Jubé

Jubé, the French architectural term (taken from the imperative of Lat. jubere, to order) for the chancel or choir screen, which in England is known as the rood-screen (see Rood). Above the screen was a gallery or loft, from which the words “Jube Domine benedicere” were spoken by the deacon before the reading of the Gospel, and hence probably the name. One of the finest jubés in France is that of the church of the Madeleine at Troyes, in rich flamboyant Gothic. A later example, of the Renaissance period, c. 1600, is in the church of St Étienne du Mont, Paris. In the Low Countries there are many fine examples in marble, of which one of the most perfect from Bois-le-Duc is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.