The Musical Sounds of Medieval French Cities : Players, Patrons, and Politics 9781139572583, 9781107010611

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The Musical Sounds of Medieval French Cities

Drawing upon hundreds of newly uncovered archival records, Gretchen Peters reconstructs the music of everyday life in over twenty cities in late medieval France. Through the comparative study of these cities’ political and musical histories, the book establishes that the degree to which a city achieved civic authority and independence determined the nature and use of music within the urban setting. The world of urban minstrels beyond civic patronage is explored through the use of diverse records; their livelihood depended upon seeking out and securing a variety of engagements, from confraternities to bathhouses. Minstrels engaged in complex professional relationships on a broad level – as with guilds and minstrel schools – and on an individual level – as with partnerships and apprenticeships. The study investigates how minstrels fared economically and socially, recognizing the diversity within this body of musicians in the Middle Ages, from itinerant outcasts to wealthy and respected town musicians.

gretchen peters is an associate professor of music at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she teaches in the Music and Theatre Arts Department, as well as in the American Indian Studies Program. She has published numerous articles on urban musical culture in late medieval France, and her research activities have included the traditional music of both the Hmong and Ojibwe cultures in Wisconsin, for which she has received multiple awards for her collaborative work with students.

The Musical Sounds of Medieval French Cities Players, Patrons, and Politics

gretchen peters

cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107010611 © Gretchen Peters 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Peters, Gretchen, 1962– The musical sounds of medieval French cities : players, patrons, and politics / Gretchen Peters. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-01061-1 1. Music – Social aspects – France – History – 15th century. 2. Music patronage – France – History – 15th century. 3. Music – France – 15th century – History and criticism. I. Title. ML3917.F8P47 2012 780.9440 0902–dc23 2012010341 ISBN 978-1-107-01061-1 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

Maps [page vi] Illustrations [vii] Acknowledgments [viii] Abbreviations [x]

Introduction [1] 1 Playing before the council: civic patronage in southern France [7] 2 In honor of nobility: civic patronage in central France [77] 3 For the honor and pleasure of the city: civic patronage in northern France [126] 4 From confraternal processions to weddings to bathhouses: freelancing in the urban environment [165] 5 Playing en couble: professional relationships among minstrels [190] 6 “A minister of Satan” and “an honor to the city”: conflicting images of the medieval minstrel [218] Appendix: musical instruments in the archival records of the study [246] Bibliography [259] Index [277] Index of musicians [285]

v

Maps

Map 1 Cities in France included in this study [page 2] Map 2 Procession for the annual celebration of the miracles of the Virgin Mary [23] Map 3 Procession for the annual consecration of the Chapel of the Consulate [26] Map 4 Irlas with musicians in the quarters of Saint Anne and Saint Paul, Montpellier [241]

vi

Illustrations

Figure 1 Account book of Montpellier dating from 1357–8 with payment to minstrels of the city council, by permission of the Archives municipales de Montpellier, Joffre 845, f. 103v (May 22, 1357) [page 14] Figure 2 Notarial contract from Montpellier with transaction between woodworkers and minstrels, by permission of the Archives départmentales de l’Hérault, 2E 95/547, f. 291 [16] Figure 3 Will of Petrus Alaman, crier of Marseilles, by permission of the Archives départmentales des Bouches-du-Rhône, 351 E/86, f. 41v [70] Figure 4 Formal request for a trumpet by the city of Dijon, by permission of the Archives municipales de Dijon, B 154, f. 13 [112]

vii

Acknowledgments

During the course of such a long project, I have benefited from the support and assistance of many people. I extend my sincere appreciation to Victoria Cooper, a senior commissioning editor at Cambridge University Press, who has been encouraging of this project throughout the process. In addition, it was a pleasure to work with the editors, Rebecca Taylor and Fleur Jones, who were always helpful and prompt. I am also very thankful to the anonymous readers of the early drafts of this book, as they offered extensive criticism that resulted in significant alterations. At key stages in this process, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire offered financial support. In addition to funding multiple trips to France for further research in the archives, the university also supported a year-long sabbatical during which a substantial amount of the work was completed. This project is built upon extensive periods of research in departmental and communal archives throughout France, which was only possible because of the expert guidance I received from the archivists and librarians, including meticulous inventories which served as invaluable starting points. I also relied heavily upon the library staff at the University of WisconsinEau Claire for the acquisition of essential materials. To all of the librarians, archivists, and scholars in these institutions who generously offered me advice and suggestions, I am very grateful. Support from mentors and colleagues has been crucial. Larry Gushee and Keith Polk read portions of this work at early stages and generously offered their knowledge and expertise, including personal notes with transcriptions and translations of records. Other colleagues (and friends) who either read portions of the work or checked regularly on its progress include Gary Don, Ryan Jones, Barbara Young, and Charlotte Hubert. Friends and family hold an important place in the completion of this project. Béatrice Courcier has been a warm and gracious friend and host with whom I looked forward to reconnecting on each trip to France. Friends Carol Lansing and Mary Jo Adler each accompanied me on a trip to France viii

Acknowledgments

and listened to my research woes over wine at the end of the day. Laura Jensen read an early draft and offered to read more in spite of her busy schedule, offering insightful comments that made their way into the book. Finally, I would like to thank my family for living with this project for twenty years as well. I am grateful for my parents who have supported me in everything I have done. I thank my three children, Elek, Anna, and Mara, who grew up while I plodded along on the book, for their encouragement as well as their help with the title. My husband, Tim, has been an integral part of the process, from accompanying me into the first archive in Marseilles to watching our children when I was in France to reading final versions; his support and encouragement has been unwavering.

ix

Abbreviations

ADB ADB, Aix

x

ADC ADH ADSM ADV AMA AMAix AMAl AMAm AMApt AMBe AMC AMD AML AMLi AMMa AMMo AMN AMNi AMO AMOr AMR AMRo AMSO AMT AMTours AMTr d. f. l. s. t. v.

Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône, Dépot annexe d’Aix-en-Provence Archives départementales de la Côte-d’Or Archives départementales de l’Hérault Archives départementales de Seine-Maritime Archives départementales de Vaucluse Archives municipales d’Avignon Archives municipales d’Aix-en-Provence Archives municipales d’Albi Archives municipales d’Amiens Archives municipales d’Apt Archives municipales de Beauvais Archives municipales de Châlons-en-Champagne Archives municipales de Dijon Archives municipales de Lyon Archives municipales de Lille Archives municipales de Marseille Archives municipales de Montpellier Archives municipales de Narbonne Archives municipales de Nîmes Archives municipales d’Orange Archives municipales d’Orléans Archives municipales de Reims Archives municipales de Rouen Archives municipales de Saint-Omer Archives municipales de Toulouse Archives municipales de Tours Archives municipales de Troyes deniers folio livre sou tournois verso

Introduction

Musical sounds organized and gave meaning to life in medieval French towns. Music marked the long work day as it radiated from the central tower with the opening and closing of town gates, music proclaimed weddings as it accompanied a couple to church, and music honored the town’s history as it sanctified relics of local saints in annual processions through the streets. The music of Guillaume de Machaut and Guillaume Dufay, which would have been heard in cathedrals throughout France, is not the focus of this study, but rather the music which would have been heard on the streets following mass. While these are the sounds of everyday life, it is music that has tended to be marginalized in musicological scholarship, in part, no doubt, because this musical culture is not preserved in music manuscripts, but also because it is not unique. With a scholarly tradition that has emphasized the exceptional, the musical world of the medieval urban environment has not been incorporated into this privileged historical construct. This study is a culmination of archival work conducted in over twenty cities that lie within the borders of contemporary France. It began with culling of the municipal and departmental archives of major cities in Provence and Languedoc, including Montpellier, Marseilles, Avignon, and Aix-en-Provence. A more complete picture of urban music in southern France was later sought, with archival work in the major cities of Toulouse and Narbonne, but also in the smaller towns of Nîmes, Albi, Béziers, and Orange. With the goal of placing southern France in greater context, the archives of Lyons, Dijon, Orléans, Tours, Troyes, Châlons-en-Champagne, Reims, Rouen, Beauvais, Amiens, Lille, and Saint-Omer were explored to achieve geographic balance and to include most cities in France with a population over 10,000 prior to the Black Death with substantial medieval holdings. The obvious omission in this study is Paris. While studies on French culture are often centralized around Paris, the unfortunate destruction of its archives in the devastating fire attached to the commune of 1871 prevents its inclusion. All of these cities fell under French rule at some point during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, though, as national boundaries were in constant flux, few remained under the French crown throughout this period. (See Map 1 for cities addressed in this study.)

1

2

Introduction

Saint-Omer Lille

Amiens

Rouen

Beauvais Châlons-en-Champagne Reims

Paris

Troyes Orléans Tours

www.hist-geo.com

Dijon

Lyons

Bordeaux

Orange Avignon Apt Nîmes

Albi

Montpellier

Toulouse

Aix-en-Provence Marseilles

Narbonne

0

100 km

Map 1. Cities in France included in this study.

This study brings to light extensive archival evidence from urban institutions, including city governments, confraternities, and guilds. Diverse records attached to the administration of daily urban life have proven to be directly relevant, such as statutes and city contracts defining the roles and duties of civic-employed musicians, ordinances restricting the activities and behavior of musicians, chronicles describing receptions in honor of visiting royalty, and deliberations of the city council detailing preparations for processions and other civic ceremonies. Records of financial administration of the city have generally been the most accessible and yielded the greatest

Introduction

quantity of information; besides the compensation for musicians, payment records document the size and types of civic-employed ensembles and the occasions for which they were hired, and tax records and property listings have provided substantial information on the socio-economic status of musicians. The records of minstrel guilds provide details of professional organization and activities, while those of confraternities offer details of social organization among minstrels, as well as professional opportunities. Private notarial contracts, such as wills, property transactions, and business arrangements, offer glimpses into the professional and personal lives of minstrels rarely gleaned from other sources. The time period from which most of the evidence dates, 1300–1500, is a difficult one in French history. French cities were decimated by the Black Death in 1348, populations typically plummeting by half, along with the tax base, and socio-economic problems were compounded by unusual weather patterns, failing crops, and famines. Further destruction and economic pressures from the Hundred Years’ War wreaked havoc on the stability and wealth of French cities. Almost invariably, city records emerge in significant numbers in the second half of the fourteenth century, following the devastation and disruption of the Black Death, when cities began to document their civic practices and customs with greater diligence, emphasizing and fostering tradition and a sense of permanence. Devastated cities’ lack of revenue did not allow for any expenditures considered inessential, and only musical traditions considered integral to their well-being could receive support during this period of destruction and slow recovery. While the medieval archival holdings of French cities have yielded extensive and valuable information concerning urban musical culture, many research challenges have been encountered with this approach. One is the limitless number of potentially relevant documents; to facilitate future research in the area by other scholars, the specific series and documents that have been examined are carefully identified for each city. Presenting another challenge, substantial interruptions occur within series, such as for Montpellier, where only three annual account books are extant for the second half of the fourteenth century, forcing at times conclusions to remain tentative and comparisons of cities impossible. Documents involving musicians commonly remain silent concerning the information most sought, such as payment records to minstrels that often neglect to mention the size or nature of the ensemble and never describe or even refer to the sound of the music. The city, as well as other institutions, tended not to be concerned with the music itself so much as the effect it created, and so the records emphasize and elaborate upon the ritual surrounding the music.

3

4

Introduction

These records tend to prescribe what was supposed to occur, rather than what actually happened, with only the rare acknowledgment of the difference. In addition, these records often result in a distorted image of this musical world, as the musicians who appear most often in city records, quite predictably, are permanent residents of the city and particularly those hired by the city. Civic records offer us a particular perspective of the city, with the musician who operated in a freelance setting rarely appearing in these records, and certain groups of individuals, like women, being almost entirely missing. Notarial contracts have offered a special allure because of their diverse perspectives, but they also offered special challenges. While these private contracts are recognized as a rich source of evidence for the social historian, they have not yet been significantly exploited in musicological scholarship on medieval urban culture. This is due, no doubt, to the tedium in locating relevant contracts, as detailed inventories of notarial registers generally do not exist, and because the value of these records varies considerably. A day’s work with notarial records commonly resulted in the mere determination of a mundane detail, such as the acquisition of a common wine vat by a minstrel. The strong allure of these records, however, is that occasionally tucked among them are agreements of apprenticeships and partnerships between musicians, purchases of musical instruments, or wills of minstrels. The question always when working with these series was how many hours could be allocated with no reward. The research process for this study has often felt like the construction of an enormous jigsaw puzzle with pieces scattered far and wide and many irretrievably lost. Despite the overriding impression through this process that urban musicians are only marginally represented in the archives of French cities, after putting together the pieces, an image of a complex and active musical world has emerged. Despite France’s prominent role in medieval music history, scholarship concerning its urban musical culture is still generally limited to publications by nineteenth-century local historians.1 While these studies contain valuable information and frequently provide interesting excerpts from city records, they were not intended as comprehensive and systematic studies of music in a particular urban center. Furthermore, the musical life of certain French cities, including such prominent ones as Troyes and 1

For example, the short bulletin by Barthélemy remains the sole, and highly valuable, study on urban minstrels for Marseilles: Louis Barthélemy, “Notice historique sur l’industrie des ménétriers,” Revue de Marseille et de Provence 32 (1886): 99–108; for Avignon, the primary work on the topic is Pierre Pansier, “Les Débuts du théâtre à Avignon à la fin du XVe siècle,” Annales d’Avignon et du Comtat-Venaissin 6 (1919): 5–52.

Introduction

Montpellier, has never received the attention of scholars, even in the nineteenth century. For most cities, this study is the first discussion of urban minstrels since the early twentieth century. Rare recent scholarship addressing the urban minstrel in medieval France has been prompted by the statutes of the important minstrel guilds in Toulouse and Paris.2 Existing studies of urban minstrelsy have primarily focused on Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries, with the most recent contributions continuing to build on earlier scholarship dating back to the nineteenth century. Recent studies on urban musical culture during the late Middle Ages have focused on a specific city, such as Lewis Lockwood’s Music in Renaissance Ferrara (1984), Reinhard Strohm’s Music in Late Medieval Bruges (1985), and Frank D’Accone’s The Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages (1997). Central to these studies are the sacred institutions of these cities: the cathedrals, collegiate churches, and confraternities. In contrast, while comparing numerous cities, this study focuses upon music specifically attached to the secular urban environment. This distinction, however, can be ambiguous, as minstrels performed in sacred processions to highlight holy relics and even at times were hired by churches. While fully acknowledging the overlap of the sacred and secular in medieval urban environments, the archives of religious institutions in French cities have not been researched systematically for the employment of minstrels due to the magnitude of such an undertaking. This study aims to be relevant to urban historians, as well as musicologists, by establishing how integrally related music is to a city’s history. In spite of the historical connection between a city’s institutions and its music, and music’s ability to shape the urban environment, recent books on medieval urban history tend not to mention music.3 Archival work in multiple cities in distinct regions in France has allowed for the consideration of diverse factors affecting urban musical practices, such as demographics, politics, and economics. Whether the music was part of highly anticipated elaborate performances or barely noticed mundane activities, it provides 2

3

Luc Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers français sous l’ancien régime (Toulouse: Klincksieck, 1994); Kay Brainerd Slocum, “Confrérie, Bruderschaft and Guild: The Formation of Musicians’ Fraternal Organisations in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Europe,” Early Music History 14 (1995): 257–74. While Charles-Dominque’s book is a valuable discussion on the evolving social status of the minstrel in France, he does not attempt to unearth new archival evidence on the minstrel. Some examples are David Nicholas, The Later Medieval City, 1300–1500 (London: Longman, 1997); Keith Lilley, Urban Life in the Middle Ages, 1000–1450 (New York: Palgrave, 2002); Marc Boone, “Urban Space and Political Conflict in Late Medieval Flanders,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 32 (2002): 621–40.

5

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Introduction

insights into the status, power, and inner workings of the city. Indeed, a central question throughout this research is how the political history of a city has affected its musical practices.4 The opening three chapters of this study address the patronage offered to musicians by civic governments on either an ad hoc or regularly contracted basis to perform in urban ritual. Each city, organized into three broad geographic areas in France, as well as local regions, is discussed by itself in detail to allow for the greatest use by scholars who often have research interests in specific urban areas. While many municipal governments throughout France became regular sources of employment for musicians during the second half of the fourteenth century, cities offered musicians in France, with few exceptions, only a portion of a full-time income. Chapter 4 establishes how minstrels could have pieced together diverse performances in the urban environment ranging from prestigious engagements contracted months in advance to impromptu performances where any compensation must have been tenuous. Chapter 5 focuses upon the organization of the profession of minstrelsy, from international schools and citywide guilds to individual relationships that were formed for both professional and personal reasons. Finally, how freelance minstrels fared economically and socially in the urban environment is discussed, recognizing the diversity within this body of musicians in the Middle Ages from itinerant outcasts to the wealthy and respected town musicians.

4

An important recent study on urban musical culture is Keith Polk’s book German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages: Players, Patrons and Performance Practice (Cambridge University Press, 1992). Polk emphasizes, however, the construction of musical instruments, issues of performance practice, and repertoire, all topics not highlighted in this study.

1

Playing before the council: civic patronage in southern France

The musical sounds of daily life in a French medieval city were fused with meaning, some overt and some subtle. The trumpet signals emanating from a central bell-tower or drawing attention to official decrees were common in most cities throughout France, but much about musical practices was distinct from city to city, such as the quality of the instrument used by criers, the musical capabilities of tower-musicians, or the historical significance of the performance venue, which would have all affected the interpretation of these sounds. The musical performances subsidized by the city, whether for a celebration for Corpus Christi or a reception for nobility, were encoded with social significance tied to the nature of the musicians’ ensemble, clothing, and placement. The musical sounds of urban life in medieval France entertained and informed their listeners, but these sounds also reflected and reinforced the cities’ social organization and political structure. The marked increase in the appearance of musicians on city payrolls in the mid-fourteenth century is now well documented for much of Europe.1 Scholars have demonstrated that trumpeters commonly appeared on city payrolls by the beginning of the fourteenth century and that the civic wind band appeared in a few German cities between 1350 and 1370, and then throughout Germany, the Low Countries, and Italy by the late fourteenth century. In contrast, for French cities, civic subsidy of music, and urban musical practices in general, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had yet to be established, despite France’s prominent role in the history of medieval secular music.2 A central objective of the opening chapters is not 1

2

For the Low Countries see Edmond van der Straeten, Les Ménestrels aux Pays-Bas du XIIIe au XVIIIe siècle (1878; reprint, Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1972); Keith Polk, “Wind Bands of Medieval Flemish Cities,” Brass and Woodwind Quarterly 1 (1968): 93–113; Polk, “Municipal Wind Music in Flanders in the Late Middle Ages,” Brass and Woodwind Quarterly 2 (1969): 1–15; Reinhard Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985). For Germany see Polk, German Instrumental Music. For Italy see Lewis Lockwood, Music in Renaissance Ferrara, 1400–1505: The Creation of a Musical Center in the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984); Frank D’Accone, The Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 1997). For Spain see Kenneth Kreitner, “Music and Civic Ceremony in Late Fifteenth Century Barcelona” (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1990). Patronage in select southern French cities is addressed by the author in “Civic Subsidy and Musicians in Southern France during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: A Comparison of

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Playing before the council

only to establish patterns of civic patronage in French urban centers, but also to establish connections between a city’s socio-political history and its civic musical practices, ultimately offering greater context and meaning to the medieval “urban soundscape” of France. French cities began to receive communal charters in the twelfth century, acquiring rights and establishing independence from their overlords. The autonomy acquired by towns varied significantly throughout France, as each one has a unique history of struggle with overlords. While some city governments achieved only basic rights, others in France were in control of the full administration of the town, including taxation, defense, maintenance, and commercial life. The towns with the greatest autonomy even had control over jurisdiction. Members of the city government in France were drawn from the economic elite; the members often acquired a distinguished legal status through the position, though often no salary, despite the considerable time demands. The city government often assumed the image and ritual of nobility, which was a means to establish and maintain hierarchy within the urban environment.3 With a constant jockeying for power in French medieval cities between royal, religious, and civic authorities, these rituals, which often involved music, served as an important tool to maintain balance or assert greater authority. Demonstrating control over public spaces that were historically and symbolically important to a city was an important function of these rituals. The construction of a consulate, or building where the communal government met, the control over a belfry, and the placement of coat of arms on town gates all reflected a developed sense of political space. According to Marc Boone, integral to the success and independence of medieval cities was “seizing and marking such public and private places as buildings, town halls, belfries, market squares, parish churches, and the like.”4 Records, such as a city chronicle, were created by the city to document and maintain their ritual. Allmand noted, There were those parts of France . . . which showed a healthy sense of independence of the centre. They did this not by challenging the royal authority directly; they used more discreet ways of asserting themselves, one of which was to take a leaf out of the royal book and to write their own histories, thereby increasing their own sense of self-awareness and local identity.5

3 4 5

Montpellier, Toulouse and Avignon,” in Music and Musicians in Renaissance Cities and Towns, ed. Fiona Kisby (Cambridge University Press, 2001), 57–69. Nicholas, The Later Medieval City, 6 and 116. Boone, “Urban Space and Political Conflict,” 623. Christopher Allmand, ed., War, Government and Power in Late Medieval France (Liverpool University Press, 2000), xiv.

Playing before the council

This chapter focuses on the patronage of music by cities in an area in southcentral France with an eastern boundary of Marseilles, located on the coast of the Mediterranean, and a western boundary of Toulouse, located on the Garonne River in the foothills of the Pyrenees. This was a highly urbanized region during the late Middle Ages, tied closely to commerce and trade on the Mediterranean Sea. Montpellier, Toulouse, Avignon, and Narbonne all had estimated populations at their peak ranging from 30,000 to 40,000, and indeed easily fell into a first rank of towns over 20,000 in pre-plague Europe, and four cities included in this chapter, Marseilles, Nîmes, Albi, and Bordeaux (to the north and east of the rest of the cities), had populations between 10,000 and 25,000. For this area in south-central France, not only have most cities over 10,000 been examined, but some smaller cities have been included as well, including Aix-en-Provence, Apt, Béziers, and Orange. Many of the cities of south-central France established a long history of independence from political rulers during the late Middle Ages. The foundation of independent consular governments spread from Italy to southern France during the twelfth century, and by the first years of the thirteenth century, city councils were established in many cities throughout the region.6 Frequently, the city councils in the south had control not only over the maintenance and defense of the city, but also over jurisdiction, a right often denied to cities. Strong independent governments operated for decades in many of these major cities in south-central France before being brought under the centralized force of the French monarch. While remaining loyal to the King of France, these cities found ways to assert themselves and increased “their own sense of self-awareness and local identity.”7 Directly related to the political independence of many southern French cities, they tended to support music for the purpose of drawing attention to and formalizing the ritual and ceremony of city governments. Despite this overall pattern, significant variation existed between civic musical practices in southern French cities, which is paralleled in their unique political histories. The cities in southern France with the greatest political independence, and therefore developed civic ritual, subsidized music that met, and frequently surpassed, that in other major European cities.

