library Add MS 49622) is produced, containing some of the most famous butt trumpet marginalia in art history — figures playing trumpets with their posteriors, satirising both heraldry and sacred music.
The Smithfield Decretals are illuminated with drolleries featuring rabbits, hybrid creatures, and humans performing scatological acts with musical instruments. The "butt trumpet" becomes a standard motif of manuscript marginalia.
Geoffrey Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales. In The Miller's Tale: "This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart, / As greet as it had been a thonder-dent." In The Summoner's Tale, a friar receives a fart and a squire proposes dividing it equally via cartwheel among twelve friars.
Chaucer's Summoner's Prologue describes a vision of Hell: "Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve / Twenty thousand freres on a route" — twenty thousand friars swarming from the devil's arse like bees from a hive.
The tenure of Roland le Petour is deemed "indecent" and commuted to an annual rent of 16 shillings and 8 pence, as recorded by Thomas Blount in Fragmenta Antiquitatis (1679). The age of the professional court farter draws to a close.
William Camden records Roland's act in Remaines Concerning Britaine, describing it as "dancing, pout-puffing, and doing that which the word Pet signifieth in French" — ensuring the tradition is preserved for posterity.
Joseph Pujol, "Le Pétomane" (combining péter, "to fart," with -mane, "maniac"), debuts at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. He could inhale air into his rectum and produce musical notes, animal noises, cannon fire, and storm effects — reportedly even playing the ocarina. He became one of the highest-paid entertainers in France.
Le Pétomane retires from the stage. Joseph Pujol goes on to run a bakery in Marseille, and later a biscuit factory — ending the last known career of a professional flatulist. In 1979, a short tragicomic film titled Le Pétomane memorialises his extraordinary life.
The Miller's Tale
The clerk Nicholas brands his rival Absolon with a thunderous fart after Absolon comes to the window seeking a kiss in the dark:
This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart,
As greet as it had been a thonder-dent,
That with the strook he was almoost yblent;
And he was redy with his iren hoot.
Modern English: Nicholas then let fly a fart as loud as a thunderclap, so that the blow nearly blinded Absolon — who was ready with his hot iron.
— Chaucer, The Miller's Tale, Lines 698–701
Nicholas is immediately punished when Absolon strikes him “amydde the ers” (between the cheeks) with a red-hot coulter (plow blade) — a fart weaponised and then avenged in a single scene of escalating slapstick.
The Summoner's Tale
A sick man named Thomas tricks a greedy friar into reaching behind him for a “hidden gift”:
Amydde his hand he leet the frere a fart,
Ther nys no capul, drawynge in a cart,
That myghte have lete a fart of swich a soun.
Modern English: Into his hand he let the friar a fart. There is no stallion drawing a cart that might have let a fart of such a sound.
— Chaucer, The Summoner's Tale, Lines 485–487
The rest of the tale becomes a mock-scholarly debate: how to divide a single fart equally among twelve friars. A squire proposes a cartwheel — twelve friars place their noses at the ends of the twelve spokes, Thomas sits at the centre and farts, and the sound travels equally down each spoke. The friar-in-chief holds his nose at the hub.
The Summoner's Prologue: A Vision of Hell
Before the tale itself, the Summoner describes a vision of Hell where no friars are visible — until an angel asks Satan to lift his tail:
And as bees out swarmen from an hyve,
Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve
Twenty thousand freres on a route.
Modern English: And just as bees swarm out of a hive, out of the devil's arse there drove twenty thousand friars in a mob.
— Chaucer, The Summoner's Prologue
Chaucer also coined the term “nether ye” (literally “nether eye”) as a euphemism for the anus — a term that connects directly to the visual tradition of the butt trumpet in manuscript art.
The butt trumpet as visual companion
to Chaucer's literary tradition
Le Pétomane: The Last Great Flatulist
The tradition of professional flatulence performance did not end with the Middle Ages. In 1892, Joseph Pujol — performing as “Le Pétomane” (combining péter, “to fart,” with -mane, “maniac”) — debuted at the Moulin Rouge in Paris and became one of the highest-paid entertainers in France. His act was affectionately known as pétomanie.
