Jesters

A jester, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch kept to entertain guests at the royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town markets, and the discipline continues into the modern day, where jesters perform at historical-themed events. Jester-like figures were common throughout the world, including ancient Rome, China, Persia, and the Aztec Empire.

thumb|upright=1.35|The Minstrels of Beverley. Woodcut of 16th-century English musicians. Left to right: pipe and tabor, fiddle, windcap instrument, lute, and shawm. A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who sang songs and played musical instruments.

Stańczyk (; – ) was the most famous Polish court jester. He was employed by three Polish kings: Alexander, Sigismund the Old and Sigismund Augustus.

thumb|upright|The Triboulet of Hugo's ''Le Roi s'amuse (The Fool and Death by [[Sarah Bernhardt)]] thumb|upright|A triboulet'' at the Monthey carnival

Jewish prankster (1757–1811)

thumb|Fool's scepter, Germany or France, 1565–1600 in Germanisches Nationalmuseum|Germanisches National Museum - Nuremberg, Germany

18th-century court jester

Spanish courtier (died after 1700)

court jester in medieval Bengal

Jewish jester (c. 1665 – c.1740)

Servant in the court of Charles II of Spain

Dwarf and artist's model in the Medici household in Florence

Zerco or Zercon was a Moorish dwarf and the jester of the Hunnic king Attila.

court jester of Peter I (1699-1763)