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Edith Ennen, The Medieval Town, trans. Natalie Fryde, vol. 15 of Europe in the Middle Ages, Selected Studies, ed. Richard Vaughan (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1979), 124. Allmand, War, Government and Power, xiv.

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Playing before the council

Languedoc: Montpellier, Narbonne, Nîmes Montpellier Few towns outside of Italy in late medieval Europe were as economically important or politically independent as Montpellier, and few towns throughout Europe developed such elaborate independent civic rituals embedded with music.8 Montpellier’s location less than ten kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea, to which it was connected by a small river, as well as its location on principal trade routes, contributed to its development into a major commercial center by the thirteenth century. From the eleventh century, the jurisdiction of Montpellier was divided between two primary feudal powers, the Bishop of Maguelone and the secular overlords of the Guillem family.9 During the twelfth century, the Guillem family was successful in gaining control of the city from the bishop and other feudal powers, but it was unable to maintain power over the growing body of wealthy citizens involved in the commerce of the city. Representing an early important stage for towns seeking civic independence, in 1196 the community took charge of the construction, maintenance, and defense of the city wall. The wealthy citizens of Montpellier successfully revolted against the ruling feudal family in 1203, and shortly thereafter, a town government, consisting of twelve representatives from the wealthiest professions in town, including bankers, importers of spices, and cloth merchants, became the primary ruling body. The exceptional power and independence of Montpellier was manifested in the city’s acquisition of practical control over the jurisdiction of the city, if not theoretical control, as the town government appointed municipal officials and was instrumental in determining the bailiff and judge.10 Reyerson writes, “Montpellier was then governed internally by twelve municipal consuls whose bailiff’s court was theirs de facto, though in theory it belonged to the king of Aragon and later Majorca.”11 Another important symbol of the city’s autonomy was the attainment of an official building, the consulate, located in the central

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Kathryn Reyerson, Business, Banking and Finance in Medieval Montpellier, Studies and Texts, vol. 75 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985), 6–7. Archibald Ross Lewis, “Seigneurial Administration in Twelfth Century Montpellier,” Speculum 22 (1947): 563. Jan Rogozinski, Power, Caste and Law: Social Conflict in Fourteenth-Century Montpellier (Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1982), 39. Kathryn Reyerson, “Public and Private Space in Medieval Montpellier,” Journal of Urban History 24 (1997): 6.

Languedoc

commercial district, already by 1205, a century earlier than most municipal authorities throughout France and northern Spain acquired them.12 At this same time, Montpellier became part of the Kingdom of Aragon, and the independence provided by the town’s non-resident rulers over the next century furthered the growth of a powerful and independent town government.13 The University of Montpellier, established in the early thirteenth century, competed with prestigious Italian universities and became particularly well known for its school of medicine. Estimates for the population of Montpellier at its peak in the first half of the fourteenth century range from 30,000 to 40,000, making it the largest city in the region and among the leading cities in Europe.14 Montpellier, like many other European cities, reached its economic and demographic peak in the early fourteenth century, encountering bad harvests, natural disasters, epidemics and plundering of the area by armies involved in the Hundred Years’ War throughout the second half of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As a result, Montpellier’s population decreased to 15,000 by 1404 and to only 13,700 by 1470.15 Contributing to Montpellier’s economic problems, a year after the Black Death ravaged the city in 1348, James III of Majorca sold Montpellier and its nearby port town of Lattes to the King of France, and the city became subject to heavy royal taxation. Under the King of France, who sought greater centralization, royal representatives obtained control over communal affairs from the city council, and by 1393, the original twelve-member government was reduced to six. Baumel concludes that by the final decade of the fourteenth century, “the glorious days of the consulate had ended,” and after two centuries of independent town government, the members of the city council became administrators who followed orders from royal sovereigns and bailiffs.16 The city council of Montpellier created an unusually rich and diverse body of records to document the elaborate civic traditions and to encourage their ongoing celebration.17 The “Petit Thalamus,” which was compiled 12

13

14

15 16

17

Ghislaine Fabre and Thierry Lochard, Montpellier: la ville médiévale (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1992), 126. Archibald Ross Lewis, “The Development of Town Government in Twelfth-Century Montpellier,” Speculum 22 (1947): 51–67. Josiah Russell, “L’Évolution démographique de Montpellier au Moyen Âge,” Annales du Midi 74 (1962): 352; Jean Baumel, Histoire d’une seigneurie du midi de la France, vol. II (Montpellier: Causse et Cie, 1971), 269. Russell, “L’Evolution démographique,” 352. Baumel, Histoire d’une seigneurie, vol. III, 145, “les beaux jours du consulat étaient terminés.” All translations are those of the author, unless otherwise indicated. These records housed in the municipal archives of Montpellier have been examined thoroughly for this study.

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Playing before the council

from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, includes city statutes, ordinances, oaths taken by the city employees, and the chronicle, which all provide rare insights into music in the urban setting of Montpellier.18 The series of registers of the notaries of the consulate dating from 1383, which include contracts and oaths of municipal employees, and the “Ceremonial,” a register which records the annual rituals and ceremonies practiced by the city council in the mid-fifteenth century, are rare documents and offer details lacking for other cities.19 The city account books unfortunately are not well preserved for Montpellier until the second half of the fifteenth century; only three were preserved from the second half of the fourteenth century and only two from the early fifteenth century, though almost forty from 1440 to the end of the fifteenth century. The rich details and reflections of prosperity evident in the three sole account books from the fourteenth century make the large gaps in this series all the more regrettable.20 The wealth and power of the city of Montpellier, and specifically of its city council, through the mid-fourteenth century are reflected in the unusually extensive civic subsidy of music used to accompany the city council in ceremonies.21 An official wind band was well established by the midfourteenth century in Montpellier and therefore was one of the earliest official civic ensembles in Europe, coinciding with the appearance of civic wind bands in Germany.22 The earliest extant account book of Montpellier, which dates from 1357–8, includes regular payments to five minstrels, consistently identified as “our five minstrels” or “the five minstrels of the consulate.”23 This regular employment of five minstrels is all the more striking in the context of civic wind bands throughout much of Europe during the second half of the fourteenth century, which typically had only two or three members. Despite heavy financial obligations and other problems burdening the citizens of Montpellier during the mid-fourteenth century, money continued to be allocated for all five civic minstrels. In the 18

19 20

21

22

AMMo, Inv. 6, Armoire A, premier rang, (AA 9). Volumes 6–9 of the published inventories of the municipal archives of Montpellier (see full citations in bibliography) are based on the classification system in nine armoires by an early archivist, Joffre. Many of the documents also bear more recent shelf-marks that correspond to the standard French classification system. AMMo, BB 20–59 and Inv. 6, Armoire A, premier rang, “Ceremonial,” 1439–1551, (BB 196). AMMo, Joffre 845–7; Joffre 529–37, 541–4, 550, 552–3, 555–6, 558–63, 565, 567–9, 571–82, (CC 529–82). Outside of previous scholarship by the author, musical life in medieval Montpellier has not received scholarly attention. Only isolated references to music appear in a few general histories of the city. Baumel, Histoire d’une seigneurie; Alexandre-Charles Germain, Histoire de la commune de Montpellier, depuis ses origines jusqu’à son incorporation définitive, 3 vols. (Montpellier: Jean Martel, 1851). Polk, German Instrumental Music, 110. 23 AMMo, Joffre 845, ff. 103v–104 and f. 111v.

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next extant city account book from 1370–1, “the five minstrels of the consulate” were frequently hired, and in the only other extant account book from this century, dating from a year later, five musicians were again regularly employed.24 The instruments used by these five minstrels are never explicitly identified in the city account books; however, in 1357 new banners were purchased for two trumpets and two cornamusa, a term usually interpreted as meaning a bagpipe or more generally as a reed instrument.25 Complementing these four instruments was a pair of nakers, or small kettledrums, in the civic ensemble.26 The documentary evidence suggests that one large, mixed ensemble was formed, rather than two smaller ensembles of a trumpet duo and a reed duo. In the account books, all five of these minstrels are invariably hired for all civic events, are always identified as one group (“our five minstrels”), and receive identical remuneration and livery.27 In addition, a city chronicle places the minstrels in the same location in civic celebrations, whether the event was a large royal reception or a smaller religious procession. For a religious procession in 1364 for the feasts of Saint Germain and Saint Remy, for example, the chronicle identifies all of the participants and places the minstrels directly in front of the baldachin of the city council.28 Likewise, for the arrival of the Queen of Navarre in 1372, the chronicle meticulously describes how “3 old and 3 new members of the council met her with 16 other important men of the city and 60 cavalrymen entering at Béziers and the minstrels of the council had led and they were all dressed in red livery.”29 Trumpeters and reed players were also hired by charitable organizations in Montpellier and Marseilles during the mid-fourteenth century, raising the possibility of other such ensembles in this region. In 1367, the masons of Montpellier bought new pennons for two trumpets (tubis) and two reed

24 25

26

27 28

29

AMMo, Joffre 846, f. 52v; 847, ff. 25–25v. AMMo, Joffre 845, f. 84v. See a discussion concerning the identification of the cornamuse and other instruments in the appendix. In a register containing the names of officers of the different professions in town, three of the civic minstrels in the mid-1350s are identified as a “cornamuzayre,” a “trompayre,” and a “nacharayre.” AMMo, Inv. 6, “Regestre des senhors consoulz et curials de la villa de Montpelier,” f. 6 and f. 11v. AMMo, Joffre 847, f. 28v. Ferdinand Pégat, Thomas Eugène, and Casimir Desmazes, eds., Le Petit Thalamus de Montpellier (Montpellier: Jean Martel ainé, 1840), 366–7. Ibid., 389, “tres senhors cossols viels e iii novels ab xvi autres bons homez de viela e ben lx calvacaduras entro a Bezes et avian menat los menestriers del cossolat et eron totz vestitz de lyvreya vermelha.”

13

Figure 1. Account book of Montpellier dating from 1357–8 with payment to minstrels of the city council, AMMo, Joffre 845, f. 103v (May 22, 1357).

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instruments (cornamusis), and in Marseilles in 1351, two reed players (cornamuzas), two trumpeters (tronbadors), and a nakers player (naquarar) were hired by a charitable organization to perform in a procession.30 The chronicle entries and the account books from the 1350s to 1370s indicate that Montpellier subsidized a mixed ensemble of reeds, trumpets, and drums. Such combinations had been widespread in the urban centers of Europe by the thirteenth century, largely as a result of Middle Eastern influence.31 Recent scholarship has suggested that during the second half of the fourteenth century their popularity waned and two distinct ensembles of reeds and trumpets were preferred. Yet the documented example from Montpellier indicates that mixed ensembles with reeds, trumpets, and percussion may have been maintained in some centers for longer than has been thought. Although Montpellier appears to have maintained older medieval traditions later into the fourteenth century, by the early fifteenth century the size and composition of its civic ensemble was comparable to most other major European centers. The ensemble was reduced to two or three minstrels in the early 1400s and from 1431 throughout the rest of the century the personnel remained constant at four. This reduction in personnel might reflect a preference for three-part instrumental ensembles prominent throughout Europe at this time, but it also could reflect economic and political changes in Montpellier. The city might have economically been unable to maintain the ensemble in the beginning of the fifteenth century with its continued decreasing population and shortage of funds. In addition, the reduction in minstrels corresponds to the decline in the size and power of the city council. Evidence for the instrumental make-up of the ensemble in the fifteenth century is sparse, but it appears that the central instrument of the wind band was the shawm, as was common throughout Europe. Shawms were doublereed instruments that first appeared in manuscript illustrations in the late thirteenth century, became widespread in Europe by the mid-fourteenth century, and were the core instrument in civic wind bands by the fifteenth century. In 1429, two civic minstrels sold “a bombard with a key and a shawm made in Bruges,” a well-known center for instrument making at this time, to

30 31

AMMo, BB 10, ff. 4v–5; ADB, Archives hospitalières de Marseilles, II H/E 7, p. 42. Herbert Myers, “Reeds and Brass,” in A Performer’s Guide to Medieval Music, ed. Ross Duffin (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 385.

15

Figure 2. Notarial contract from Montpellier with transaction between woodworkers and minstrels, ADH, II E95/547, f. 291.

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two local “superior wood workers.”32 In 1469, relatives of civic minstrels sold a number of wind instruments to pay for taxes, including three shawms with their case, a bombard, and two high shawms (charaminas).33 (All of these instruments were significantly less expensive than the shawm and bombard from Bruges sold by the minstrels to the woodworkers.) Shawms remained the central instrument in this ensemble in the late fifteenth century, as the city made frequent payments to “the loud minstrels” (los autz menestries) who played “their shawms” (suas calamillas).34 As is typical elsewhere in Europe, the percussion is no longer included in the wind band in Montpellier in the fifteenth century, even though the tambourin, a long cylindrical tabor often coupled with a pipe, was extremely popular in civic celebrations in southern France during this time. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the city council of Montpellier sought foreign talent for its wind band, perhaps more specifically, for the latest instrumental innovation in shawm bands, the slide-trumpet. Throughout Europe, generally, the reed ensembles with usually two or three members remained separate from the trumpeters until the early fifteenth century, when it is thought that the slide-trumpet was introduced.35 In 1403, a citizen of Tournai, Petrus de Medie Camporum, who was identified as a minstrel (menestrer), was offered a tax exemption on his personal estate for five years for settling in Montpellier and later became a member of the civic wind band.36 Slide-trumpeters from Tournai were particularly sought after at this time, as evidenced by the city of Lille hiring many “minstrels of the trumpet” (menestrels de trompette) from Tournai during the first decade of the fifteenth century.37 Further suggestion that Petrus might well have been a slide-trumpeter in the civic wind band, or at least that a slide-trumpeter was included in this ensemble, is a contract from 1411 in which Petrus, the minstrel from Tournai, and his two minstrel colleagues promise to make 32

33 34 36

37

ADH, II E 95/547, ff. 291–291v, “nos Johannes de Clareto loci Sancte Margarite de Peyrola et Guillemus de Manse superiori fusterii . . . confitemur et in veritate recognoscimus nos debemus vobis Durando de Vinea et Jaufredo Julian alias Verdelet ministreris montispessulani presentibus ac scilicet septem scuta auri . . . pro precio unus bonbarde cum clave et unus chalmale operis de brugtes” (“We Johannes de Clareto of the district of St. Margarite de Peyrola and Guillemus de Manse superior woodworkers . . . acknowledge and in truth recognize that we owe to Durandus de Vinea and Jaufredus Julian alias Verdelet minstrels of Montpellier namely seven scuta of gold . . . for the price of one bombard with a key and one shawm made in Bruges ”). AMMo, Joffre 853, 2nd vol., (CC 853, 2nd vol.), f. 60, f. 76v, f. 83. AMMo, Joffre 560, (CC 560), f. 82, 1480. 35 Myers, “Reeds and Brass,” 391. AMMo, BB 36, f. 7. Discussion of the general practice of offering tax-exempt status to valued artisans needed in Montpellier is discussed in Jean Combes, “Une ville face à la crise (milieu XIVe–fin XVe siècle),” in Histoire de Montpellier, ed. Gérard Cholvy (Toulouse: Privat, 1984), 88. AMLi, No. 16136, f. 79.

17

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their craft of both pifandi and sonandi.38 The verb pifare is consistently used in late medieval French records in the context of double-reed instruments, and the verb sonare in the context of trumpets. This minstrel from Tournai appears to have been among only a small minority of minstrels in Montpellier who came from outside this region in southern France. It has been well established that the late medieval instrumental world was international in character, and specifically that by the beginning of the fifteenth century instrumentalists from the Low Countries and particularly Germany were prominent elsewhere in Europe. Yet it is striking that, of the approximately 125 musicians identified in the records from Montpellier between 1350 and 1450 only a small percentage appears to have been foreigners. Apparently, the region surrounding Montpellier offered sufficient talent and skill, and it was only exceptionally necessary to employ foreigners, such as when the demands of a new instrument made it so. The minstrels would have been an impressive sight in official livery with which they were provided annually and were expected to wear “when the members of the council go in a procession or in other consular activities . . .”39 The colors, which changed annually, were often red or a combination of colors, such as gray, green, and blue; in addition they had expensive trimmings, which included fur linings or edging, and the coat of arms of the city was embroidered on the sleeves.40 Throughout the second half of the fourteenth century, the cost of the official livery was often more than the minstrel’s annual wages, reflecting the importance of the visual appearance of the minstrels in civic ceremonies, as well as the great expense of fine textiles in the Middle Ages.41 Being a significant expense to the city, a statute specified that “no squire, minstrel or other officer of the consulate from the whole year who will have had a robe of the consulate is to damage it, and those who do will lose the said robe.”42 As official officers displaying the expensive livery and coat of arms of the city, the council minstrels’ appearance in civic events 38 39

40

41

42

AMMo, BB 40, no folio. Pégat, Petit Thalamus, 169, “quant los senhors cossols iran en procession o en autres fachs conssolars,” 1375. The cost of the robes of the minstrels, the messenger, and public crier was 8 ll. 4 s. 5 d. t. AMMo, Joffre 845, f. 111v. In 1357, for example, the material for the official robes of the minstrels cost almost three times their wages for that year. Pégat, Petit Thalamus, 169, “negun escudier, menestrier o autre officier del cossolat de tot lan que aura avuda rauba del cossolat non la auze enguatiar, e qui o far perdra la dicha rauba.” An additional stipulation concerning the livery of civic officers, including the minstrels, reads: “in the first year or in the following year no one ought to give away or to sell the robes, and those who do will receive the said penalty.” Ibid. (“Item que de tot lodich an primier ni de lan seguen negun dels non auze las dichas raubas donar ni vendre, e qui o fara portara la dicha pena.”)

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would have reflected and contributed to the importance of Montpellier and, more specifically, the power of the city council. The primary function of the wind band throughout the second half of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was to perform directly in front of the city council through the streets of Montpellier in civic processions. In spite of growing economic problems, the number of processions in which minstrels participated increased during the second half of the fourteenth century, from fifteen in 1357, to twenty-six in 1370, and to thirty-one in 1371. The vast majority of these processions were in celebration of local civic practices, rather than receptions for visiting nobility, such as in 1371 when only three honor royalty. Corresponding to the reduction in size of both the city council and the civic ensemble, the “Ceremonial” identifies only thirteen processions in which the council minstrels participated on an annual basis in the first half of the fifteenth century. (See Table 1.1 for lists of processions in which civic minstrels were hired.) In a typical procession, the members of the city council would meet at the consulate and then process to and from a religious service at the nearby church of Notre Dame-des-Tables. A description of one such celebration is for Christmas night, for which the “Ceremonial” reads as follows: On Christmas night at the first to the second strike of matins the members of the council ought to meet at the consulate with their chaplains, notary, squires, and minstrels all in their robes of the council. They all depart together, with the minstrels playing in the front, toward the tables with their torches. They enter Notre Damedes-Tables by the main door and sit on their bench before the large altar to hear matins and midnight mass. At the elevation of the host each of the members of the council and their notary ought to have their torch of wax burning and to hold it kneeling until the chaplain has [?] and said and finished the mass and the office. They return by the said large door of the said church with the minstrels playing in the front. They return to the consulate, and each takes his leave and goes with his squire, his torch, and his people to his home.43

43

Ibid., ff. 45v–46, “Item que la nuyt de noel au premier en au segond coup de matines les seigneurs consulz se doyvent a adiuster au consolat en leurs chapellanis notaire escuyers et menestriers tous en leurs robbes du consolat Et de la partir tous ensembles touchant les menestriers devant Et se tirent vers taules en leurs torces Et se entrent a nostre dame de tables par la grant porte Et se assoyent en leur banc devant lautel grant Et ouyr la matines et la messe de mynuyt Et au lever de nostre seigneur chascun des seigneurs consulz et leur notaire doyvent avoir leur torce de cire brullant Et le tenir a agenoulhier jusques a ce que le chappellan aye [. . . gue] Et dite et achevee la messe et loffice se retournent par la dicte grant porte de la dicte esglise les menestriers touchant devant Et sen tournent au consolat Et de la chascun prend congies Et sen vont en son escuyer et sa torce et en ses gens a son hostel.” The “toucher” (to touch), or “toquar” in Provençal, is the most frequently used verb meaning “to play” musical instruments.

19

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Table 1.1 Processions for which civic minstrels were hired by the city council Account Book of 1357–844 May 8: The procession of the cross45 May 15: The procession of Saint Blaise May 22: The day of charity May 31: The day of Pentecost on which the Augustan friars made a procession July 1: The procession which was made for the thorn by the Franciscan friars and for their work on the day that the new bailiff entered Aug. 8: A general procession which is made for rain Sept. 5: The procession which is made the day that the first stone was laid for the portal of Saint Fermin and for the night on which the council members went to the vigil Sept. 15: The procession of the cross Dec. 5: The vigil which is made by the nuns at vespers of Saint Andrew Jan. 5: The night of Christmas Jan. 16: The procession that was made when the head of Saint Blaise was returned to the church Feb. 5: The procession that was made the day of Saint Blaise Account Book of 1371–246 May 1: The procession of thorn of the Notre Dame du Chastel May 3: The procession of the cross of the Carmelites Three processions of the three days of Rogation May 17: For the inquisitor of the priests who was master in theology The day of Charity The procession of Saint Yvo The procession of the host The procession of thorn of the Franciscan friars The day of Saint John for the bailiff July 30: The procession of Saint James July 31: The procession of Saint Germain For mounting the bell on the bell-tower of Notre Dame The contest of the crossbowmen The day of Pentecost on which the council members stopped when they played at the grand mass at the chapel and at the door and for everyone For mounting the town bell on the bell-tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables Aug. 6: The general procession Aug. 23: My Lady Johanna of France [Jean de Valois, Queen of Navarre] entered Sept. 1: The vigil of the miracles Sept. 19: When the son of Senhor Jame Guilhem became a doctor Oct. 5: The consecration of the chapel of the consulate Oct. 9: The procession of Saint Denis Oct. 11: The procession of Saint Fermin

44 45

46

AMMo, Joffre 845, ff. 103v–104. The dates are when the minstrels were paid for each of the occasions, which is often one or two weeks after the event. AMMo, Joffre 847, ff. 25–25v.