Unlike his medieval predecessors, Pujol's technique was physiological rather than digestive: he could inhale air into his rectum and expel it with remarkable control. His repertoire included playing tunes — reportedly even the ocarina and popular melodies — imitating cannon fire, thunderstorms, and animal noises, and blowing out candles from a distance. He astonished audiences not with ordinary flatulence but with a wide variety of controlled sounds.
After retiring from the stage in 1914, Pujol ran a bakery in Marseille and later a biscuit factory — ending the last known career of a professional flatulist. His extraordinary life was memorialised in a 1979 short tragicomic film titled Le Pétomane. While not medieval himself, his historical existence proves that professional flatulists did exist — the tradition stretching back through the braigetóirí and Roland le Petour to Augustine's 5th-century observation.
Ye Scholarly Legacy
The history of the butt trumpet continues to attract serious academic attention. Valerie Allen's On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages (2007) provides a modern scholarly analysis of figures like Roland le Petour as symbols of the intersection between medieval bureaucracy and bodily humour. The book examines how flatulence functioned as social critique, slapstick entertainment, and subversion of “high” culture.
Beyond Roland and the Irish braigetóirí, there is no strong evidence of full-time “fart performers” as an organised profession across medieval Europe. However, flatulence was unquestionably part of medieval humour and storytelling. Medieval jokebooks and Facetiae collections — compilations of witty anecdotes and bawdy tales — contain numerous farting jokes and scatological humour, and writers like Chaucer used farting in major comedic scenes. The evidence suggests flatulence was a recognised comedic device, even if full-time professional farters were rare.
Earlier antiquarians preserved the record: William Camden mentioned Roland in Remaines Concerning Britaine (1605), describing the act as “dancing, pout-puffing, and doing that which the word Pet signifieth in French.” Thomas Blount recorded the tenure in Fragmenta Antiquitatis (1679), noting its eventual commutation to monetary rent.
Museum Placard
Le Pétomane
Key Sources & Further Reading
Liber Feodorum (Book of Fees), 13th century — primary source for Roland le Petour
Uraicecht Becc (The Little Primer), 7th–8th c. — Irish legal status of braigetóirí
Book of Leinster, Tech Midchuarta diagram, 12th c. — seating at the Hill of Tara
Saint Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XIV.24, c. 426 AD
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, c. 1390
Medieval Facetiae collections — jokebooks containing farting jokes and scatological humour
William Camden, Remaines Concerning Britaine, 1605
Thomas Blount, Fragmenta Antiquitatis, 1679
Valerie Allen, On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages, 2007
Le Pétomane (1979 short film) — tragicomic biopic of Joseph Pujol
“Dancing, pout-puffing, and doing that which the word Pet signifieth in French.”
— William Camden, Remaines Concerning Britaine, 1605 — describing Roland le Petour's service
Ye Professional Context
| Era | Name / Term | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Medieval | Roland the Farter | Documented jester whose act involved a jump, whistle, and fart for King Henry II. Held 110 acres of land by serjeanty — recorded in the Liber Feodorum as a legitimate court entertainer. |
| Medieval | Braigetóirí | Irish professional farters with legally codified status under the Brehon Laws. Assigned seating at the Hill of Tara and a specific portion at feasts. |
| Medieval | Flatulist / flatulence humour | Mentioned in literature and Facetiae jokebooks — farting as comedic content in Chaucer, manuscript marginalia, and satirical tales. No strong evidence of full-time fart performers beyond Roland and the braigetóirí. |
| Medieval | Butt trumpet (marginalia) | Widespread motif in illuminated manuscripts (Gorleston Psalter, Smithfield Decretals, etc.) — figures playing trumpets with their posteriors as satire of speech, heraldry, and sacred music. |
| 19th Century | Le Pétomane / pétomanie | Joseph Pujol (b. 1857), French professional entertainer who performed fart-based acts at the Moulin Rouge from 1892. Repertoire included the ocarina, cannon fire, animal noises, and candle-blowing. Retired 1914 to run a bakery. |