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Table 1.1 (cont.) Oct. 12: For a new chaplain who departed from the consulate and sang at Saint James Nov. 19: The entrance of the Duchess of Anjou Dec. 24: The night of Christmas Feb. 5: For the master in theology of the Franciscan friars Feb. 15: The procession of Saint Blaise The entrance of the King of Navarre The day of Notre Dame of March for the entrance of the council members Ceremonial of the Council of 1439–5047 March 25: The day of Notre Dame48 Sunday of the octave of Easter: The procession of the true cross of the church of Saint Benoit May 1: Solemnity of the holy thorn of Notre Dame du Chastel May 3: The celebration of the true cross of the Carmelites The day of charity Sunday before Saint Stephan: The celebration of the holy thorn of the Franciscan friars June 24: Nativity of Saint John the Baptist July 25: The celebration of Saint Jacques Aug. 31: The celebration of the miracles of Notre Dame-des-Tables Sept. 1: The celebration of Saint Gilles Oct. 5: Consecration of the chapel Oct. 9: The celebration of Saint Denis Dec. 25: Christmas night

The details of the processions reveal important insights into the organization of the city; as Noël Coulet writes, “Abundant and precise descriptions put into relief these large processions which bring together behind the bodies of saints the whole of the urban community, displayed, organized, hierarchical.”49 The focal points during the typical procession for which the council minstrels were employed in Montpellier were the consulate, the official meeting place of the city council, and Notre Dame-des-Tables, a church representing the city’s political history, and they highlighted the city council’s prominence in urban life. Notre Dame-des-Tables received its name from the surrounding commercial booths or tables and was one of the oldest churches in the city. The local population, as well as numerous pilgrims, visited the church to venerate a wooden statue of the Virgin, which was thought to perform miracles and to serve as the protector of the city. As Fabre writes, “The church of Notre-Dame serves as a monumental 47 49

AMMo, “Ceremonial,” (BB 196). 48 These are the dates of the actual events. Noël Coulet, “Processions, espace urbain, communauté civique,” in Liturgie et musique (IXe– XIVe s.), Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 17 (Toulouse: Privat, 1982), 381, “D’abondantes et précises descriptions qui réunissent derrière les corps saints l’ensemble de la communauté urbaine déployée, organisée, hiérarchisée.”

21

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expression and the most striking sign of recognition of the consular city, the veritable ‘ecclesia matrix’ of Montpellier. The Marian sanctuary crystallizes in effect the urban liberties, the popular piety, the commercial prosperity of the city linked to pilgrimage and its medical vocation.”50 Since the establishment of the city council in 1204, new council members were sworn in before the altar at Notre Dame-des-Tables on March 25, the beginning of the year in Montpellier.51 Elaborate civic ritual marked this event, as would be expected, including a procession with minstrels and an abundant banquet enjoyed by the council members, including multiple types of fish, beans, spinach, rice, fruit, nuts, and white and red wine.52 An annual ceremony in honor of the “Miracles” of the Virgin at Notre Dame-des Tables, celebrated on August 31 and the following solemn octave, was one of the oldest and most solemn ceremonies in Montpellier, during which professional organizations would honor the Virgin.53 The format of the celebration on August 31, based on the description in the “Ceremonial” and supportive payment records, was that of a typical local procession, though the celebration on the following day was unique and extensive. It began with a vigil at Notre Dame-des-Tables to honor the Virgin and then continued with a procession that covered a large portion of the city. The participants all stopped at Saint Fermin and Saint Gilles, where “Salve regina” was recited, and on returning to the consulate at the end of the procession, “Salve regina” was again sung, this time by two chaplains.54 (See Map 2 for the route of the procession in honor of the “Miracles” of Notre Dame-des-Tables.) Suggesting the importance of this event, when the civic minstrels were not available in 1431, as they were engaged by the Seigneur of Clermont, five trumpeters were hired in their place.55 As with the celebration of the “Miracles” that emphasized the historical importance of Notre Dame-des-Tables, other processions revolved around symbols of civic authority. The consecration of the chapel of the consulate 50

51 53

54 55

Fabre and Lochard, Montpellier: la ville médiévale, 128, “L’église Notre-Dame constitue l’expression monumentale et la signe de reconnaissance le plus marquant de la ville consulaire, la véritable ‘ecclesia matrix’ de Montpellier. Le sanctuaire marial cristallise en effet les libertés urbaines, la piété populaire, la prosperité commercial de la ville liée au pèlerinage et sa vocation médicale.” Cholvy, ed., Histoire de Montpellier, 47. 52 Combes, “Une ville face à la crise,” 73. Louise Guiraud, Histoire du culte et des miracles de Notre-Dame des Tables (Montpellier: Jean Martel, 1885). AMMo, BB 196, “Ceremonial,” f. 32. AMMo, Joffre 712, (CC 712), f. 118, “Item a ii setembre per v trompetas que loget per vegolar als myracles per default dels menestryers que eron anast a moss de clarmont.” (“Payment on September 2 for 5 trumpeters who were rented for the vigil of the miracles for the lack of the minstrels who had gone to Mr. de Clarmont.”)

Map 2. Procession for the annual celebration of the miracles of the Virgin Mary. The base map has been drawn from Louise Guiraud, Recherches topographiques sur Montpellier au Moyen Âge; formation de la ville, ses enceintes successive, ses rues, ses monuments, etc. (Montpellier: Coulet, 1895).

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Playing before the council

celebrated each year on October 5 had an elaborate itinerary with overt political overtones. On this occasion, the minstrels performed not only in the streets of Montpellier but also in a procession within the mass in which they were located in front of a highly venerated relic. The “Ceremonial” reads, When the next day comes, all the members of the council and other officers in the chapter of the Miracles of Notre Dame come to the consulate to hear a solemn mass, which is sung solemnly with notes. And there are good singers. One of the priests of Saint Fermin sings the mass. In the said mass a pretty procession is made in which the members of the council carry their baldachin. The minstrels in their livery go playing before the relics which are under the said baldachin. The sacristan of Saint Fermin, who is the Canon of Maguelone, is in the procession, and carries in his hands the head of Saint Cleophas. Each of the members of the council, the workers, the council of the sea, syndics and all other officers and servants of the council ought and are obligated to follow the said procession. And each carries a white candle of wax on which are painted the arms of the consulate.56

The head of Saint Cleophas, which was housed in the church of Saint Fermin, was brought back to Montpellier in 1103 from the first crusade by the overlord of Montpellier, Guillem V, who had accompanied Count Raymond of Toulouse and had distinguished himself during the capture of Jerusalem.57 The placement of the civic minstrels in front of this venerated relic, which was surrounded by the city council with its baldachin, would have served to attach the authority and sanctity of the relics to the city council. Besides the use of the relics, the political hierarchy of the city was reinforced through the obligation of city officials to follow behind the city council and the prominent display of the coat of arms of the city on the livery of the minstrels and others, as well as on the candles. The procession had an unusually long route through the streets of Montpellier; following the mass, the participants left the consulate, walked through Notre Damedes-Tables, circled around approximately seven blocks, and returned to 56

57

AMMo, BB 196, “Ceremonial,” ff. 34v–35, “Et quant vient lendemain tous les seigneurs consulz et mais tous les autres officiers sus expressatz en le chapitre des miracles de nostre dame viennent au consolat pour oyr une solempnelle messe qui se chant en note solempnellement Et y a de bons chantres laquelle messe chante ung des curez de saint fermin Et dicte icelle messe se fait une belle procession en laquelle les seigneurs consulz portent leur pavailhon Et y son leurs menestriers en leur livree que vont touchant devant les reliquaires que sont dessoubz ledit pavailhon Et fait la procession le sacrestain de saint fermin qui est chanoine de maguelonne Et porte en ses mains le chef du corps sains monseigneur saint cleophas Et chascun des seigneurs consulz ouvriers consulz de mer scindicz et tous autres officers et serviteurs du consolat doyvent et sont tenuz de suyvre la dicte procession Et chascun porte une chandeille blanche de cire en laquelle sont paintes les armes du consolat.” Baumel, Histoire d’une seigneurie, vol. II, 281; Archibald Ross Lewis, “The Guillems of Montpellier: A Sociological Appraisal,” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 2 (1971): 160.

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the consulate, where the minstrels were given extra remuneration. (See Map 3 for the route of the procession in honor of the consecration of the Chapel of the Consulate.) The mounting of a new bell on the tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables in 1371 was also an event with great significance for civic independence that was commemorated by a procession with civic minstrels leading the way. Since 1264 a large bell had been mounted on the tower of Notre Dame-desTables, and the city council had appointed guards to sound the hours, announce curfew, warn citizens of danger, and mark important events with the bells.58 The sound of the bells, however, would have carried much deeper meaning to its listeners. In his book Power, Caste, and Law: Social Conflict in Fourteenth-Century Montpellier Jan Rogozinski wrote, Possession of a bell tower was, throughout France, a prerogative granted only to a valid government, and the bell in Montpellier had long been an important symbol of consular authority, ringing daily to sound the curfew and calling together the assembly of citizens that gave a semblance of general assent to municipal ordinances. Like the acceptance of their appeals, control of the tower strongly implied that the popular syndics had the recognition of the crown.59

An important annual event that highlighted the wealth of the city, as well as its social hierarchy, was a procession on the annual “Day of Charity” that was celebrated on Ascension Day, when bread contributed by the city council and other professions in town was distributed to those in need. The minstrels took their standard position in the procession immediately in front of the city council, which was followed by the members of the professions. Not only the organization of the procession, but also the amount of bread donated by these professions, reflected the social hierarchy and wealth within the city.60 For example, in 1416, the city council emphasized how essential it was for the well-being of the city through its donation of 1,000 loaves, while the tailors donated 100, and the hatmakers and the crossbowmen each donated 20. A number of the processions focused upon relics housed in the churches of Montpellier that would have brought the city attention and sanctity, such as a fragment of the true cross in the possession of the Carmelites and the holy thorn of Notre Dame du Chastel. These events also served to highlight major institutions in town, such as the procession in honor of Saint Germain in 1371. Pope Urban V in 1366 had offered relics of Saint 58 59

Baumel, Histoire d’une seigneurie, vol. II, 276–7. Rogozinski, Power, Caste, and Law, 12. 60 Combes, “Une ville face à la crise,” 73.

25

Map 3. Procession for the annual consecration of the Chapel of the Consulate.

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Germain to the Benedictines in Montpellier and was responsible for the formation of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to the saint in his attempt to revitalize the university.61 The regular presence of the civic minstrels in religious celebrations is highlighted by the one procession from which they were expressly excluded: the annual procession honoring Saint Louis of Anjou celebrated on 25 August. This celebration was of unusual importance and solemnity in the region, as Louis, who was the brother of King Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, died in 1297 after being held in captivity in Spain, was buried in Marseilles, and canonized in 1317. According to the “Ceremonial,” “On August 25 is the celebration of Saint Louis. On this day there is a procession in which one part of the council goes to the church of Saint Foy and the other part goes in the procession to Notre Dame du Chastel. Nobody is to carry a baldachin or a torch, and the minstrels are not to go.”62 The civic minstrels of Montpellier also assumed a prominent role in processions honoring visiting nobility, and while certainly these events honored the nobility and contributed to the visitor’s prestige in the area, the organization of these events projected a strong image of the city, and specifically the city council. On 9 January, 1367, for example, the civic minstrels participated in a procession in honor of Pope Urban V, who was originally from the area, received his doctorate in canon law at the university in Montpellier, and made significant contributions to the welfare of the city. In this enthusiastic reception for the pope, as in other processions honoring important visitors, the minstrels served as official representatives of the city, displaying the civic livery and banners, both adorned with the coat of arms of the city. On this occasion, as was customary, the civic minstrels were among a small party that traveled on horseback to a nearby town to welcome the visiting party, while more people joined the procession as it approached Montpellier. The description of the event in the chronicle reads as follows: they [the pope accompanied by religious, royal, and civic leaders all on horseback] enter near “sant Anthoni de Cadola” with three large banners; one presents the arms of the pope and the other two the arms of the city of Montpellier, of these one went with the minstrels of the arms of the pope and of the city, and the other went first before all the pennons of the organizations of professions (escalas). And then all 61 62

Baumel, Histoire d’une seigneurie, vol. II, 281. AMMo, BB 196, “Ceremonial,” ff. 29–29v, “Item a xxv daoust est la feste de monseigneur saint loys et cellui jour se fait la procession en lesglise de saincte foy en la quelle procession vont des seigneurs consulz une partie Et lautre partie vont a la procession de nostre dame du chastel Et ne si porte pavailhon ne luminaire ne les menestriers ne y vont point.”

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Playing before the council those who are liveried and the organizations of professions went on foot . . . they came entering at the top of the bridge of Castelnau, and all the members of the council were on foot with one beautiful and noble baldachin that they had made with three new cloths of gold, with eight batons and fourteen escutcheons of silver with the arms of the pope and another fourteen with the arms of the city and 24 small bells of silver and gold . . .63

The city chronicle also describes numerous receptions involving civic minstrels for the Duchess of Anjou, the King and Queen of Navarre, the King and Queen of France, the Count of Foix, among others. In the reception in 1372 for the King of Navarre, the Duke of Orange, and Philip of Savoy, the minstrels were part of a small party on horseback who met the royalty outside of the city. According to the city account book of this year, the seven council minstrels were paid twice what they were typically paid for religious processions for the “entrance of the King of Navarre,” and the city rented seven horses for the minstrels to use on this occasion.64 Similar arrangements were made for the entrances of the Princess of France and of the Duchess of Anjou during the previous year. For the Queen of Navarre’s arrival in 1373, the council minstrels and a small group of city officials traveled as far as Béziers, a town forty miles south of Montpellier, to welcome the royal party.65 The music that citizens of Montpellier heard during the frequent processions in the city streets certainly must have carried meaning to its listeners. As Jean-Arnault Derens wrote concerning these solemn civic occasions in Montpellier, “the consular power affirms and proclaims its hold on the city.”66 The majority of the processions reflected Montpellier’s unique history as an independent and powerful city with the wealth to patronize such events. A procession’s purpose, route, organization, and symbols reinforced the political history of the city. Among these symbols, the council minstrels, placed directly in front of the city council with civic livery and 63

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Pégat, Le Petit Thalamus, 373, “yssiron li entro prop Sant Anthoni de Cadola am III bandieyras grandas, so es assaber la una de las armas de nostre senhor lo papa e las II de las armas de vila de Montpellier, delas cals la una anava am menestriers de las armas de nostre senhor lo papa e de la vila, e lautre anava primieyra davan totz los penos de las escalas, e puoys totas las lievreyas e las escalas li foron a pe . . . vengron entro al cap dessay del pon de Castelnou, et aqui foron totz los senhors cossols a pe amb I bel pabalho e noble que els li avian fag de novel de III draps daur am VIII bastos e XIIII escuts dargent de las armas del dig nostre senhor lo papa et autras XIIII de las armas de la vila e XXIIII campanetas dargent dauradas.” AMMo, Joffre 847, f. 25v. 65 Pégat, Le Petit Thalamus, 389. Jean-Arnault Derens, “Pouvoir consulaire, espace urbain et cérémonies religieuses à Montpellier à la fin du moyen-âge,” in Espaces religieux et communautés méridionale (Montpellier: Fédération historique du Languedoc méditerranéen et du Roussillon, 1994), 82, “le pouvoir consulaire affirme et affiche son emprise sur la ville . . ."

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banners adorned with the coat of arms, were prominent. Even in the processions to honor visiting nobility, the council minstrels were crucial in presenting an image of civic independence and power. While performing in processions was clearly the primary function of the council minstrels, they were required to provide other services as well, though the contracts of the minstrels are not specific concerning these obligations. Two entries in the city statutes from 1375 and 1412, for example, only state that the council minstrels were to participate in “other consular activities” and “other certain necessary things for the community of the said city.”67 One of the additional services of the council minstrels might have been to perform at dances and to provide entertainment on special occasions, such as for the birth of the dauphin in 1392. For this event, the chronicle notes, “All the members of the council were there with many minstrels to welcome those when they came and to make their pleasure.”68 While the chronicle does not specifiy which minstrels were involved, it seems likely that the council minstrels would have provided at least some of the music, as this particular festivity was located at the consulate. Another service the council minstrels might have fulfilled periodically was to make official proclamations throughout the city and provide messages, even though the city council employed separate official public criers. During the second half of the fourteenth century, payments were made to minstrels, including two council minstrels identified by name, to make announcements at the nearby port town of Lattes.69 The annual wages of the council minstrels for performing in processions in the second half of the fourteenth century were significantly less than the wages of many other civic employees and must have been only a portion of their total annual income. The civic minstrels of Montpellier were paid per service in the fourteenth century. In 1357 each of the council minstrels was paid 2 s. 2 d. t. per procession, which amounted to a little more than 1½ ll. t. for the year, plus an annual bonus of 5 s. t.70 A slight increase in payment for a procession in 1370 to 2 s. 6 d. t. and in the following year to 2 s. 6 d. t. for religious processions and to 5 s. t. for royal processions, along with an increase in the number of processions, resulted in the higher annual remuneration of 3 ll. 5 s. t. in 1370 and 4 ll. 5 s. t. in 1371 for each minstrel.71 67

68

69 71

Pégat, Le Petit Thalamus, 169, 1375, “autres fachs conssolars”; 180–1, 1412, “per las processions et autras certas causas necessarias ala comunitat dela dicha vila.” Ibid., 421, “totas ves los senhors cossols y estavan am motz menestriers per aculhir los quant venian e lur fazian far plassa.” AMMo, Joffre 850, f. 13v and Inv. 11, No. 3, f. 6. 70 AMMo, Joffre 845, f. 103v. AMMo, Joffre 846, f. 52v; Joffre 847, f. 25.

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These wages were similar to those of skilled craftsmen. For instance, a minstrel’s wage in 1357 of 2 s. 2 d. t. for a procession, which took less than half of a day and perhaps only one or two hours, is comparable to a full day’s wage of 5 s. t. of a mason, but is more than a full day’s wage of 3 s. 4 d. t. of an unskilled laborer. The limited number of services each year, however, resulted in wages that were a fraction of other civic employees, such as that of the annual salary of a messenger in 1357 of 30 ll. t. and that of a squire of 12 ll. t. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the minstrels received annual salaries and contracts. In 1411 three council minstrels were contracted by the city for a “customary annual wage” of 10 ll. t. plus their livery.72 According to a city statute in 1412, however, the city council felt it appropriate and necessary to reduce the minstrels’ wages. The statute reads, “For the processions and other certain necessary reasons in the community of the said city, it is the custom to have certain minstrels to whom were given each year to each one 10 ll. t. and robes; this salary is excessive considering the state of the city, we order that henceforward they are not to be given nor have more than the sum of 7 ll. 10 s. t. with the customary robes to each one each year.”73 The annual wages of the council minstrels cannot be determined for the next forty years; in 1450, the total annual wages of a minstrel had again been significantly decreased to only 4 ll. t., though it is not clear if there is a corresponding decrease in the number of services.74 In the fifteenth century the annual wages of the civic minstrels continued to be significantly less than those of many other civic employees. In 1412, for instance, when a minstrel’s annual wage was about 7 ll. t., the city council offered its notary 100 ll. t., its treasurer 60 ll. t., and its squires 24 ll. t. each. The minstrels did, however, earn more than the individuals who were employed by the city council to repair the roads.75 While a minstrel’s salary was reduced by over half to 4 ll.t. during the first half of the fifteenth century, the salaries of all city employees were not reduced; the notary was still receiving 100 ll. t., and a squire received only a slightly reduced sum of 22 ll. t. In addition to the annual stipend, the minstrels would customarily receive tips, often in the form of drinks, particularly at Christmas and the celebration of the consecration of the chapel.76 72 73

74 76

AMMo, BB 40, no folio. Pégat, Le Petit Thalamus, 180–1, 1412, “Item per so que per las processions et autras certas causas necessarias ala communitat de la dicha vila es do costuma aver certz menestriers als quals se donavan cascun an a cada hun dels x. lieuras tornes e raubas, lo qual salari es excessieu attendut lo present istat dela vila, estatuem que dayssi en avan non lur si donat ni aion outra summa de vii. lieuras e x. sous tornes am las raubas acostumadas a cada hun dels a cascun an.” AMMo, Joffre 535, (CC 535), f. 14. 75 Pégat, Le Petit Thalamus, 179–81. In 1403 payment was made “to the minstrels and squires for the custom the night of Christmas for their drink at the wishes of the members of the council,” and in 1432 payment was made “to the

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Table 1.2: Council minstrels of Montpellier, 1357–1500: dates of payment as council minstrel Jon Mota alias Pancamicha: 1357 Floret: 1357 Martinet: 1357 Boisso: 1357 Bonet: 1357 Jame Dieu: 1357 Mondo: 1357 Johannes Carpini: 1403 Nicholaus la Charua: 1403, 1411 Guillmus Alberqui: 1403, 1411 Petrus de Medie Camporum: 1411 Johannes Capelan alias Piseti: 1418 Jaquetus Bobin: 1418, 1419 Jacominus Mutonis: 1419, 1432, 1433, 1444, 1450 Petrus de Mala: 1431, 1432, 1433, 1444, 1450 Jaufredus Julian alias Verdellet: 1432, 1433, 1444, 1450, 1455 Durandus de la Vinea: 1432, 1433 Joseptus Peseloux: 1450 Peyre Amelier: 1455 Hugoninus Melleri: 1455, 1480, 1481, 1482, 1489, 1492, 1494 Jaquet Jordan: 1455 Johannes Pigetier: 1489 Marcial Fabri: 1492, 1494, 1497, 1500 Raymundus Cabrier: 1492, 1494, 1497 Anthonius Quisac: 1494, 1498, 1500 John Melleri: 1497 Glaudius Cayrat: 1497, 1498, 1500 Bernardus Fabri: 1498 Glaudius Dedet: 1500

Although the minstrels’ remuneration was not sizeable, at least employment offered by the city was stable. (See Table 1.2 for a list of the council minstrels, 1357–1500.) Three of the five minstrels employed in 1357 continued to be employed by the city council fourteen years later, and in the mid-fifteenth century three of the four civic minstrels retained their positions for at least twenty years. Within the official ensemble of council minstrels for the gift (estrano) which is customary to give to them on Christmas,” which amounted to 3 s. t. per minstrel. AMMo, “Pièces extraits, 1403,” no folio, “als menestryers e escudies per costuma la nueg de nadal per lur beure am voler del senhors x s.”; Joffre 712 (CC 712), f. 120, “Item paget als menestryers per la estrana que lor es acostumada a donar a nadal 12 s.”

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minstrels, a formalized hierarchy does not appear to have existed. The only suggestion of a hierarchy, and perhaps reflecting only seniority within the ensemble, are references in payment records to a particular minstrel and “his companion minstrels of the consulate” or “his fellow minstrels.” The process of selection or the criteria used for hiring council minstrels have not been determined, and only one family has been identified with more than one generation of council minstrels; in the second half of the fifteenth century, Peyre Amelier (1455), Hugon Amelier (1455–93) and Johan Mellery (1496), identified as the son of Hugon, all served as council minstrels. While council minstrels imbued special occasions in Montpellier with meaning, tower-trumpeters could be heard performing from the politically symbolic bell-tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables, on a daily, and even hourly, basis. As typical throughout medieval Europe, watchmen were placed around the ramparts of Montpellier, as well as on the central tower, where watchmen provided essential signals with bells or other instruments. By at least the late fourteenth century in Montpellier, the duties of these central watchmen involved playing the trumpet. In addition to the two “watchmen of the bell-tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables” in 1370 ringing the bells, one of the watchmen was reimbursed by the city for the upkeep of his trumpet and the other was an established trumpeter in town.77 Similarly, while in 1393 the duties of the two “watchmen of the bell-tower of Montpellier” only refer to the ringing of “the large bell,” both watchmen were trumpeters.78 Raymundus Salamon, who was a tower-trumpeter from at least 1393 to 1398, appears frequently in city records from 1356 to 1398 identified as both a minstrel and a trumpeter. He was an established musician in town, who in addition to serving as a tower-trumpeter, participated in processions along with the council minstrels, served as a public crier, and was a member of the minstrel guild.79 Petrus de Murato (also known as Petrus Ayle), who held this position from at least 1371 to 1403, was also an established musician of Montpellier and came from a family of professional musicians. Petrus’ father, Johan Ayle, was a minstrel in Montpellier from at least 1358 to 1392; and a document from 1322 identifies a father and son, both with the

77

78

79

AMMo, Joffre 847, f. 5, “Item a xxxi Decembre dem a Johan Remieu bada que adobet sa trompeta” (Payment “on December 31 to Johan Remieu, watchman, who repaired his trumpet”). AMMo, BB 26, f. 13, “Petrus de Murato et Raymundus Phalamonis custodes cloqarii montispessulani” are employed by the council to “pulsare magne campane.” AMMo, Joffre 847, f. 28v; “Regestre des senhors,” f. 22, f. 34, f. 56v, f. 79v, f. 92, f. 106, f. 124, f. 154, 1356–82; ADH, II E 95/394, f. 133v, 1379.

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name of Guilhem Ayle, as trumpeters, presenting the possibility of two more generations of musicians. Evidently becoming lax in his duties after many years in this position, in 1403 Petrus is obliged to some additional conditions of employment. Revealing his versatility in skills, he promised while on duty not “to entertain others, nor to teach trumpeters, nor to make a trumpet while there.”80 In the first extant city contract for this position dating from 1396, Raymundus Salamon is identified as both a trumpeter and a watchman, and he promises to make the watch night and day in the bell-tower, to strike the hours, as well as to trumpet.81 The watchmen were to trumpet twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, most likely to announce the opening and closing of the town gates. A contract from 1398, for example, reads, “We [the city council] accept as watchmen of the bell-tower of Notre Damedes-Tables and sounders of the hours night and day to keep watch for fires and armed men Petrus de Murato inhabitant of Montpellier and Marinus Perpetuis of Aix-en-Provence. The said Marinus is also accepted as trumpeter in the morning and in the evening in the said bell-tower.”82 In 1410, a large clock with a bell was commissioned for the tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables and was intended to replace the sounding of the hours by the guards, as, according to the city council, the guards received “high wages” (magnis vadiis) and demonstrated “great negligence because they did not sound the hours” (magna negligencia quia non trahunt eas horis).83 Perhaps socializing and other activities continued in the tower after Petrus’ promise to stop, provoking the council’s irritation and leading to the construction of the town clock. This is at the same time, however, that the city council complained about the excessive wages of the minstrels, suggesting the real concern might be the financial difficulties of the city. It evidently took a number of years to get the clock functioning adequately, as in 1431

80

81

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83

AMMo, BB 36, f. 55, “recolligere aliquos fayditos nec tubicinatores docere seu ibi trompam facere.” “Fayditos” literally means “enemies,” but in this context, it likely means “anybody who does not belong in the tower.” AMMo, BB 27, f. 4, “consules receperunt in tubicinatorem et custodem campanilis ecclesie beate marie de tabules Raymundus Phalamonis . . . Raymundus promisit . . . in campanili facere ex cubias nocte et die pulsare horas et tubicinare.” AMMo, BB 29, f. 19v, “Recepimus in custodes campanilis ecclesie beate marie de tabules et pulsatorii horarum noctibus et diebus et facere vigilias propter incendia seu gentes armorum videlicet Petrum de Murato habitator montispessulani et Marinum Perpetuis de ac in provincia dictum Marinum etiam tubicinatorem de mane et vespere in dicto campanili.” J. Renouvier and A. Ricard, “Des maîtres de pierre et des autres artistes gothiques de Montpellier,” Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Montpellier 2 (Montpellier: Jean Martel ainé, 1844), 327.

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and 1432 the two watchmen continued to sound the hours.84 By 1434, the clock had finally replaced the tower-trumpeters in this capacity, and a new obligation of playing the trumpet in official entrances had been added to their duties. According to the contract of this year, one of the towertrumpeters leases himself to the council for “sounding the watch in the evening and in the morning in the bell-tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables of Montpellier. Also lying down in the said bell-tower at night keeping the watch for fires as has become the custom. And also approaching with you [the city council] during entrances and exits of magnates trumpeting.”85 All of the duties of the tower-trumpeters by this point involve the trumpet: sounding the watch in the morning and evening, announcing any signs of danger, and performing in processions. In a contract two years later the duties that did not involve the trumpet had been reduced or eliminated; sounding the hours is not mentioned, and their task of standing watch for the city seems to have been reduced to watching for danger only at night or during the day at times of war.86 By the next decade, their obligation to guard the bell-tower was omitted altogether, leaving only the duties in which the primary activity was playing the trumpet, to sound the watch and to play in processions. Appropriately, in these contracts and other payment records at this time, the men are no longer referred to as watchmen, but only as trumpeters or sounders of the watch.87 By the mid-fifteenth century the position had become one in which trumpet playing was the primary duty, and throughout the second half of the fifteenth century two trumpeters continued to be employed to sound the watch at the bell-tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables. The nature of what the tower-trumpeters of Montpellier performed when they “sounded the watch” from the bell-tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables is much more difficult to establish than their duties, as no descriptions have been identified. This issue deserves careful consideration because, while it was a common practice throughout Europe for a city to employ a horn or 84

85

86 87

AMMo, Joffre 712, (CC 712), f. 124v, “garda e sonayre de las horas e de la gacha de nostra dona de taulas;” f. 126, “garda e trompeta de Nostra Dona e sonayre de las horas;” f. 128; f. 129v. Similar payment records also exist in AMMo, Joffre 530, (CC 530), ff. 4–4v, f. 5, f. 11v, f. 13v, f. 18, f. 19v. AMMo, BB 49, f. 11, “Scilicet ad sonandam guacham tam de vespere quod de mane in campanili ecclesie beate marie de tabulis montispessulani ac in dicto campanili de nocte cubandam et vigilandam pro incendiis ut est fieri consuetum nec non ad accedendam vobiscum ad intratas et exitas magnatuum tubicinando.” AMMo, BB 50, f. 7v. AMMo, BB 51, f. 9, 1441; Inv. 8, No. 531, (CC 531), f. 28, 1442; Inv. 8, No. 533, (CC 533), ff. 7–7v, f. 12, f. 33, f. 33v, f. 37v, 1442–3; Inv. 8, No. 534, (CC 534), f. 11, f. 39v, 1443–4; BB 52, f. 14v, f. 15, 1444; Inv. 9, No. 713, (CC 713), f. 35, 1448; BB 58, f. 6v, 1449.

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trumpet player on a central tower to provide audible signals and warnings, the musical skills and duties of these men varied considerably. For example, in southern Germany the guards on the bell-tower were equipped with only signal horns, and according to Keith Polk, “they were not musicians in any important sense.”88 In the Low Countries, however, between 1350 and 1450 the function of the town watchmen was actually assumed by the official civic minstrels who might have been capable of performing polyphonic chansons.89 The instruments used by the tower-trumpeters in Montpellier were not restricted to signaling, unlike the instruments of the town watchmen of southern Germany. These instruments are most commonly identified as trumpets (trompetas, trompas, or rarely in the early fifteenth century as the higherpitched namphilus), not as a simpler horn. Two of the earliest documented men to have held this position in the fourteenth century appear to have been capable of playing more than simple signals from the bell-tower. Furthermore, the nature of the official duties of the position by at least the third decade of the fifteenth century, which included performing in royal receptions, suggests that trained trumpet players would have been hired. While scribes were not concerned with describing the sounds of the trumpet emanating from the belltower of Notre Dame-des-Tables at least twice a day, the musical skills of the tower-trumpeters, the nature of the duties of the position, and the instruments that were used suggest the music could have been more than simple signals. The position of the tower-trumpeter during this period, like that of council minstrel, offered stability and security. They received annual contracts, and while documentation is sporadic, trumpeters were commonly attached to this position over extended periods of time, such as Petrus de Murato’s career, which spanned at least thirty-two years (1370–1402), and Johan Sarralhon’s career, which spanned at least thirty-four years (1442–76). (See Table 1.3 for a list of the tower-trumpeters during this period and their tenure in the position.) Throughout this period, musicians did not tend to serve as both council minstrels and tower-trumpeters; with only one possible exception, the personnel of these two civic positions remained separate. As with the council minstrels, the position did not remain within a particular family; the only relatives who are known to have held this position are a father and a son-inlaw in the second half of the fifteenth century.90 88

89 90

Keith Polk, “Instrumental Music in the Urban Centres of Renaissance Germany,” Early Music History 7 (1987): 162. Polk, “Wind Bands,” 99. Coston Fabre held this position from at least 1476 until 1488, and his son-in-law, Jaumet Labejac, served with him from at least 1478 until 1493. AMMo, Joffre 556 (CC 556), f. 64, 1477; Joffre 569 (CC 569), f. 56, 1489.

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Table 1.3: Tower-trumpeters of Montpellier, 1357–1500: dates of payment as tower-trumpeter Johan Remieu: 1370, 1371 Petrus de Murato: 1370, 1371, 1393, 1398, 1402, 1403 Raymundus Salamonis: 1393, 1397, 1398 Marinus Perpetuis: 1398 Simonet Riqueri: 1403 Johannes Roch: 1412, 1417 Johannes Boerus: 1412 Cleophas Bosqui: 1431, 1432 Johan Mahut: 1431, 1432 P. Manti: 1432 Raymundus de Bussargues: 1434, 1436, 1441, 1442, 1443 Johannes Molinerus: 1434 Johannes Sarralhon: 1441, 1442, 1443, 1444, 1446, 1462, 1464, 1465, 1477 Johannes Montels: 1441, 1442, 1443, 1444, 1446, 1449 Dominicus de Avenis: 1449 Guille Palhassa: 1477 Coston Fabre: 1477, 1478, 1488 Jaume Labejaque: 1478, 1489, 1491, 1493, 1495 Dionisis Martin: 1480, 1482, 1485

The annual wages of the tower-trumpeters, distributed in four installments, were substantially higher than those of the council minstrels, most likely due to the trumpeters’ extensive duties. (See Table 1.4 for the annual wages of the tower-trumpeters.) In 1412, for example, the annual wage of the tower-trumpeters was 20 ll. t., over twice the annual wage of 7 ll. 10 s. t. of a council minstrel, but similar to those of the squires of 24 ll. t. Similarly, in the mid-fifteenth century, the annual wage of the tower-trumpeter was 6 ll. t. while that of a council minstrel was only 4 ll. t. The annual wages of the tower-trumpeters consistently and dramatically decreased throughout this period, as did the wages of the council minstrels, reflecting in part the declining economy of Montpellier. With the tower-trumpeters, however, the decrease in wages also corresponded to a decrease in their official obligations, with a significant reduction in wages from 1432 to 1442 corresponding to the omission of the duty of night watchman. Because of the extensive duties in the fourteenth century, the position must have been the primary, if not sole, source of their employment, whereas with the twicedaily obligations in the mid-fifteenth century, they would have been able to pursue other sources of income. In addition to their wages, towertrumpeters received annually four meters of cloth for a coat or uniform,

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Table 1.4: Annual wages of the tower-trumpeters Years

Amount

1370–1 1396–8 1398–1412 1412–17 1431–2 1442 1443 1450–87

52 ll. t. 28 ll. t. 24 ll. t. 20 ll. t. 22 ll. t. 3 ll. t. 5 ll. t. 6 ll. t.

as well as a candle, a wool mat, and a feather pillow to make the evenings in the bell-tower more tolerable.91 The citizens of late medieval Montpellier would have depended upon the tower-trumpeters’ essential contributions to the security and daily running of the city and would have understood the familiar signals for opening and closing of the gates each day and for marking the hours of the day, as well as the more unusual warnings for fire or approaching enemies. The townspeople would have also been aware of the political imagery attached to these trumpeters, including their donning of official clothing, their placement in Notre Dame-des-Tables, and their arrangement near the city council during receptions of visiting royalty. While perhaps in the beginning of this period the trumpet signals emanating from the tower would have been simple and purely functional, already by the late fourteenth century the men in this position would have been capable of providing musically elaborate sounds. The trumpeter who served as official crier of Montpellier also provided a very prominent image of civic power, as he was provided with livery that at least at times was significantly more expensive than the livery of a council minstrel or messenger.92 To make the association between the announcements and the city even more explicit, pennons bearing the coat of arms of the city were frequently attached to the trumpet of the crier. The crier made official announcements regularly in the city of Montpellier and the nearby port city of Lattes, as well as periodically in other cities. The nature of these

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AMMo, BB 49, f. 16v, 1434, “Item primo unum matalaum lane Item unum [craylis] berguatam Item unum pulvinar plume” (“one wool mat, one candle, one feather pillow”). AMMo, Joffre 845, f. 111v. In 1357, the crier received a uniform worth over 6 ll. t., which was significantly more expensive than a uniform of a council minstrel or messenger worth approximately 4 ll. t.

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announcements varied significantly, some pertaining to mundane events, such as the assessment of taxes, the exportation of food, or the auctioning of city property, others pertaining to special events, such as the settlement of peace or charitable contributions of the king. Prior to making an official announcement, the criers sounded their trumpets, or periodically the higher-pitched namphilus, to draw the citizens’ attention and to imbue the announcement with greater importance and authority. As with the tower-trumpeters, some of the criers were known as minstrels, belonged to the minstrels’ guild, or participated in activities that required musical skills.93 The personnel for each of the municipal positions for musicians remained distinct, with the criers generally not serving as towertrumpeters or council minstrels. On at least one occasion in the second half of the fourteenth century, two council minstrels were hired by the city, along with two trumpeters, to make announcements at Lattes.94 While it would seem likely that the need for sophisticated trumpet playing would depend on the importance of the announcement, at least some of the criers of Montpellier were trained instrumentalists capable of providing elaborate fanfares. In addition to tower-trumpeters and civic criers, the city of Montpellier periodically hired trumpeters in other capacities as well. In 1371, for example, a trumpeter by the name of Astoric was provided with the official civic livery and performed on a bell-tower for the arrival of the King of Navarre, and yet he did not serve in one of the three regular civic positions for musicians.95 Trumpeters were also hired by the city to serve on a ship during war, such as in 1443, the city paid “trumpeters of the galley” two mutons of gold (a little less than 2 ll.), or in the following year the city council loaned the “trumpet of the consulate” to a trumpeter to take on a ship.96 Throughout this period, large trumpet ensembles were popular on 93

94

95

96

One such example is Raymundus Salamon, a tower-trumpeter who was discussed earlier. Other civic criers who were members of the minstrels’ guild include G. Boyssier in the second half of the fourteenth century and Simon Requier in the first half of the fifteenth century. AMMo, Inv. 11, No. 3, f. 6v, “Item paguey a Mondo e a Marty menestries e a ii trompaires que menean a Latas que far las cridas” (“Payment to Mondo and to Marty minstrels and to 2 trumpeters who were taken to Lattes to make the announcements”). Ibid., f. 29, “Item dem a Astorc trompeta que estet al cloquier de Sant Eulaya ii sepuianas davant que lo Rey de Navarra vengiees . . . ii ll.” (“Payment to Astorc trumpeter who was at the belltower of Sant Eulaya 2 weeks before when the King of Navarre came . . . ii ll. t.”); Inv. 9, No. 847, ff. 28–28v. AMMo, Joffre 534 (CC 534), f. 20v, 1443, “clavarie solvit et deliberet tubicinatoribus de la galea videlicet summam duorum mutonorum auris” (“the treasurer pays and delivers to the trumpeters of the galley the sum of two mutons of gold”). AMMo, BB 52, f. 19v, 1444, “Petrus de Fonte tubicinator montispessulani confessus fuit et in veritate recognovit habuisse et recepisse a honorabilibus viris dominis consulibus montispessulani ibidem presentibus videlicet tubam

Languedoc

special occasions, such as in 1403 when four trumpeters were employed for the annual day of charity, in 1431, when five trumpeters were hired for the celebration of the Miracles, or in 1502, when eight trumpeters received livery.97 In summary, the city of Montpellier in the beginning of the fourteenth century was the largest city in the region, had enjoyed a strong independent government for the previous 200 years, had a large body of wealthy citizens involved in commercial trade, and indeed was one of the leading cities in Europe. During the second half of the fourteenth century in Montpellier, despite its initial decline, enough wealth among its citizens, conciliar power, and established civic traditions were maintained that the strong civic government was able to regularly employ a strikingly large body of civic musicians. The civic wind band of five members, already well established by 1357, the two tower-trumpeters, the official crier, as well as the additional trumpeters for special occasions were all a direct reflection of the prosperity and independence that Montpellier had enjoyed during the previous two centuries. The further decline in size and wealth of the city during the second half of the fourteenth century, as well as the reduction in the power of the city council, might have contributed to the slight reduction in the civic wind band by the fifteenth century. The overall number of civicemployed musicians, however, remained fairly constant, demonstrating that even during periods with limited funds musicians continued to be a priority. Whether performing directly in front of the city council in processions, “sounding the watch” from the bell-tower of Notre Dame-des-Tables, or making official pronouncements throughout the city and region, these musicians all in their official livery served as an important tool in maintaining an image of power and wealth for the city, and more specifically for the city council, during a period of decline.

97

domus consulatus pro accedendo in galeam” (“Petrus de Fonte trumpeter of Montpellier acknowledged and in truth recognized to have and to have received from the honorable men of the council of Montpellier namely the trumpet of the consulate for approaching in a galley”). See Daniel Leech-Wilkinson’s discussion of a book belonging to a trumpeter of an Italian ship in the 1440s. It contains French polyphonic chansons, as well as tenor parts. “Il libro di appunti di un suonatore di tromba del quindicesimo secolo,” Rivista italiana di musicologia 16 (1981): 16–39. AMMo, “Pièces extraits, 1403,” no folio; Joffre 712, (CC 712), f. 118. A later example from 1502 from the Petit Thalamus (p. 484) reads, “Toutes les trompettes de la ville y furent, sonnant au devant du dit seigneur, abilhez de livrée et abilhemens neufs, que estoient en nombre huyt.” (“All of the trumpets of the city were there, playing before the said nobility, dressed in new livery, who were eight in number.”)

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Narbonne Narbonne, another first-rank city in Languedoc located a little less than 100 kilometers to the northeast, offers an interesting comparison to Montpellier. Founded in the second century bc along the juncture of trade routes to Spain and Aquitania, Narbonne is one of the oldest towns in southern France. Narbonne emerged as an important medieval urban center due to its location on these major trade routes, but also due to its status as one of the few ports on the Mediterranean west of the Rhône River and the presence of the archbishopric. The population of Narbonne before the onslaught of the plague in the mid-fourteenth century has been estimated to be 30–35,000, only 5,000 smaller than that of Montpellier.98 In addition to suffering the common calamities of the fourteenth century, Narbonne’s fortune was negatively affected by a flood in the early fourteenth century when the Aude River changed course and the harbor silted up, impairing its status as a commercial center. By the end of the Middle Ages, the population of pre-plague Narbonne was reduced by one-half to two-thirds.99 Today Narbonne is connected to the Mediterranean, which is approximately fifteen kilometers away, by the Canal de la Robine, which is lined during the summer with pleasure boats. The primary archival evidence relevant to civic subsidy of music in medieval Narbonne is the account books, which are well intact, with approximately fifty-five account books extant from between 1350 to 1500. Of these, approximately one-half, distributed throughout this period, have been examined for this study.100 Despite the similarity in size to Montpellier, the city of Narbonne presents a strikingly distinct picture of civic musical practices.101 Unlike Montpellier, the city council of Narbonne did not employ an official wind band for civic ceremonies; all payments to minstrels, excluding two trumpeters, appear to have been on an ad hoc basis. In contrast to Montpellier, where payments are specifically made to “the five minstrels of the Jacqueline Caille, “Urban Expansion in the Region of Languedoc from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century: The Examples of Narbonne and Montpellier,” in Urban and Rural Communities in Medieval France: Provence and Languedoc, 1000–1500, ed. Kathryn Reyerson and John Drendel (Boston: Brill, 1998), 60. 99 Jacques Michaud and André Cabanis, Histoire de Narbonne (Toulouse: Privat, 1981), 163. 100 The following account books have been examined for this study: CC 2352, 2354–61, 2369, 2372, 2379, 2382, 2384–5, 2414–15, 2423, 2441, 2443, 2478, 2490–1. 101 Jean-Louis Bonnet has written about music in Narbonne during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though the period under consideration in this study has not been addressed in previous scholarship. “Musiciens profanes de l’Aude aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles,” Bulletin de la Société d’études scientifique de l’Aude (1985): 97–104. 98

Languedoc

consulate,” the accounts of Narbonne primarily record isolated and generic payments to “minstrels,” with no mention of annual salaries or liveries, and only a few names. A further reflection of the lack of regular sponsorship of music in Narbonne, over half of the payments to musicians in the accounts of Narbonne are to minstrels from other towns, while in Montpellier local minstrels were given regular employment. In Narbonne, minstrels were primarily hired for celebrations in honor of royalty, such as for the entrance of nobility or the birth of a dauphin, and on these occasions, the music did not convey civic solidarity and power as it did in Montpellier. On November 28, 1389, in a celebration to mark the arrival of the King of France in Narbonne, the city trumpeter and unidentified minstrels (menestriers), who came from nearby towns, including Béziers, 20 kilometers away, and Nevian, 10 kilometers away, were hired to accompany the king as he entered the city.102 While the members of the city council and the official squires met the royal party outside of town on horseback, they were not preceded by an official wind band specifically in their employ. Later at a banquet for the king, a separate group of musicians identified as string players (estrumens de corda) were hired to perform. For comparison, when the King of France arrived in Montpellier two weeks earlier, he was greeted by the municipal officers, who were accompanied by the “minstrels of the consulate” in their expensive livery embroidered with the coat of arms of the city and displaying official banners from their instruments. Similarly, in honor of the birth of the son of the King of France in March of 1392, minstrels were hired by the city of Narbonne, but they remained unidentified in the records, as did their function; in contrast, throughout the week in Montpellier the streets were filled with singing and dancing, and one evening the official civic minstrels accompanied members of the city council to the palace holding their torches and exclaiming “Long live the dauphin.”103 In these celebrations in honor of royalty, the “minstrels of the consulate” in Montpellier had a clearly defined association with the city council, whereas the musicians in Narbonne were from other cities and do not appear to have functioned as official civic representatives. Visits from the Count of Foix in the fifteenth century also prompted the city of Narbonne to subsidize music, but, as in the earlier celebrations for royalty, no regular wind band was present. The Count of Foix, who would become the Viscount of Narbonne in the mid-fifteenth century, was welcomed lavishly in 1431; a trumpeter, by the name of Johan Berles, and a “flute” player (flautaire), who was most likely a pipe and tabor player, by the

102

AMN, CC 2356, f. 153v.

103

AMN, CC 2357, f. 137; Pégat, Le Petit Thalamus, 421–2.

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name of Guissana, were hired for dances.104 In addition to the dance musicians for this occasion, the public crier of Narbonne, Johan Amiel, was hired specifically to perform in front of the Count of Foix. A reception for the count four years later, on May 30, 1435, involved throwing 4,400 roses and decorating the consulate and the streets nearby the procession, though only one generic payment is made for the “minstrels” who played at the dances.105 For the “celebration of peace” on February 20, 1436 in Narbonne, in commemoration of the Treaty of Arras signed in September of 1435, similar musical practices were in place.106 On this occasion, wages, as well as lodging, were offered to six musicians, who all but one traveled to Narbonne: four trumpeters, who were from cities ranging from nearby Nevian to Pau in southwest France, and two pipe and tabor players, who were the city’s regular “Gysana,” and one from nearby Nevian. As in the previous events, the city council of Narbonne did not have a standard wind band of shawm players available for this event. Highlighting the city council and unique civic history through civicsponsored music was rare in Narbonne, unlike in Montpellier. One occasion on which musicians appear to be serving this function, however, was the annual celebration of the Feast Day of Saint Paul on March 22, which was held at vespers at Saint Paul, one of the original parish churches of Narbonne. Paul, a priest sent to Gaul in the third century to preach the Gospel, was successful at establishing numerous churches in the area, including in Narbonne, and, as the first bishop of Narbonne, his tomb became a popular pilgrimage site. While an unidentified group of minstrels is usually hired for this occasion, the accounts of 1390 more specifically indicate that the musicians were from a number of nearby towns, including Béziers and Lezignan. The musicians appear to have brought emphasis to the city council at the event, as a payment record from 1451 reads “to Guissana,” the regular pipe and tabor player, and “to Votier of Béziers and Anthoni Bergonho and his companion who trumpeted before the members of the city council.”107 The only musicians who appear to have served as official representatives of the city were the two trumpeters serving as public criers, whose central activities revolved around the city council, making official decrees and announcing meetings. In May of 1434, for example, two trumpeters, who 104

105 107

AMN, CC 2415, f. 126v. This pipe and tabor player was hired by the city over the next forty years and is the only non-trumpeter who has been identified multiple times in the account books. AMN, CC 2372, f. 158v. 106 AMN, CC 2443, ff. 122–122v. AMN, CC 2356, f. 163v, “Item a Votier de Bezers et Anthoni Bergonho son companho que trompero devant les senhos”; CC 2491, f. 120v.

Languedoc

each had been in this position for at least ten years, announced a new member to the city council. Besides making announcements, these trumpeters often performed for civic ceremonies as well, such as in 1451 when they participated in a procession for “the good news of peace” or in 1470 when they “played for the dances for the birth of the dauphin.”108 The more limited civic patronage of music in Narbonne, in comparison to Montpellier, and particularly the lack of an official wind band, appears to be related to the city’s political history. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, local power in Narbonne remained concentrated in two wealthy, powerful, and present figures: the archbishop and viscount.109 These two authorities were less willing than other overlords in the region to share their seigneurial rights with the city. During the course of the thirteenth century the city council did acquire some authority, such as control over a public market, hospitals, and streets and walls, as well as power to appoint minor city officials, though it never acquired judicial power. At the city council’s height of power in the late thirteenth century, it remained less developed and autonomous than that in Montpellier, and at the beginning of the fourteenth century officers of the French monarchy encroached, curtailing its recently acquired rights.110 In his book Heresy and Inquisition in Narbonne Richard Emery wrote, “It is true that the consulates of Narbonne attained in some respects only an imperfect development . . . Seigneurial justice was never replaced by consular courts, and a great part of the local taxes, including the important custom duties, remained in the hands of the lords of the town.”111 While the independent and powerful civic government of Montpellier developed extensive rituals involving its own musicians, Narbonne, with its comparatively weak civic government did not, and indeed, perhaps could not, cultivate extensive ceremonial practices.

Nîmes Nîmes was built on the Roman road linking Italy and Spain and still reveals many vestiges of its Roman history today: the well-preserved amphitheater, two gates, a temple, and the spectacular aqueduct, Pont du Gard, twenty kilometers away. During the late Middle Ages, Nîmes followed Montpellier and Narbonne in demographic importance in the region with a population 108

109 111

AMN, CC 2491, f. 123, “a la prossecion p las bonas novellas de la pac”; CC 2379, f. 91v, “toquon p las danssis de la nativitat de mess. lo dalphi.” Caille, “Urban Expansion in the Region,” 67. 110 Michaud, Histoire de Narbonne, 131. Richard Wilder Emery, Heresy and Inquisition in Narbonne (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941), 52.

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at its peak at the beginning of the fourteenth century as high as 20,000.112 Its economy, which was based upon agriculture, specifically wine and sheep, was severely damaged in the fourteenth century by weather, famine, plague, and infamous bands of mercenaries attached to the war. By 1395 the population had decreased to 6,500, and at the end of the fifteenth century only one house in two was inhabited. In 1459 Nîmes was described by a royal administrator of Beaucaire as “ humid, sick, indeed really bad built and constructed. Its swampy earth is deadly for men in sanguine temperament, melancholic and flegmatic. This city is very badly built, the homes for the most part are made with boards. Out of 100 inhabitants, there isn’t a single one exceeding 60 years of age, we have verified.” 113 Despite its smaller population and poor economic conditions, minstrels appear to figure more prominently in civic ritual in Nîmes than they do in Narbonne.114 The extant records from the second half of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for the city of Nîmes offer a solid framework for determining the patronage of music. The most directly relevant records are in Series RR, which consist of the payment accounts of the city council of Nîmes. The registers RR 1–10 document civic spending for approximately 100 fiscal years during the period 1334 to 1500, and all of the registers have been examined for this study. MM 1, part of the series for the revenue of the city, has also proven relevant with individual receipts of the city dating from the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Similar to the celebration of Ascension Day in Montpellier, from at least 1334 through the late fifteenth century in Nîmes, civic-sponsored music accompanied the offering of charitable donations. The minstrels, who at least at times brandished a banner of the city, performed in front of the city council, drawing attention to its contribution to the needy, the same function of the minstrels in Montpellier. From 1334 to 1363 the two official public criers performed on the trumpet for this occasion; during the next 100 years, two musicians only identified as joculatores were hired, and during the second half of the fifteenth century, two or three pipe and tabors served this function.115 While an official civic wind band was not employed 112 113

114 115

Philippe Martel, Histoire de Nîmes, ed. Raymond Huard (Aix-en-Provence: Edisud, 1982), 133. Ibid., 134, “humide, mal, voire même très mal, fondée et construite. Son sol marécageux est mortel pour les hommes au tempérament sanguin, mélancolique et flegmatique. La ville a été très mal bâtie, les maisons sont pour la plupart fabriquées avec des planches. Sur 100 habitants il n’y en a pas un dépassant l’âge de soixante ans, nous avons vérifié.” Previous scholarship on medieval Nîmes does not address music in the urban setting. AMNi, RR 1, no folio; RR 2, f. 40; RR 2, f. 51; RR 4, no folio; RR 6, no folio; RR 7, no folio; RR 9, no folio; MM 10, f. 78v . The pipe and tabors were referred to as taborellum, tympanum, and taborin.

Languedoc

for this occasion, the musicians on this celebration on Ascension Day, in Nîmes, as in Montpellier, still contributed to the authority of the city council and highlighted its importance in maintaining the well-being of the city’s inhabitants. Musicians performed in events that emphasized Nîme’s unique history, such as the appearance of the official civic trumpeter and two reed players (cornamusa et corneto), in a procession for Saint Baudilus. A cult developed in the city around this saint, who lived in Nîmes in the third century and was martyred there. At least during the second half of the fourteenth century, a procession in his honor was held in mid-April which incorporated elements of the legend surrounding the saint and his connection to the city. According to the legend, in response to Baudilus’ condemnation of a Salii celebration involving sacrificial victims in Nîmes, the saint was decapitated by the Salii priests; his head bounced on the ground three times, each time forming a spring over which fountains and an oratory were constructed. The route of the procession included the three fountains created by Saint Baudilus.116 Musicians were also hired for other widely celebrated holidays, such as Corpus Christi, Assumption Day, and Christmas. In striking contrast to the situation in Narbonne, the hiring of minstrels for events honoring visiting royalty is rarely documented in the account books of Nîmes. For example, in 1362, minstrels were hired for nine occasions, an unusually large number of events during a single year in Nîmes, and out of these, none were for royal receptions. As for the celebration of Ascension Day, trumpeters and reed players were hired until the second half of the fifteenth century, when the pipe and tabor was preferred. The celebration in honor of the Conception of the Virgin Mary on December 8, 1393 was distinct from the others with dancing in the evening and a general procession which included the standard trumpets and drums, but also minstrels of “large string instruments” (cordorum grossorum instrumentorum) who provided songs (carminibus) and received an additional compensation of wine.117 As was the custom in the larger cities in the region, Nîmes regularly employed two official civic trumpeters, who played the higher-pitched namphilus, to make official decrees and to perform in processions in front of the city council. These trumpeters who were attached to the civic government had annual wages, official livery, and pennons that adorned their instruments. They were such a standard part of the civic ritual that in 1362,

116

AMNi, RR 2, f. 36.

117

AMNi, RR 3, f. 27.

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when Petrus Sabbateri, who held the position for at least twenty years, was unable to walk on account of his hurt shin, a horse was rented for him.118 Musicians who received patronage from the city of Nîmes appear to have been primarily local, with a few exceptions. Perhaps the regularity with which the city of Nîmes hired minstrels allowed a body of professional musicians to thrive in the city, as in Montpellier, but unlike Narbonne, with its minimal subsidy and high number of non-local musicians. Guillmus Alberqui, a musician from Montpellier, appears in the accounts of Nîmes, and offers a rare documentation of a musician receiving subsidy from more than one French city. On July 23, 1412, the city of Nîmes hired Guillmus Alberqui, who is identified as a crier of Montpellier, for serving as a messenger and obtaining letters in Nîmes.119 Guillmus was a member of the official wind band in Montpellier during the first decade of the fifteenth century and was an integral part of the community, serving as a witness to a notarial contract in 1412 and as part of the guard system in 1413.120 For his services to the city of Nîmes, which required traveling fifty kilometers, Guillmus received 1 ll. 15 s. t., a substantial reimbursement in comparison to his annual wage of 10 ll. as a council minstrel in Montpellier. Despite a population that was as many as 15,000 people fewer than in Narbonne, ritual involving civic subsidized musicians appears to have been a more regular part of life in Nîmes, and these musical celebrations revolved around local traditions and history, rather than royal receptions as in Narbonne. Part of the explanation might lie with the history of the city council, which, while volatile, was a strong force within the city. In the early twelfth century, the ruler of the city, the Viscount of Trencavel, was not a strong presence, and his descent in the mid-twelfth century led to the emergence of the city council as a power.121 By the late twelfth century, however, the city passed to the Count of Toulouse, and a power struggle ensued between the count and the city council; in 1207, the members of the city council declared themselves sole masters of the city, and a few years later a balance was reached. When the city fell under French rule in 1254, the King of France extended rights to the council in exchange for its cooperation, leaving the city rights of daily administration and tax collecting.122 A comparison of the three major cities of late medieval Languedoc reveals striking contrasts in practices of civic patronage in the region. Montpellier 118 120 121

AMNi, RR 1, no folio. 119 AMNi, RR 5, no folio. AMMo, CC 529, ff. 10v–11; BB 40, no folio; BB 42, f. 12. Martel, Histoire de Nîmes, 126. 122 Ibid., 132.

Southwestern France

was the largest, wealthiest and politically most independent of the three and rivaled major cities throughout Europe with its subsidy of musicians, including a standard wind band and trumpeters, who assumed prominent roles in highly developed civic ceremony. Nîmes also had developed practices of musical patronage; in spite of being significantly smaller than Narbonne, Nîmes regularly hired a pair of trumpeters and ad hoc musicians to mark local events. Narbonne, despite a population comparable to Montpellier, supported the least amount of music, with no evidence of a wind band, but rather musicians who frequently came from nearby cities and a single trumpet player. In these major cities of Languedoc, population size does not appear to have been the primary determining factor regarding civic support of music, but rather the degree of political independence and civic ritual developed by the city council.

Southwestern France: Toulouse, Albi, and Bordeaux Toulouse and Albi were located on the border between Languedoc and Gascony in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and were connected to Bordeaux to the north and west through trade along the Tarn and Garonne Rivers. Products would come into the region from Spain and the Mediterranean and then be sent on to Bordeaux and international markets via the rivers.123 While Toulouse had been the capital of Languedoc to the east, it became more attached to areas to the north and west with the development of trade routes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as well as with the city’s inclusion in the French royal domain in 1271.124 According to John Mundy, “The development and peopling of Atlantic and Northern Europe made Toulouse look more toward the west and north and less towards the south and east . . .By the end of the twelfth century, Toulouse had become irrevocably bound to Atlantic and northern trade and politics.”125

123

124

125

Robert Schneider, Public Life in Toulouse, 1463–1789: From Municipal Republic to Cosmopolitan City (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989), 13. Josiah Russell, Medieval Regions and Their Cities (Newton Abbot: David and Charles Publishers, 1972), 155. John Mundy, Liberty and Political Power in Toulouse, 1050–1230 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1954), 4.

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Toulouse Toulouse was built along the Garonne River by the Romans, and the river remains at the heart of the city, as its banks have been carefully preserved during the twentieth century for walkers, bathers, and festival-goers. Toulouse, known as the “Ville Rose” for the color of its buildings, prides itself on both its rich history as the capital of Languedoc and its key role in France’s future on the cutting edge of aerospace and other high-tech industry. The city, which has a population that well exceeds one million people today, attracts visitors to its well-known aerospace museum; at the same time it attracts visitors to the stunning views of the Basilica of Saint Sernin, one of the largest Romanesque structures in Europe, just as it drew medieval pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. During the late Middle Ages, Toulouse was a first-rank city that rivaled Montpellier in both size and political independence. By the mid-fourteenth century, Toulouse had an estimated population of around 35,000 and was comparable in size to Montpellier.126 While Toulouse was technically under the control of the Counts of Toulouse until 1271 when it was handed over to the French crown, by the late twelfth century the city had already gained its independence from nobility. By 1208, the city was in effect governed by the city council, with its twenty-four members known as the capitouls, as they each represented a capitoulat, a municipal administrative district, and an official meeting place for the city council (maison communa) was constructed.127 Even among prominent cities in the south of France that formed early city councils, Toulouse acquired greater independence and privileges, particularly with issues of jurisdiction. Comparing Toulouse to other cities in southern France, John Mundy wrote, “no other community was able to reduce its prince to act as an agent bound to enforce its consuls’ judicial decisions in all of his domains.”128 The city lost some of its privileges due to the Albigensian Crusade and the fight against Catharism, during which Toulouse was besieged three times and finally surrendered in 1219. Like Montpellier, owing to the onslaught of the plague, floods, famine, and the Hundred Years’ War, Toulouse’s population declined throughout the second half of the fourteenth century; in the first decade of the fifteenth century, Toulouse still maintained approximately 22,500 citizens and was thus significantly larger than Montpellier (at 15,000) and by the end of the century the population was beyond 50,000.129 The city council in Toulouse in the fifteenth century, like that in Montpellier, was reduced significantly in 126 128

Philippe Wolff, Les Toulousains dans l’histoire (Toulouse: Privat, 1984), 18. Mundy, Liberty and Political Power, xii. 129 Ibid., 29.

127

Ibid., 22.

Southwestern France

size, from twenty-four to eight capitouls, and lost its power, as the officers of the King of France encroached on duties that once had been in the council’s domain. Its strategic location on the border of English-held Gascony, however, resulted in royal concessions to the city from the King of France during the Hundred Years’ War, such as in 1444, when a Royal Parlement was established in Toulouse and in 1459 when the capitouls and their descendants had noble status conferred upon them.130 The nature of the holdings of the municipal archives of Toulouse from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is quite different than that of Montpellier, and it is not possible to create the same detailed picture of official civic musical practices. The central evidence for civic subsidy of music for late medieval Toulouse is the well-preserved revenues and expenditures of the city. Of the thirty-four extant account registers dating between 1330 and 1500, twenty-five have been examined, and of the collections of individual receipts of expenditures extant for twenty-seven years between 1403 and 1500, twenty-one have been examined.131 Contracts for city officials which stipulate duties and obligations and a ceremonial book for the traditions of the city council, both central to the discussion of late medieval Montpellier, are not extant until later periods in Toulouse. The archives of Toulouse allow for a solid framework of civic subsidy of music to be determined, but the picture must remain much less detailed than for Montpellier. Similar to Montpellier, a pair of trumpeters and a wind band was hired in Toulouse to serve as a symbol of the city, and specifically the city council.132 By at least 1330 the city employed a trumpeter (trompayre), and by a decade later a pair of trumpeters was being provided with livery, pennons, horses, and silver instruments (las trompas del argent).133 (See Table 1.5 for a listing of trumpeters employed by the city.) The nature and quality of instruments 130 131

132

133

Schneider, Public Life in Toulouse, 15. The following accounts have been examined: AMT, CC1843, 1845–6, 1848, 1850–1, 1853–6, 1859, 1862–4, 1866–75, 2284, 2322–41, 2343. Luc Charles-Dominique addressed civic subsidy of music in his article, “La Couble des hautbois des capitouls de Toulouse XVe–XVIIIe siècles: role emblématique, function sociale et histoire d’un orchestra communal de musique ménétrière,” in La Musique dans le Midi de la France XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles, ed. François Lesure (Paris: Klincksieck, 1996), 43–55. While the focus of the article was on the later periods, the author notes that a civic wind band was established in the fourteenth century and was closely attached to the images and practices of the city council. He does not draw systematically, however, from the municipal records from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but rather relies on brief references in secondary sources. He does provide a sociological discussion of the phenomenon, particularly linking the emergence of the civic wind band with city politics. AMT, CC 1843, p. 116; p. 126, 1330–1.

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Table 1.5: Trumpeters of Toulouse, 1330–1500: dates of payment as official trumpeter Guilhem Johan: 1330 Pons de Sanctas: 1342 Raymon dAuriac: 1342 Johan Andrieu: 1383, 1384, 1392, 1403, 1405, 1406, 1407 Johan d’Albas: 1383, 1384 Johan Capel: 1391, 1405, 1406, 1407 Loys de Bosi: 1416, 1420, 1433, 1443, 1445, 1454, 1455, 1459 Guilhem Robert: 1416, 1417 Raymon del Portal: 1417, 1420, 1433, 1445, 1455, 1459 Johan Guayfius: 1417 Johan del Portal: 1443, 1460 Panisi Portal: 1459 Johan de Toyn: 1460 Anthoni Trompeta: 1485 Peyre de Ressies: 1488, 1491, 1493, 1493, 1497 Jacob Desi: 1488, 1489, 1491, 1493 Glaude de Rezies: 1494, 1497

used by civic trumpeters throughout French cities varies significantly, and it is noteworthy that in Toulouse the city paid for silver trumpets, which cost in 1372 the substantial sum of 10 ll. and repairs alone for the silver trumpets cost 12 ll. in 1405 and 8 ll. in 1420. The trumpet duo, with its elaborate instruments and pennons, was known as the “trumpeters of the consulate” (trompayres de la mayson) and represented the city council in various capacities. They accompanied messengers and traveled on horseback outside of the city in service to the city council, and on other occasions performed for the reception for royalty, such as for dignitaries from Perpignan in 1342 and for the Count of Clermont in 1403.134 In contrast to Montpellier, trumpeters did not serve the function of “sounding the watch” from a central bell-tower; rather a separate gayca, who appears to have only rung the bells, was employed. In addition, throughout this period, a separate public crier, identified as a cornayre, made announcements in Toulouse with a horn, not a trumpet as in Montpellier.135 Both the number and the function of trumpeters employed by the city government of Toulouse differed quite markedly from Montpellier. 134 135

AMT, CC 1846, f. 45v; CC 2323, No. 7. AMT, CC 1846, f. 46; CC 1864, f. 23; CC 1866, f. 27v; CC 2338, No. 24. These are payments of annual pensions to the horn player, who received 6 ll.

Southwestern France

The purpose of the official minstrel ensemble in Toulouse, as in Montpellier, seems to be tied to ritual surrounding the city council. Beginning in 1372, isolated payments appear in the accounts to an unidentified group of minstrels (menestriers); and by 1384, while the musicians continue to be referred to only generally as “minstrels,” they are provided with annual pensions and livery.136 By the early fifteenth century these musicians are identified as the “minstrels of the city” (menestriers de la vila), by 1432 they are known as the “minstrels of the consulate” (menestriers de la mayso communa), and by 1455 even more specifically as “minstrels of the city council” (menestriers de mosshors de capitol).137 In the statutes of the minstrels’ guild dating from 1492, the official ensemble of minstrels of the city is referred to as the “Ensemble of the Consulate” (couble de la Maison communale), reflecting this close association and attachment to the city government.138 Throughout this period, the number of minstrels who formed the official wind band varied from two to three, which is slightly smaller than the ensemble maintained in Montpellier. It is not until a payment record from 1443 that the instruments of the minstrels are identified as shawm players (charaminayres), confirming the use of a standard shawm ensemble common at this time.139 The records do not document the use of a slide-trumpet at any point. The individual events or processions in which the minstrels were to perform are not listed in the account books of Toulouse, as they were in Montpellier, though it is evident that these minstrels helped highlight the city council’s power. According to a city ordinance dating from 1398, the annual election of council members in November was marked by a procession, with the officers undoubtedly dressed in their elaborate red and black robes decorated with fur and a mantle, to the Romanesque basilica of Saint Sernin with the minstrels and trumpets “to venerate the bodies of the martyr and of six apostles and to make a beautiful celebration.”140 The basilica, which plays a central role in the history of Toulouse, was built to shelter pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela and housed the relics of the Bishop Saturnin, who was martyred in ad 250 and was a founding saint of the Toulouse church. 136 137 138 140

AMT, CC 2284, p. 22 and p. 48, 1372; CC 1850, f. 7v, 1383; CC 1850, f. 35r, 1384. AMT, C 2323, No. 4; CC 1859, f. 73; CC 1864, f. 23v. Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 59. 139 AMT, CC 2322, 1443. “vénérer les corps du martyr et de six apôtres et faisaient une belle fête,” E. Roschach, Inventaire des Archives communales antérieures à 1790, Série AA, Numeros 1–60 (Toulouse: Imprimerie et Librairie Edouard Privat, 1981), 481.

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On December 13, the feast day of Saint Lucia, new members of the city council entered office and over 100 officers were appointed by the city council, including secretaries, notaries, judges, guards, street cleaners, trumpeters, and minstrels.141 To mark this important political event, mass was celebrated at the consulate. The city council of Toulouse offered an annual pension of 6 francs to “four singers of the chapel of the consulate,” to allow for the performance of masses during the ritual of the city council, and on this occasion these singers received a special tip for singing “the mass of the Holy Spirit at the consulate.”142 Throughout the fifteenth century, the civic musicians, including both the trumpeters and the wind band, also received a tip for their performance during mass on this occasion.143 The annual pensions of the minstrels must have also covered their participation in receptions for visiting royalty, as individual payments to minstrels for such events rarely appear in the accounts. The rental of the horses for the minstrels for the reception of the Count of Clermont in the early fifteenth century, who was John I, Duke of Bourbon at this time, allow for the documentation of the minstrels’ participation in such an event. On December 6, 1403, the civic musicians went to perform for a reception for the Count of Clermont, for which the city rented five horses, three for the minstrels and two for the trumpeters.144 About two years later, on October 5, 1405, the city of Toulouse again rented two horses for the minstrels who welcomed the Count of Clermont. The Count of Clermont’s status as part of a long line of strong military rulers with significant political influence in the south of France helps explain the city council’s plans to greet him outside of town with minstrels on horseback giving him seemingly special treatment. (The minstrels of Montpellier also played for the Count of Clermont in 1431.) The annual wages of the civic musicians in Toulouse were comparable to those in Montpellier and were large enough to suggest regular obligations were substantial. In 1390, when the minstrels and trumpeters were provided with 5 francs of gold, two cartons of wheat and a robe worth 6 francs, two messengers received 5 francs, the members of the watch and two judges of the small court received 8 francs, jobs with frequent and regular duties.145 As in Montpellier, the visual presentation of these civic musicians was paramount, so the pennons attached to their instruments were comparable in cost to their 141 142

143

144

Wolff, Les Toulousains, 46. AMT, CC 2322, 1439, “pagat lo jorn de Santa Lucia als chantres que disen la messa del sant esperit ha la mayzo communal.” AMT, CC 2322, 1439, “als menestries que son en nombre sinc per la sonazo que fen en la dita messa lo dit jorn”; CC 2332, No. 20, 1450. AMT, CC2323, No. 7. 145 Roschach, Inventaire des Archives, 39.

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Table 1.6: Council minstrels of Toulouse, 1383–1500: dates of payment as council minstrel Raymon Arguier: 1383, 1384, 1391, 1403, 1406 Bernat de Casamaior (vielh): 1384, 1392, 1403, 1405, 1406, 1416, 1417, 1420 Bernat de Casamaior (jone): 1405, 1415, 1416, 1417, 1420 Guilhem Robert: 1417 Johan de la Haya: 1432 Peyre Gautier: 1432, 1433, 1443, 1454, 1455, 1459, 1460 Andrieu Priand: 1434 Nicolau Semaliera: 1443 Peyre Semaliera: 1443 Guilhem Gautier: 1444, 1454, 1455 Laurens Arnaud: 1445 Johan Gautier: 1455, 1459 Johan Vens: 1459 Laurens Arnaut: 1459 Marsel Arnaut: 1459 Nicholas Chamelera: 1461 Peyre Espinart: 1464 Bertolomeo Serda: 1485, 1488, 1489, 1493, 1494, 1497 Peyre Audran: 1485, 1487, 1488, 1491, 1493, 1494, 1497 Guilhem de Tanis: 1487, 1488, 1491, 1493, 1494, 1497

annual pension, and their livery almost twice as much. Minstrels and trumpeters considered these positions desirable, as they commonly held onto them for thirty years. In addition, the position often remained within a family from generation to generation, as between 1416 to 1465, when four members of the Gautier family were members of the civic wind band. (See Table 1.6 for a list of the council minstrels of Toulouse.) Unlike Narbonne, the city council of Toulouse only rarely appears to have hired musicians from surrounding cities, such as when it sought services of minstrels, from the town of Pamiers (Pamias in Occitan), which is a little over forty miles to the south of Toulouse on the Ariège River in the County of Foix. In December of 1453, a barber, Bertran de la Mazera, was hired by the city council of Toulouse “to go to secure three companion minstrels in Pamiers to come and serve the members of the city council.”146 Bertran was provided with travel expenses for three days to reach Pamiers, as well as expenses for the three-day return trip. 146

AMT, CC 2333, No. 7, “anar sercar tres companhos menestriers a pamias per venir servir messenhors de capitol.”

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Unfortunately, the account book does not delineate the specific reason why the city council sought these minstrels’ services. It only states that Bertran is “to lead the three companion minstrels to Toulouse to speak with the members of the council.” Each of the three minstrels was paid 1 ll. for their “expenses and interest in coming at the request of the members of the council from Pamiers to Toulouse and then returning to Pamiers.”147 The personnel of the official wind band remained unchanged at this time in Toulouse, indicating that the minstrels from Pamiers did not remain in Toulouse in an official capacity. It was common practice for cities in France to seek musicians from nearby cities on occasions when large numbers of minstrels were needed, and, as in this situation, often they were sought from significantly smaller cities, such as the city of Albi hiring minstrels from Lavaur or the city of Lyons hiring trumpeters from Montbrison. The significant distance traveled to inquire into the services of these minstrels is noteworthy, suggesting that this ensemble of minstrels had a reputation and the city of Toulouse had a serious need for an established ensemble of minstrels. It is possible that this was a period of time in which the civic wind band of Toulouse was released from its obligations to travel, as, at least in cities in the north, such as Arras, wind bands were granted leave from their duties for extended periods of time. Toulouse and Montpellier were the two largest cities in late medieval southern France and arguably the two cities with the longest histories of powerful and independent city councils. For important civic events, particularly processions involving the city council, both cities employed a wind band and a pair of trumpeters during the second half of the fourteenth century. The musicians, with their expensive livery, pennons, and instruments, were closely associated with the city council and would have drawn attention to its members, who were “within the town walls at least, the equal of any prince, count, or other feudal lord.”148 While lists of processions involving civic musicians do not exist for Toulouse during this period, as they do for Montpellier, the specific ones that have been identified either focus upon the ritual of the city council or are royal receptions in which civic identity was emphasized at the same time the royalty was welcomed. Despite the cities’ demographic decline and reduction in conciliar power during the second half of the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries, these musicians remained on the payroll, reflecting their importance in urban

147

148

Ibid., “amener los dites tres companhos menestriers de pamias a tholosa pour parlar am los dites mossenhors de capitol”; “pour lors despensas e interesses de esser vengutz al mandament de messenhors de pamias a tholosa e sen tornar a pamias.” Schneider, Public Life in Toulouse, 14.

Southwestern France

ceremonial life. The civic musicians were clearly an essential aspect of the rituals and practices surrounding Toulouse, as “a self-conscious municipal republic, endowed with a highly developed sense of local patriotism.”149

Bordeaux Bordeaux was a first-rank city in the south of France with an estimated population of 20,000 in the early fourteenth century and an independent civic administration due to its distance from English and French rulers.150 Unfortunately, the municipal archives of Bordeaux were ravaged by a fire in 1862 which destroyed the city account books prior to the sixteenth century, though surviving deliberations of the city council date back to 1402. Examination of the sparse relevant documents has been limited to the published deliberations of the city council dating from 1406–9, 1414–16, and 1420–2.151 These registers do provide a glimpse into what appears to be the employment of musicians by the city council to serve as civic representatives and to contribute to the image of civic power. The most frequently cited musicians are two trumpeters who received regular wages, livery, pennons, and, significantly, the use of a silver trumpet. The common task of these trumpeters of carrying letters to the Counts of Foix and Armanhac would have contributed to the image of Bordeaux throughout the region, and their role of performing when the new council members were sworn into office would have contributed to the image of the city council. Payments to minstrels are rarer and fail to delineate broad patterns of employment, but they do suggest that minstrels were attached to the city council. One such rare example is in 1421, when the minstrels, along with the trumpeters, processed in front of the new council members on their way to the cathedral of Saint Andrew, where the new officers were announced in public.152

Albi Albi was a significantly smaller city than both Toulouse and Bordeaux, as at its peak in the mid-fourteenth century Albi reached a population of 10,000 and then devastation from the plague reduced it to 4,300.153 On becoming pope in 1198, Pope Innocent III, who was later joined by the King of France, set out to expunge Catharism, which had a stronghold in the 149 151

152

Ibid., 74. 150 Ennen, Medieval Town, 152. Archives Municipales de Bordeaux, Registres de la Jurade: déliberations de 1406 à 1409 [1414 à 1416 et de 1420 à 1422] 2 vols. (Bordeaux: Imprimerie G. Gounouilhou, 1873 and 1883). Ibid., vol. II, 532. 153 Jean-Louis Biget, Histoire d’Albi (Toulouse: Privat, 1983), 94.

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region, through the military campaign known as the Albigensian Crusade (1209–29). Following this campaign, the bishop asserted its religious and political presence in the city. As Jean-Louis Biget noted, “The episcopal power, in the diocese and in Albi, takes in effect in the thirteenth century the allure of a monarchy.”154 The bishop had one-fourth of the revenue in the diocese, a uniquely high proportion for this region, and his power and wealth were visibly present in the city.155 The cathedral of Saint Cecilia, on which construction was begun in 1282 and mostly completed by 1383, was built like a large brick fortress with intricate religious murals coating the interior and was meant to serve as a reflection of the region’s Catholic faith after its period of heresy. The episcopal palace, attached to the cathedral and overlooking the Tarn River, was constructed in a similar style during this period, and it served as the meeting place for the court of the inquisition at which highly respected members of the city were tried for heresy.156 The city council of Albi struggled against the bishop, who continuously attempted to extend his power to the detriment of the liberties and customs of the city. When the city council was established between 1213 and 1220, it enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy, even sharing jurisdiction with the bishop. By the turn of the fourteenth century, however, the bishop acquired extensive rights over the city. As James Given wrote, “In Albi, Bernard de Castanet, bishop from 1275 devoted much effort to trying to make local judicial institutions more effective instruments of seigneurial control and less expressions of the sentiments of the community.”157 In 1301, the temporal power of the bishop passed to the King of France, but by the end of the century the bishop was an important tool of the King of France in a city that had become an important anchor of royalty in the region. As with Toulouse, the practices surrounding civic subsidized music in Albi closely reflect the political tensions of the city.158 Each annual account book of Albi begins with the expenditures for the inauguration of the members of the city council at the end of the third week of September.159 154

155 156

157

158

159

Ibid., 68, “Le pouvoir épiscopal, dans le diocèse et dans Albi, prend en effet au XIIIe siècle l’allure d’une monarchie.” Ibid., 71. Georgene Davis, The Inquisition at Albi, 1299–1300 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948), 27. James Given, Inquisition and Medieval Society: Power, Discipline, and Resistance in Languedoc (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), 107. While the scholarship on medieval Albi is rich, sources that address music in secular settings are limited to the music of the troubadours. Fifty-nine account books dating from 1359 to 1500 are extant in the communal archives of Albi. Of these, all but fifteen have been examined for the study, so the patterns of civic patronage of

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The bishop affirmed his authority throughout this important event of the city council, as he even formalized the appointments of new members to create the illusion that he bestowed the rights.160 The bishop followed behind the city council during the procession, which began at the Episcopal Palace and then proceeded to the consulate and on to the chapel of Notre Dame de Fargues, located across from the Episcopal Palace, where mass was celebrated. While the inaugural ceremony for the city council in Toulouse, as well as in Montpellier, was accentuated by the prominent role of the official wind band and trumpeters, for this occasion in Albi, minstrels were paid only twice, in 1408 and in 1411. According to the payment records for September 17, 1408, for example, “Bartholimieu and his companion minstrels” performed in front of the members of the city council, proceeding from the Episcopal Palace, to the consulate, and then to the chapel of Notre Dame de Fargues, where “the mass of Holy Spirit” was said for the creation of the new consulate.161 For the other years during the second half of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, only “chaplains” and “singers” were paid “to say the mass and to sing with notes as is the good custom.”162 The lack of minstrels on this occasion might reflect the bishop’s attempt to curtail an inaugural ritual that inherently focused upon the rights and power of the city council, just as the origin of the procession at the Episcopal Palace was a reminder to this new body of consuls that power emanated from the bishop. Musicians were hired with the greatest regularity for Christmas, and their function again reflects the balance between the city council and the bishop. The minstrels accompanied the city council during this celebration; trumpeters were often included among these musicians, such as according to the account book of 1427, when two trumpeters and two minstrels “played before the members of the council.”163 The appearance of the official trumpeters of the city, however, was balanced by a trumpeter clearly identified as being that of the bishop.164 Perhaps due to the small population, some of the minstrels came from elsewhere, as in 1432, when payment was made to seven minstrels from nearby cities, including Lavaur, approximately twenty-five kilometers southwest of Albi.165

160

161 162 163 165

music are solidly established for this period. The following registers have been examined: CC 149, 155–61, 166–9, 175–8, 180–7, 189, 192–202, 206–13. Auguste Vidal, “Les Délibérations du conseil communal d’Albi de 1372 à 1388,” Revue des langues romanes 46 (1903): 38. AMAl, CC 166, f. 30. AMAl, CC 181, f. 28, 1425, “a dire la messa e cantar a nota coma es de bona costuma.” AMAl, CC 182, f. 26v, 1427, “tocat davan los senhors cossols.” 164 AMAl, CC 181, f. 49v. AMAl, CC 184, f. 7v.

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Musicians were also hired less consistently for other celebrations, such as for the Feast Day of Saint Martin, Corpus Christi, for which “foreign minstrels” were hired, and All Saints’ Day, for which the minstrels of Lavaur were again hired to accompany “the members of the city council to the church and at the entrance of dinner.”166 Special occasions also warranted the employment of minstrels, such as a celebration recognizing the signing of the Treaty of Arras in September of 1435.167 In Albi, the most striking and overt example of the connection of politics to civic music making involves the office of civic trumpeter, frequently used throughout medieval Europe as a symbol of political power. The city of Albi offered an annual salary and a coat embroidered with the arms of the city to a public crier to make announcements, which were approved by the bishop and published in his name and that of the city council, to the sound of the trumpet. The city of Albi also paid for at least some of the expenses related to the trumpeter of the bishop. At least on one occasion, the role of the public crier and his association with the image and power of the city council was clearly curtailed by the bishop. According to the deliberations of the city council, in 1491 a revolt against the bishop, Louis d’Amboise, had been summoned by the crier with his silver trumpet. In retaliation, the bishop had the trumpet “nailed to the pillory” and forced the crier to use a horn of an animal.168 Even in the small town of Albi, the civic musical practices reflected the politics of the city, both overtly, as when the image of the public crier was weakened by denying him a silver instrument or by the presence of the bishop’s trumpeter, and more subtly, as when processions originated at the Episcopal Palace.169 In conclusion, the nature of the civic patronage in Toulouse and Albi was determined by the political structures of the city. The independence and power experienced by the city council of Toulouse resulted in the patronage of an official wind band with double reeds and a duo of trumpet players for events that highlighted the importance and ritual of the city council. The ritual surrounding the civic-supported music in Albi, which involved ad hoc minstrels and an official trumpet player, reflected the struggle over power between the bishop and the city council.

166 167 169

AMAl, CC 184, f. 3, “als senhors cossols a la gleyha et al venu del dinar.” AMAl, CC 187, f. 9. 168 Vidal, “Les Délibérations,” 46. Account entries from at least 1386 and then regularly throughout the fifteenth century document the placement of a guard on the bell-tower of Saint Salvi who was given a “horn” to sound warning signals. AMAl, CC 157, f. 127, 1386; CC 69, f. 110v, 1412; CC 198, f. 6, 1463–4; CC 206, f. 17, 1487.

Provence

Provence: Avignon, Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Orange, and Apt During the twelfth century, Provence, bound on the west by the Rhône River, on the east by the Alps, on the south by the Mediterranean, and on the north by the Dauphiné, prospered and flourished because of its trade routes, markets, and rich agriculture. When the region passed to the Angevin Dynasty in 1246, Provence entered a period of economic deterioration with the loss of eastern markets and the subordination of commercial interests of Provençal cities to the political goals of Angevin rulers in Sicily and Naples. Famine and plague in the fourteenth century took its toll on Provence, but prosperity began to return to the area with King René’s choice to reside in the region in the mid-fifteenth century and the annexation of Provence by the kingdom of France in 1486.

Avignon Avignon, located in eastern Provence at the confluence of the Rhône and Durance Rivers, had the largest, though a highly fluctuating, population in the region during the fourteenth century. Like other cities in southern France, early in the twelfth century the city of Avignon was granted a city government by one of its co-seigneurs, the Count of Forcalquier.170 Communal control of the city, however, only existed until the midthirteenth century, when Count Charles I of Anjou installed a vicar to preside over its municipal administration. The history of medieval Avignon was dramatically altered with the arrival of the papal court in 1309, at which time the papacy was effectively in control of the city, though it was not until 1348 that the city was actually sold to Pope Clement VI by Joanna I, Countess of Provence.171 With the Palace of the Popes still dominating the geography of the city, Avignon’s image today remains indelibly attached to the late medieval papacy. The papacy and its large entourage, as well as those who sought newly created professional opportunities, transformed Avignon into the principal commercial center in the lower Rhône Valley. The pope’s arrival led to a demographic increase from only 5–6,000 in the early fourteenth century to 25–45,000 at its peak fifty 170

171

Bernard Guillemain, La Cour pontificale d’Avignon (1309–1376): étude d’une société (Paris: Éditions E. de Boccard, 1962), 84. Guillaume Mollat, The Popes at Avignon, 1305–1378, trans. Janet Love (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1963), xvii and 38.

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years later. The exponential growth of the city made it stand out for its narrow, overcrowded, and odor-filled streets, during a time when city stench was commonplace. The pope’s departure in the early fifteenth century furthered a decline from 30,000 in 1370 to only 15,000 100 years later.172 Despite its problems, the city continued to attract a large number of immigrants due to its past prestige, rich farmland, and strategic location for international trade at the confluence of the rivers, with only one-quarter of testators in the city in the first half of the fifteenth century being Avignon natives.173 The papal residency affected all aspects of urban life in late medieval Avignon and had both a direct and indirect effect on civic patronage of music.174 At times, the presence of the papacy created a need for city musicians at special events, though based upon extant records these were rare. The anticipated return of the papal residence of one line of popes during the Papal Schism to Avignon after a three-year absence was one such celebration.175 Clement VII’s departure to Marseilles on his way to Avignon on June 20, 1379 prompted a series of celebrations. The city of Avignon allocated the sizeable sum of 11 fl.: for the reason and occasion of paying minstrels, who made a celebration for our lord the pope on the day the news was brought that he had landed in Nice, as well as on the day that our lord entered Avignon, on which day the minstrels went all the way to Garrigues and thereupon they returned to Avignon, and for the two following days they worked in many ways for the said reason and for prearranged work.176 172 173 174

175 176

Guillemain, La Cour pontificale, 558. Sylvain Gagnière, ed., Histoire d’Avignon (La Calade: Edisud, 1979), 280. During the period of papal residency, two primary sources for the general expenses of the city are extant: AMA, CC 36 (1372–83) and CC 1019 (1376–91). Pierre Pansier’s study on the origins of theatre in Avignon includes many citations to musicians in the city accounts and is one of the most exhaustive examples of research on urban minstrels in medieval southern France. “Les Débuts du théâtre.” Statutes of the city (AA 1–4) yield information on the towermusicians, and registers of the deliberation of the city council (BB1–7) from the late fourteenth century through the fifteenth century offer information on the public crier. Donald Logan, A History of the Church in the Middle Ages (New York: Routledge, 2002), 313. AMA, CC 1019, f. 426, “causa et occasione solvendi ministralibus qui pro advento domini nostril pape tam pro solemnizacione facta in die qua portatum fuit novum quod ipse applicuerat in nizia quam in die qua ipse dominus noster intravit Avinionem quo die ipsi ministrales iverunt usque ad garigam, et deindo regressi fuerunt Avinionem et duobus diebus sequentibus in ministerio eorum multimode laboraverunt dictis de causis et pro laboribus permissis undecim florens de regina.” A transcription of this entry, as well as others in this register, is provided in Pierre Pansier, “Annales avignonaises de 1370 à 1392 d’après le livre des mandats de la gabelle,” Annales d’Avignon (1914): 52. A discussion of all entries in this register involving music is located in Andrew Tomasello, Music and Ritual at Papal Avignon, 1309–1403, Studies in Musicology, no. 75 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1983), 38–40.

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While the number of minstrels contracted on this occasion is not indicated, the sum of money provided to the minstrels (11 fl.) was substantial. (It was sufficient to secure three-room lodging in Avignon for almost an entire year.)177 As was common in royal receptions, the minstrels met the pope outside of Avignon as his boat worked its way up the Rhône River to the town. For this occasion, the city purchased items reflecting the power of the pope, including a canopy and eighteen small banners and escutcheons with the papal arms, as well as new livery for the trumpeter of the city.178 Visits of sovereigns and ambassadors to the papacy were marked by musical receptions, but the popes offered significantly more financial support for these events than did the city of Avignon. While the popes did not have minstrels in their regular employ or offer compensation to local minstrels, they did offer frequent gifts to the minstrels in the entourage of the royal visitors. Throughout the fourteenth century, offerings were made to the minstrels of the Dukes of Normandy, Bourbon, and Anjou, the King of France, Count of Savoy, and others. The size of the papal contributions made any offerings of the city appear paltry, such as 300 florins to the minstrels (ystriones) of the Duke of Normandy in 1344 or 100 florins to the minstrels of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1365 with the defined purpose of covering costs tied to the marriage of their children.179 One rare occasion on which the city of Avignon offered money to local musicians for a visit of royalty was for the departures from Avignon of the King of Sicily and the King of Navarre in 1390; the payments amounted to less than four florins for both a group of double-reed players and of trumpeters. These musicians were clearly not regular employees of the city, as two “servants” were paid for sending for the musicians.180 With the highly mobile and fluctuating city population surrounding the papacy in the fourteenth century and a weak city council, civic traditions involving music other than royal visits appear to have been less prominent in Avignon than in many of the other major urban centers of southern France. These rare events surrounding holidays involved payments to an unspecified number and type of minstrels, clearly not a standardized wind band.181 With the exception of trumpet ensembles, payments involve only 177 179

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Mollat, The Popes at Avignon, 280. 178 Pansier, “Annales avignonnaises,” 51–2. K. H. Schäfer, Die Ausgaben der apostolischen Kammer unter Benedikt XII., Klemens VI. und Innocenz VI. (1335–1362) (Paderborn: F. Schönigh, 1914), 262; K. H. Schäfer, Die Ausgaben der apostolischen Kammer unter den Päpsten Urban V. und Gregor XI. (1362–78) (Paderborn: F. Schönigh, 1914), 99. AMA, CC 1019, ff. 722–722v, “Item pro duobus servientibus qui mandaverunt tubatores aliis joculatoribus iiii gr.” AMA, CC 1019, f. 236r, f. 325r, f. 426r, ff. 722r–v; CC 36, no folio.

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Table 1.7: Musicians in processions in Avignon, 1449–1500: dates of payment in processions Lazarus de Pugeto Mahuetus Michaelis Petrus Peyroni Garinus Borheti Micheletus Vileti Anthonius Menerbe Johan Menerbe Stephanus Molhet

1449, 1451 1449, 1451 1449, 1451 1449, 1451, 1458 1474, 1475 1475, 1477, 1478, 1480 1478 1478, 1480

general references to “minstrels” (joculatores or menestries), who were hired in substantial numbers, such as in 1378 when they numbered twelve or in 1390 when the trumpeters alone numbered six.182 Following a century of papal residency, the city council once again gained control over Avignon despite the continued appointment of papal legates who frequently intervened in communal legislation.183 The members of the city council, who assumed the title of consuls in 1460, held prominent roles within the city, having to be residents of Avignon for at least ten years and having acquired substantial wealth. Throughout the second half of the fifteenth century increased civic ritual with music involving the city council, and at times the papal legate, is evident in a series of individual vouchers from the accounts of the general treasurer of the city.184 Musicians were regularly hired for civic ritual tied to religious holidays, such as Rogation Days, Carnival, and Corpus Christi. (See Table 1.7 for a listing of musicians hired for these celebrations in Avignon.) Participating in most of these celebrations were a pair of trumpeters and three or four minstrels who played wind instruments, particularly shawms (chalamelis) and pipes and tabors (fistulis et taborinis), which were particularly popular throughout southern France at this time. A typical payment receipt for a procession in 1449 reads, “Petrus Peyroni and Garinus Borheti, for themselves and for their partners . . . for joining the general procession of Rogations . . . with their shawms and instruments making festivity and piping (festivando et fistulando).”185 With this regularity of patronage, the same musicians were often hired for the 182 184

185

AMA, CC 1019, f. 325 and f. 722. 183 Gagnière, Histoire d’Avignon, 287–90. These payment receipts begin with the collection CC 363 (dating from 1449) in the AMA; additional receipts are located in Ms. 1626 in the Bibliothèque municipale de la ville d’Avignon. AMA, CC 363, No. 192, “Petro Peyroni et Garino Borheti mimis tam pro se et pro sociis suis . . . in associando processione generali Rogationum . . . cum suis chalamelis sive instrumentis festivando et fistulando.”

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procession of Rogations for many years, like Garinus Borheti, who played the shawm in this annual procession over at least a ten-year period.186 Elaborate civic ritual often attended by the papal legate surrounding a banquet for the city council held at the consulate during Carnival developed during the second half of the fifteenth century. Ensembles of both loud instruments and soft instruments were used in the musical entertainment, and at least at times the soft instrumentalists were in the employ of the papal legate. In 1450, among the substantial expenses for cheese and wine are three categories of musicians: the minstrels (menestriers), the trumpeters (trompetas), and the pipe and tabor player (lo taborin).187 In 1475, the city council made one payment to an ensemble of trumpets and different-size kettledrums, and a second to “the minstrels of stringed instruments, who are the harp, the lute, the rebec, the bells or cymbals (chaplechou) who are those of Mr. Legate.”188 In 1481, a trumpet-kettledrum ensemble and four soft minstrels were again hired; this year the soft instruments were the pipe and tabor, the organ, most likely the small portative, a douçaine (a quiet double-reed instrument), and again bells or cymbals (chappe chault).189 A few months later, a lavish reception was staged in honor of the return of the papal legate, Julien de Roviere, who was a strong patron of the arts and the future Pope Julius II. At one city doorway a pavilion was covered with greenery, turrets, and an image of the Virgin, and trumpets from nearby Châteauneuf and five minstrels performed; at another portal a pipe and tabor player accompanied an angel.190 In 1496, the consuls again organized a banquet during Carnival honoring Julien de Roviere, in which performers, who danced a moresque and a branle, offered five golden keys, which were symbolic of the city, to the legate.191 During the sixteenth century banquets during Carnival with both loud and soft minstrels continued to reflect the balance of power between the papal legates and the city council. The employment of soft instrumentalists by the city of Avignon for these banquets is the only evidence located for civic patronage of soft instrumentalists in southern France. This is consistent with patterns of civic patronage in other European cities during the late Middle Ages, as cities generally 186

187 188

189

In remuneration for their participation in the procession of Rogations, as well as other processions, throughout the third quarter of the fifteenth century, each of the musicians, both trumpeters and minstrels, received ½ fl. AMA, CC 363, No. 131. AMA, CC 369, No. 201, “Als menestriers de corda . . . l’arpe, laut, rebec, chaplechon, que son aquels de Mons. lo legate.” AMA, CC 373, No. 127. 190 Pansier, “Les Débuts du théâtre,” 12. 191 Ibid., 15.

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offered financial support to soft instrumentalists of visiting nobility. Polk writes, “Although German cities did not develop in general any analogous pattern of patronage of resident string players in official civic bands, they could provide generous support of visiting ensembles.”192 Soft instrumentalists might have found other sources of employment in the urban setting, such as private gatherings and weddings, but professional soft instrumentalists are rare in the archival records of southern France. As was custom in many cities of southern France, instrumentalists performed from a central bell-tower in Avignon, and both the city and the pope employed these tower-musicians. The custom of hiring a watchman “to sound a horn” twice a day on the tower of the cathedral of Notre Dame des Doms in Avignon has been documented back to city statutes from the mid-thirteenth century. The city statutes of Avignon from 1243 state that, “Each night the bell is rung as is the custom, and the city maintains each night in the episcopal tower a watchman who is maintained to sound the horn (cornare) on ascending and in the morning.”193 During the fourteenth century the pope paid for the garrisons of the city, which involved 50–100 people at night, as well as for the position of towermusician, who was placed upon the papal tower right next to the cathedral. During the 1360s and early 1370s Pope Urban V hired two watchmen (gaychatores) for the papal tower, of whom at least one was clearly identified as a trumpeter.194 In 1390 one of the watchmen was hired by the city of Avignon to participate in two processions suggesting a musical ability that exceeded providing basic signals. During the fifteenth century, when the pope was no longer in Avignon and the city council had more authority, the city provided a monthly stipend for a trumpeter in this position at the apostolic palace, but also, strikingly, a minstrel (mimus). No other city in the south of France has been identified as placing a musician other than a trumpeter on a bell-tower. The type of instrument played by this minstrel is not specified in the receipts, though one man in this position from at least 1450 to 1463 was known as a reed player (cornemuse), and another from at least 1473 to 1481 played the pipe and tabor in processions. At least some of the men who sounded the watch, 192

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Keith Polk, “Vedel und Geige – Fiddle and Viol: German String Traditions in the Fifteenth Century,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 42 (1989): 519. René de Maulde, “Coutumes et règlements de la république d’Avignon au XIIIe siècle,” Nouvelle revue historique de droit français et étranger 1 (1877): 565, “Item statuimus quod singulis noctibus pulsetur campana more consueto, et quod commune teneat singulis noctibus in turri episcopali excubiam que teneatur cornare quum ascenderit et ad auroram.” Tomasello, Music and Ritual, 21–5.

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Table 1.8: Musicians serving as watch in Avignon, 1449–1500: dates of payment Symonetus Menerbe Johanin Galey Johanne Aucher Johan Menerbe Stephanus Molheti Anthonius Menerbe

1449, 1450, 1451 1449, 1450 1450, 1451, 1453, 1463 1453, 1463, 1473, 1474 1473, 1474, 1476, 1477 1476, 1477

both trumpeters and minstrels, were capable musicians who were also hired by the city to perform in local processions, including a pipe and tabor player, Stephanus Molheti, and trumpeter, Antonius Menerbe during the 1470s and ’80s. The city statutes of 1441 contain an almost identical entry concerning this position to those of 1243, describing the duties of performing from the bell-tower in the evening and the morning.195 Perhaps Avignon’s unique practice in the south of placing instrumentalists other than trumpeters on the tower to sound the watch reflects the international character of its population, and specifically influence from the north, where this was a common practice. As in other cities in southern France, this job offered a secure and steady income for musicians. (See Table 1.8 for a listing of musicians serving as watch in Avignon.) This position was maintained within a particular family, as members of at least three generations of the Menerbe family sounded the watch on the trumpet in the mid-fifteenth century: Symonetus Menerbe from 1449 to 1551, Johan Menerbe from 1453 to 1475, and Anthonius Menerbe from 1476 to 1481. In the mid-fifteenth century, a person who sounded the watch received a monthly stipend of 2½ fl. or 30 fl. per year; this was ½ fl. more per month than the stipend of a regular guard who did not sound the watch. The wage seems relatively low in comparison, however, to the ½ fl. these same musicians would receive for a single procession or the 5 fl. that the watchmen were paid each month in the fourteenth century. Unlike other cities in Provence, the role of the public crier does not appear to have figured prominently in the civic life of medieval Avignon. While regular payments are made in the fourteenth century to the “trumpet

195

Joseph Girard and Pierre Pansier, “Les Statuts d’Avignon de 1441,” Annales d’Avignon et du Comtat Venaissin 3 (1914), 177, “Item statuimus quod singulis noctibus pulsetur campana more solito, et quod civitas teneat singulis noctibus in turri palacii excubiam que teneatur cornare quando ascenderit et iterum de mane in aurora.”

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of the temporal court” who served as a public crier, his annual stipend was very modest at 1 fl., suggesting minimal obligations.196 The residence of the papacy had a pronounced impact on the urban musical life in Avignon during the fourteenth century. The popes offered substantial support to musicians of their royal guests, as well as to trumpeters on a central bell-tower, while city accounts of the city of Avignon reveal only a minimal support to musicians. The papal presence in Avignon created a highly mobile population that curtailed the development of civic practices and customs, and, more specifically, the support offered to musicians of visiting royalty might have replaced the obligation of the city to provide music at some of the important civic events. Perhaps most importantly, the lack of a strong and independent city council between the midthirteenth century and the mid-fifteenth century limited the need and impetus for civic musicians. With the departure of the papacy in the early fifteenth century and the growth of the city council that followed, the city offered regular payments to players of wind instruments and a trumpet duo in processions, a pair of tower-musicians, and occasionally players of soft instruments. Perhaps reflecting its international population, the city of Avignon is unique among southern French cities to place instrumentalists other than trumpeters on the tower, demonstrating similarities with Flemish cities. Musicians were employed for civic ritual that surrounded and emphasized the importance of the city council. While clearly civicsupported music contributed to the image of civic autonomy in Avignon in the second half of the fifteenth century, no salaried, liveried ensemble, which so clearly exists for Montpellier and Toulouse, is evident in Avignon.

Marseilles Due to its natural harbor, Marseilles became in the mid-thirteenth century the most important port city in southern France and a center of exchange between northern Europe, countries of the East, Africa, and southern peninsulas of Europe. By the mid-thirteenth century, the population of medieval Marseilles, which was as cosmopolitan as it is today, reached its peak at 20–25,000 people.197 By the late thirteenth century, however, under 196

197

ADV, 1 G 9, f. 68 and f. 127v; AMA, CC 36, “A la trompeta per son sellari de 1 an car crida los consels . . . 1 fl.” Albertinus Raynaudi served this function from at least 1372 to 1379. AMA, BB 1, f. 2, 1372; CC 1019, f. 324v, 1378 and ff. 421v–422, 1379. Edouard Baratier, La Démographie provençale du XIIIe au XVIe siècle (Paris: SEVPEN, 1961), 66. More so than for other cities in this region, the population of medieval Marseilles is difficult to establish; tax records organized by hearths do not exist, so the population to a

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the Angevin Counts of Provence, who prioritized their political interests abroad, Montpellier replaced Marseilles as the most important French sea port, in spite of Marseilles’ better maritime facilities, and an official representative of the count was installed in the city with strong administrative and financial control, reducing the city’s independence.198 Compounding the ill effects of the famines and epidemics that hit all of Provence in the fourteenth century, Marseilles was pulled into devastating military campaigns, including a sack by the Catalans in 1423, resulting in a population of less than 10,000 by the early fifteenth century. As the Angevin crown weakened, however, the city council of Marseilles was able to recover some of its earlier independence, and after the annexation of Provence by the kingdom of France in 1486 Marseilles soon re-established itself as the primary French port on the Mediterranean.199 While certain series in the archives of Marseilles are unusually well preserved, the records of general city expenses, which are essential in determining practices of civic subsidy to musicians, are sparse, more so than for any other major city in the south of France in this study. The expenditures of the city from 1384 to 1398 are documented well in the registers CC 193–201, but for the fifteenth century only loose, individual receipts are extant (CC 461–468). Other types of document offer valuable insights into civic musical practices, but they do not address questions of regular patronage. The city statutes that date from 1219 (AA 1) offer details concerning the position of the public crier. The registers of deliberations of the city council of Marseilles are exceptionally rich, detailed, and complete, with many entries addressing the necessary preparations by the city for processions and other civic ceremonies. The registers spanning the years 1318–1473 (BB 11–32bis) were examined for this study. Registers in both Series EE, which includes expenses for the defense of the city, and FF, with announcements and ordinances of the police, have also been explored. The notarial contracts for Marseilles, which entail over 800 registers dating from prior to 1450, yield rare insights into some of the civic musicians. The most prominent musician supported by the city of Marseilles was the public crier, who made announcements to the sound of the trumpet, as well

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certain extent is based upon the calculation of area enclosed within walls and demographic trends in Provence. Edouard Baratier, “Sous les angevins de Naples (1246–1423),” in Histoire de Marseille, ed. Edouard Baratier (Toulouse: Privat, 1973), 94; Georges Lesage, Marseille angevine (1264–1348) (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1950), 6. Daniel Lord Smail, Imaginary Cartographies: Possession and Identity in Late Medieval Marseille (Ithaca: Cornell, 1999), 56.

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as performing other administrative duties.200 The position figures prominently in city records throughout the Middle Ages, from the city statutes of 1219 to payment records, contracts, and deliberations of the city council for over the next 200 years. Throughout the deliberations of the city council, it is routinely stated that announcements were made to the “sound of a trumpet and bell” (voce tube et sone campane) by a municipal officer most commonly identified as an “announcer” (nuncius) or “crier” (preco). During the last couple of decades of the fourteenth century, from at least 1378 to 1395, this position was filled by a man who, despite his variety of duties, was known as a musician, Petrus Alaman Alias Tamborin.201 Petrus is identified as “Pipe and tabor player, announcer and crier” (Tamborino, nuncio, et preconi), as well as “servant of war” (servitori de guere), indicating that he also served some capacity in the defense of the city, and in addition, Petrus frequently served as a witness for civic documents. In 1393 Petrus chose his own replacement, Johannes Brossard, with whom he shared his duties for a few more years and to whom Petrus lent one of his trumpets on the condition that he would not sell it. Petrus Alaman received a monthly stipend of 3 fl., or 36 fl. per year, which is similar to the wages of the tax collector at 30 fl. a year, a scribe at 25 fl., and a treasurer at 36 fl.202 Petrus also received a uniform each year worth more than two months’ wages. The will of Petrus Alaman is of particular interest, as it reveals that Petrus considered his professional colleagues and friends to be the minstrels of the city. According to Petrus’ will, which was executed on July 23, 1384, only minstrels were recipients of his estate, except for his wife, Ayselena, who was identified as his universal heir. Petrus specified that at the time of his death one-half of a sheep, two dozen loaves of bread and wine were to be provided to the minstrels of Marseilles, apparently for dinner at the time of his burial. He also allocated 1 gr. to each minstrel who helped bury him.203 Even

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202 203

Louis Barthélemy conducted exceptional research in the archives of Marseilles in the second half of the nineteenth century, identifying records that offer valuable insights into the world of late medieval minstrelsy. Civic patronage, however, was not a topic that he systematically addressed. Barthélemy, “Notice historique.” André Gouirand drew from Barthélemy’s research for his discussion of music in medieval Marseilles in La Musique en Provence et le conservatoire de Marseille (Marseille: Librairie P. Ruat, 1908). Petrus has been identified in local records dating from as early as 1366 (ADB, 351 E/28, f. 252v), but the earliest documentation for his service as a crier dates from 1378 (AMMa., BB 27). The “tambourin” was a long cylindrical snare drum that became particularly popular in southern France at the end of the Middle Ages and was frequently coupled with the pipe. AMMa, CC 193, f. 11v, f. 22, f. 32, f. 41v, f. 53. ADB, 351 E/86, f. 41v, “Item lego omnibus mimis seu ministreriis civitatis Massili medietatem unius mutonis et duas duodenas panis albi et unum scandalhum vini. Item lego similiter cuilibet

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though his primary professional position required a variety of non-musical duties, Petrus was clearly a member of the minstrel community. As in other southern French cities, the city of Marseilles employed a trumpeter to perform from a central tower, but comparatively minimal evidence has been uncovered. In a contract from 1441 a trumpeter, Girardin Deprat of Cambrai, was employed to perform twice a day from the clock tower located on a central highpoint in the city.204 Girardin was to climb up the clock tower each day at dawn and in the evening “at the hour of Ave Maria” and to sound the trumpet in all four directions. Girardin was also to serve as a herald of arms during times of war. In addition to his substantial monthly stipend of two scuti of gold (approximately 2½ ll. t.), Petrus received livery bearing the coat of arms of the city. This practice continued into the second half of the century, as in 1473, Peyre Jacme, who was identified as the trumpeter of the city who made the watch each evening and morning on the trumpet, made a request to the city for lodging at the consulate, to which the city agreed.205 A recurring topic in the unusually detailed and well-preserved deliberations of the city council of Marseilles is the preparation for the frequent receptions for royalty, who commonly used the port of Marseilles for their travels to Italy, though music is rarely mentioned. One exception was the preparation for the reception for the Kings and Queens of Sicily and Majorca in 1320, for which it is suggested that the procession within the city begin with dances accompanied by music, specifically “trumpets, nakers, and other needed instruments.”206 Another example is a procession in 1365 in honor of Pope Urban V, who, prior to being elected pope in 1362, had been the abbot of the monastery of Saint Victor of Marseilles and who was returning for the consecration of the newly restored monastery for which he had donated money. Preparations were made for a flotilla of small boats and large galleys all decorated with branches and banners, and displaying men with musical instruments.207 The account books of the city in the second half of the fourteenth century reflect the difficult realities of the city and consist primarily of expenditures for military campaigns and the replenishment of

204

205 207

ipsorum mimatorum unum grossum argenti qui erunt in sepeliatione mei corporis.” (“I leave to all of the minstrels of the city of Marseilles one-half of a sheep and two dozen loaves of white bread and one ‘scandalhum’ of wine. I leave similarly to each of the minstrels who buried my body one gr. of silver.”) Barthélemy, “Notice historique,” 6. Unfortunately, Barthélemy does not cite his source, and this contract has not been located. AMMa, BB 33, f. 15v. 206 AMMa, BB 12, f. 36. Joseph-Hyacinthe Albanès, Entrée solennelle du pape Urbain V à Marseille en 1365 (Marseille: Librairie ancienne de Boy-Estellon, 1865), 30.

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Figure 3. Will of Petrus Alaman, crier of Marseilles, ADB, 351 E/86, f. 41v.

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grain and do not include payments to musicians.208 In the fourteenth century, civic patronage of music was rarely documented and was connected to events surrounding royalty, rather than local civic traditions. The couple of isolated payments to minstrels identified for the fifteenth century involve special events to honor royalty and do not involve a civic wind band. The earliest payment to minstrels dates from 1411 in honor of Saint Louis of Anjou, the brother of King Robert, who became ill while in captivity in Spain and died on his journey home in 1297. He was buried in Marseilles, was canonized in 1317, and his relics were in the care of the Franciscan friars of Marseilles.209 As a result, celebrations in honor of Louis were of unusual importance and solemnity throughout this region. While in Montpellier at this time minstrels were not allowed to participate in the procession in honor of Saint Louis of Anjou due to the solemnity of the occasion, in Marseilles for this date a relatively large sum of money was allocated for minstrels.210 In November of 1434, payment was made to: Johannetus Johannis and his partners, “pipers and fluters” (fistularibus sive flahutayres), and Petrus Gay and his partners, trumpeters of the said city, for their pay and labor at the orders of the said lords and named syndics and for the city, on the day of the celebration that was joyous and solemn, in the grand refectory of Saint Louis for the betrothal of our lord the King and our lady the Queen.211 This record further suggests that the city of Marseilles employed trumpeters on a regular basis, but not wind players. During this unusually difficult period in Marseilles’ history, the city employed musicians in similar functions as in other large cities in southern France, but apparently to a lesser degree. The position of public crier in Marseilles was imbued with exceptional responsibility and importance, though the sparse account records prevent conclusions concerning tower-trumpeters and musicians in civic celebrations. The severe economic hardship, as well as political turmoil, that Marseilles encountered in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries must have negatively impacted its practices of musical patronage.

208

209 211

Alain Droguet, “Une ville au miroir de ses comptes: les dépenses de Marseille à la fin du XIVe siècle,” Provence historique 30 (1980): 171–213. Lesage, Marseille angevine, 161. 210 AMMa, CC 465, f. 46. AMMa, CC 468, f. 9, “Johanneto Johannis et suis sociis fistularibus sive flahutayres et Petro Gay et suis sociis tubicinatoribus dicte civitatis pro suis salariis sive laboribus per eos factis ad mandatum dictorum dominorum et sindicorum nomine et pro parte civitatis eiusdem in die festo quo factum fuit bancum sive gaudium sollemne in magno refectorio beati ludovici pro empaso sive de sponsalibus domini nostri Regis et domine nostre Regine.”

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Aix-en-Provence, Apt, and Orange212 Despite having populations well below 10,000 prior to the Black Death, Aixen-Provence, Apt, and Orange had similar practices of civic subsidy to the nearby cities of Avignon and Marseilles, if somewhat more modest. Aix-enProvence, situated thirty kilometers north of Marseilles, had a population of only 6,000 inhabitants before the Black Death; however, in the fifteenth century it was an important city with a prominent university, an archbishop, and the rich musical court of King René of Anjou with its loud and soft minstrels, trumpeters, and pipe and tabor players.213 As with the larger Provençal cities, Aix-en-Provence offered a trumpeter a substantial income. In 1443, Jo Crestan, “trumpeter of the city,” was paid an annual wage of 36 fl., which specifically covered his participation at festivals throughout the year.214 A well-established trumpeter in Aix, Monnetus Monneri, also served in an official capacity for the city during the mid-fifteenth century, sounding the watch twice a day, a standard duty for trumpeters throughout Provence at this time. While minstrels do not appear among the regular employees of the city, they were hired for special occasions on an ad hoc basis. In 1352 the city paid a substantial sum of 5 fl. to minstrels (joculatores) for a celebration in honor of the coronation of the king.215 The civic celebrations surrounding Corpus Christi have a particularly long and prominent history in Aix-en-Provence, dating back to at least the midfourteenth century and involving civic-organized theatrical productions and nocturnal processions.216 In 1444 the city paid for the masks of the performers (jougadours) for a celebration of Corpus Christi. The small market town of Apt, located sixty-six kilometers east of Avignon in the Luberon Mountains, had a pre-plague population of only 3,300, but also displayed similar musical practices to larger cities in Provence. The expenditures of the city are unusually well preserved, with nearly twenty registers of account books and of deliberations of the city

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215 216

The archives of Béziers were briefly explored; only a single forty-folio register with the deliberations of the city council and an isolated account book survive from prior to the sixteenth century, and the only evidence concerning music is for a trumpeter. Yves Esquieu and Noël Coulet, “La Musique à la cour provençale du roi René,” Provence historique 31 (1981): 299–312. AMAix, CC 449, f. 24, f. 31, f. 36v. The municipal archives of Aix-en-Provence has only two account books of the city and one register of the deliberations of the city council dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. AMAix, BB 28, f. 28v. Nöel Coulet, “Les Jeux de la Fête-Dieu d’Aix, une fête médiévale?” Provence historique 31 (1981): 316.

Provence

council extant from the late Middle Ages.217 In the late fourteenth century, trumpeters were offered regular wages and livery, and served familiar duties of the public crier or town watch, such as signaling the approach of visitors, assembling the city council, and announcing the closing of the town gates.218 As in Aix-en-Provence, the city of Apt seems to have hired musicians for the celebration of Corpus Christi. According to now-missing municipal accounts, cited in a study by Abbot Rose dating from 1842, musicians were hired for Corpus Christi who were not only from Apt, but also from surrounding cities and households. In 1367 the six minstrels of the Lord of Caseneuve, whose château was just east of Apt, were paid 3 fl. for their participation in Corpus Christi, and in 1370 minstrels from the nearby towns of les Baux, Saignon, and Viens were hired.219 Additionally, Noël Coulet cites still-extant payment receipts from 1376, 1421, and 1451 documenting the participation of minstrels in this annual procession.220 As in Aix-en-Provence and Apt, the only musician to receive regular support in Orange was a trumpeter who served as a public crier making announcements for the city council and performing in processions.221 Also reflective of practices in the area, Corpus Christi was an occasion on which the city hired musicians, as in 1456, when a trumpeter and pipe and tabor player were hired. Later that summer, the city of Orange also hired a trumpeter and two other minstrels to perform in a procession in “honor of God and the whole celestial court of paradise,” hoping to protect the city from the plague, against which they also performed special masses and shut the city doors.222 Throughout medieval Provence, including cities below 10,000, urban life was marked by the announcements of public criers, the signals of towermusicians, and the performances of minstrels in civic receptions and celebrations. Reflecting the distinct histories of these cities in Provence, however, the civic-supported music appeared and sounded quite different throughout this region. The papal residency in Avignon of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries had a significant impact on all aspects of urban 217 218 219

220 221

222

AMApt, CC 39–56 and BB 1–16. AMApt, BB 12, f. 4; BB 13, f. 4v, 65; BB 15, f. 33, f. 94, f. 252. Elzéar Rose, Études historiques et religieuses sur le XIVe siècle, ou Tableau de l’église d’Apt sous la courp papale d’Avignon (Avignon: L. Aubanel, 1842), 638. Coulet, “Les Jeux de la Fête-Dieu,” 318. AMO, CC 371, f. 29. The municipal archives are extremely well preserved in Orange, with fifty account books and five registers of council deliberations being extant from prior to 1450. Of these, one-third of the account books have been examined. These are CC 332–4, 337, 359–60, 363, 365–6, 368–73, 378, 396–8. AMO, CC 371, f. 10 and f. 16v.

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life, and ultimately appears to have curtailed civic-supported music in Avignon; while the city offered minimal and ad hoc support of minstrels during the period of papal residency, after the pope’s departure and the growing prominence of the city council, the city offered regular support to a wind ensemble for civic celebrations and to rituals with music specifically surrounding the city council. Marseilles, which suffered economic and political instability, as well as the destruction of city accounts, appears to have offered only minimal support to minstrels, but placed great importance upon the position of public crier, a position not prominent in the records of Avignon. In conclusion, civic-subsidized music was a prominent part of urban life in southern France during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, though specific practices varied from city to city. Musical practices in Montpellier in the second half of the fourteenth century rivaled, and frequently surpassed, those of other major European cities with its early appearance of a fivemember civic wind band, the regular employment of three civic trumpeters, and the high frequency and diversity of events for which they were employed. Of the other cities in southern France with populations peaking at or approaching 40,000, Toulouse offers an image most similar to Montpellier. By 1330, the city of Toulouse was regularly patronizing trumpeters, and by at least fifty years later a three-member wind ensemble was on the regular payroll. Narbonne and Avignon, despite populations also approaching 40,000, only appear to have hired minstrels on an ad hoc basis for fewer occasions, with only trumpeters receiving regular support. Both the cities of Marseilles and Nîmes, whose populations peaked between 20,000 and 25,000, regularly hired trumpeters to serve in prominent positions in the city and minstrels were hired on an ad hoc basis for special occasions, though for the city of Nîmes, greater regularity in hiring minstrels is evident. In the cities with populations of 10,000 or below, Albi, Aix, Apt, and Orange, similar patterns have also been identified. The makeup of the civic ensemble varied from city to city in southern France; instrumental practices were not unified throughout this region. A wind band specifically of three to four shawm players was on the payroll by the first half of the fifteenth century in Montpellier and Toulouse, though the presence of a trumpeter in the ensemble has not been confirmed through the records. In neither Montpellier nor Toulouse, however, has a shawm band been confirmed prior to the fifteenth century. In Montpellier, the ensemble consisted of reeds, trumpets, and percussion, while in Toulouse the members are only referred to ambiguously as “minstrels.” In other cities in southern France, like Marseilles and Avignon, players of reed

Provence

instruments participated in civic ritual, most commonly “cornamusis” and “cornetis,” but the records are not consistent and do not indicate the regular formation of a shawm band. Civic music traditions besides the wind band varied as well throughout cities in southern France. While all cities placed an individual on a high tower to serve as a watchman and to provide warning signals, what townspeople would have heard emanating from the tower varied significantly from city to city. Montpellier placed two skilled trumpeters on the tower, whereas in Toulouse the watch was sounded by the ringing of bells. Avignon, perhaps as a result of international influence, hired musicians other than trumpeters, particularly reed players, to serve as watch. Traditions surrounding ceremonial trumpeters also varied. While Toulouse did not accrue expenses with tower-trumpeters, the city did decide to allocate money for two trumpeters with expensive silver trumpets to figure prominently in civic ritual. While Marseilles does not appear to have supported a regular wind band, the city did place a trumpeter on a tower and had a high-profile public crier who played a pipe and tabor. A city of Montpellier’s prominence not only sponsored a wind band and two tower-trumpeters, but highly visible public criers who played the trumpet as well. The patterns of civic-supported music throughout southern France reflect the cities’ social and political structures. Two cities in southern France, Montpellier and Toulouse, both with peak populations around 40,000, employed an official civic wind band, with livery, regular wages, and constant personnel. Significantly, both of these two cities had a long history of an independent and powerful city council, and the performance of the civic musicians regularly surrounded ceremonial practices of the city council. Despite the cities’ demographic decline and reduction in consular power during the second half of the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries, these musicians, with their expensive livery and pennons, remained on the payroll, reflecting their importance in urban ceremonial life. In Narbonne, also a first-rank city with a population approaching 40,000 but with a comparatively weak civic government, minstrels do not appear to have taken a prominent role in civic rituals even on an ad hoc basis, and their limited appearances are not tied to ceremonial practices of the city council. Indeed, minstrels appear more prominently in the civic ceremonies of the significantly smaller city of Nîmes, which had a comparatively stronger city council. In Nîmes, minstrels hired on an ad hoc basis served a similar, if more limited, function as in Montpellier and Toulouse. With the unique situation of Avignon, civic-supported music became more prominent with the departure of the papacy and the emergence of a strong city council. Even

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in the small town of Albi, ceremonial practices involving musicians reflected the nature of local politics where the bishop had predominant power. From this comparison of major cities in southern France, it is evident that the degree and nature of civic sponsorship of music in a city is closely connected to the city’s political structure and, specifically, to the extent to which the civic government has autonomy from external authority. Urban life in late medieval southern France was regularly punctuated by civic-sponsored music that conveyed clear political and social meaning to the cities’ inhabitants.

2

In honor of nobility: civic patronage in central France

During the politically volatile period of the late Middle Ages, cities of central France were in close alliance with French royalty and essential to the stability of France. Tours and Orléans were geographically and politically at the heart of France on the Loire River; Troyes, Reims, and Châlonsen-Champagne, located to the east, were the major cities of the county of Champagne; to the south, Dijon was the capital of Burgundy; and Lyons, much further to the south on the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers, became an important commercial center of the French royal domain. Most of these cities reached populations close to 20,000 from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, with the population of Lyons, the largest of these, spiking to at least 40,000 by the end of this period. These major cities of central France did not have the history of independence and power that many cities to the south had acquired. Bernard Chevalier notes that in central France in the late Middle Ages, “the communal movement, as precocious as anywhere else, had generally been cut short . . .”1 City councils were not recognized until the fourteenth century in most of these cities and not until the early fifteenth century in Châlons-en-Champagne, compared to the emergence of city councils in the early twelfth century in major cities of northern France and in the early thirteenth century in major cities of southern France. In addition to emerging later, the city councils were controlled tightly by French royalty and did not have extensive judicial or political power. The municipal archives for each of these cities are extremely well preserved, allowing for patterns of civic patronage of music to be clearly established. Reflecting their political history, the cities of central France did not subsidize music to the same degree as those to the south, and when they did it fostered the image of a powerful French crown, instead of civic authority.

1

Bernard Chevalier, “The Policy of Louis XI towards the Bonnes Villes: The Case of Tours,” in The Recovery of France in the Fifteenth Century, ed. P. S. Lewis (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), 267.

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The Loire Valley: Tours and Orléans2 Scattered throughout the lush Loire Valley, a region long known as the “Garden of France,” are over 1,000 châteaux, many built during the late Middle Ages, when the region was the stronghold of the French crown. Residences of Charles VII (r. 1422–61) in the Loire Valley were located in Tours, Chinon, Montbazon, Loches, Amboise, and Bourges, and elsewhere. Tours and Orléans were the two principal cities of the Loire Valley during this period, both beautiful centers for nobility on the Loire River with renowned universities, important commercial centers, and numerous and prestigious churches. They were both among the largest cities in medieval France, with their estimated populations prior to the ravages of the Black Death in 1348 reaching above 20,000.3 In the early fifteenth century, Tours became the royal capital of France. Charles VI (r. 1380–1422) made frequent visits to Tours, and beginning with the reign of Charles VII and continuing through the century with the reigns of Louis XI (r. 1461–83) and Charles VIII (r. 1483–98), the court often traveled to a château near Tours. Louis XI, claiming himself as “long one of the citizens” of Tours, discontinued the tradition of the itinerant ruler, and extended his stays in Tours, purchasing in 1463 the “manner of Montils” just west of the city and constructing in 1473 on this same site a château, known as Plessis-les-Tours.4 While the population of Tours plummeted by half in the mid-fourteenth century due to plague, famine, and war, a situation common throughout France, Tours rebounded quickly, reaching 20,000 by the beginning of the sixteenth century.5 Orléans’ close attachment to the French crown dates back to the tenth and eleventh centuries, when under the Capetians, the first kings of France, Orléans became a center of royal government that rivaled Paris. In 1392 King Charles VI granted the duchy of Orléans to his brother, Louis, and it remained an apanage until 1498 when it was united with the royal domain when the son of Charles of Orléans became the King of France. The city’s 2

3

4

The discussion of music patronage in Orléans and Tours appears in an essay by the author: “Music in Late-Mediaeval Tours and Orléans: A Reflection of Political Allegiance in the Loire Valley,” in Instruments, Ensembles, and Repertory, 1300–1600, ed. Timothy McGee and Stewart Carter, Brepols Collected Essays in European Culture, vol. 4 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012 (summer)). Russell, Medieval Regions, 148. Tours’ population is estimated at 26,300 and Orléans’ at 22,500. Bernard Chevalier estimated Tours’ population substantially smaller at approximately 15,000. Chevalier, Histoire de Tours (Toulouse: Privat, 1985), 101; Chevalier, Tours ville royale, 1356–1520: origine et développement d’une capitale à la fin du Moyen Âge (Louvain: Munstraat, 1975), 96. Chevalier, “Policy of Louis XI,” 266. 5 Chevalier, Histoire de Tours, 144.

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close association and allegiance to the king is reflected in an incident of the early fifteenth century, when the city attempted to have its coat of arms painted on one of its gates. The governor sought to prevent this with a hasty message to the royal chancellor. In response, the city of Orléans assured the chancellor that the arms of the King of France would be displayed alongside those of the city, thereby prompting the governor to reconsider his position.6 The cities of the Loire Valley, under attack multiple times by the English during the Hundred Years’ War, depended upon the duke and king for protection, and in turn demonstrated great allegiance to the crown. After more than half of a century of fighting the English, France found itself in the early fifteenth century in a highly vulnerable state. As the English encroached upon French territory, Charles VII, a notoriously weak and indecisive leader of France, was forced to flee Paris, take refuge in the south of France, and derisively became known as the “King of Bourges.” Even though the King of France had considerable manpower and financial resources at his disposal early in his reign during the 1420s, the English held all of Normandy and were successfully challenging the heart of France in the Loire Valley, and the citizens of Orléans found themselves under attack on the northern border of France. A low point in the history of Orléans was on October 12, 1428, when the city was besieged by English troops hoping to acquire one of the last major cities in the remaining French territory and thereby gain control over the Loire Valley. The city remained under siege until the appearance in early May of 1429 of the unknown Joan of Arc (“Maid of Orléans”), a girl of only fourteen who received visions from God instructing her to fight the English and to see Charles anointed in the cathedral at Reims. She served as a catalyst for a change in tide for the Hundred Years’ War and inspired the French troops to launch a successful assault on the English. After the siege was lifted, the city continued to be threatened by the English for fifteen years, as three-quarters of the city’s resources were invested in the construction and maintenance of city walls.7 Unlike Tours, as the home of the King of France which rebounded quickly, Orléans continued to struggle in the fifteenth century with its population on a slow decline until the sixteenth century.8 With the Treaty of Arras in 1435, Philip of Burgundy recognized Charles as the King of France in exchange for large territorial concessions, allowing the French crown to focus on forcing England from the continent. 6 7

Jacques Debal, Histoire d’Orléans et son terroir, vol. I (Roanne: Éditions Horvath, 1983), 364. Ibid., 411. 8 Ibid., 433.

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It would take over fifteen years, however, to drive the English completely out of Normandy and a few more to force them out of their southern foothold in Gascony. The city account books of both Tours and Orléans are unusually well preserved for French cities, and provide an accurate and detailed picture of the cities’ support of music.9 In the archives of Tours, the earliest extant account book dates from 1358, two years after the city was granted municipal authority by the king, and they survive for most years throughout the fifteenth century in an unusually well-organized and legible state. For this study, over one-half of these account books have been examined along with the deliberations of the city council for over twenty-five years, which are extant beginning in 1407, as have all of the civic records specifically relating to celebrations and ceremonies in honor of royalty.10 Similarly, the account books of the city of Orléans are well preserved and continuous dating from 1391, approximately five years after the formation of a civic administration, and three-fourths of these have been examined for this study.11 The original registers, unfortunately, were destroyed during World War II, though they exist on highly legible microfilms. The deliberations of the city council for Orléans, in contrast to Tours, are not extant until 1563. The well-preserved nature of these extant municipal records makes it possible to determine the state of civic patronage of music in Tours and Orléans in the late Middle Ages. Civic patronage of music of these two central cities of the Loire Valley is remarkable within medieval France due to their minimal support of musicians on a regular or even ad hoc basis for local civic celebrations, while at the same time offering extensive support, sometimes lavish, in honor of nobility. The only type of musician to receive regular support from either the city of Tours or Orléans from c. 1350 to 1500 was the trumpeter, and this musician does not appear to have served as a strong symbol of civic authority. The earliest account books of the city of Tours, dating from 1359, record regular payments to a trumpeter who served as a 9

10

11

As with other cities in central France, music in the urban setting of Orléans and Tours has only been briefly referred to in scholarship. The most substantial discussion is by Charles Cuissard, Étude sur la musique dans l’Orléanais (Orléans: Paul Girardot, 1886); Cuissard devotes a few pages to the fifteenth century, citing some city accounts involving musicians. The account books that have been examined are AMTours, CC 1–3, 6–7, 9–15, 18, 23, 26–30, 34– 8, 41, 44, 48–51, as well as the later CC 70–1 dating from 1531–40. Of the deliberations of the city council, BB 1 (1407–22), BB 6 (1434–41) and BB 7 (1437–41) have been compared to the accounts, and records in AA 4 have been examined. The account books that have been examined are AMOr, CC 537–44, CC 546, CC 548–53, CC 555, CC 558, CC 561–2, CC 644–53, CC 655–6, and CC 658–72.

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watchman on the bell-tower of the collegiate church of Saint Martin.12 Isolated descriptions of the trumpeters’ duties reveal that his primary purpose was as a watchman; such a description from 1425 indicates that Colas Salmon, trumpeter (trompille), was paid 4 ll. “for his pain and salary for having made the watch on the tower of the church of Saint Martin, trumpeting when people, strangers, and others came on horse to the city or passed nearby, also guarding the doors.”13 At times they were asked to take on other defensive roles, such as in the mid-1460s, when Jehan Sanin, a long-time trumpeter of Saint Martin, was given wages specifically for serving the city during the time of war.14 Despite the provision of banners and livery the trumpeters do not appear in the account books as a prominent feature in civic ritual. The placement of the trumpeters upon Saint Martin, a collegiate church with a history attached to royalty, would have also curtailed the association of this trumpeter with civic authority. Saint Martin formed a close relationship with French royalty as early as 987, when Hugh Capet claimed for himself and his heirs the honorary title of abbot of Saint Martin. In many cities in France, trumpeters were placed upon towers associated with municipal authority, as they were in Amiens, Montpellier, Troyes, unlike in Tours, where the trumpeters were placed on a tower associated with royal authority.15 The instruments provided for this position by the city during this period were simple and inexpensive, confirming that the function of this position was related more to the tasks of a watchman than of a musician. In the second half of the fourteenth century, prestigious silver trumpets were not purchased for this position; rather two clarions (clerons), trumpets thought to be higher and shriller, were purchased for only 25 s., a brass trumpet (trompe d’arain) in 1379–80 for only 20 s., and even an instrument identified as a horn (cor) valued at a mere 6 s. were purchased.16 Perhaps in the fifteenth century the expectations placed upon the trumpeter became more involved in musical celebrations, as in 1426, when the 12

13

14 15

16

AMTours, CC 2, f. 238v. Less consistently at this time, a trumpeter/watchman was also placed on the “portal de la riche” and the tower of Saint Hugon. AMTours, CC 23, f. 91, “pour sa peine et salaire davoir fait sur la tour de leglise de Mons Saint Martin la guette et trompille ou sa trompille quant gens estrangiers et autres sont venuz acheval en la dicte ville ou passé par au pres dicelle affin dausez les portiers quilz gardent les portes dicelle ville . . .” AMTours, CC 37, f. 113. For the importance of Saint Martin see Paula Higgins, “Antoine Busnois and Musical Culture in Late Fifteenth-Century France and Burgundy” (Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1987), 131. AMTours, CC 2, f. 238v; CC 2, f. 243; CC 7, ff. 115–116; CC 6, ff. 114–115.

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purchase of a trumpet (trompille) cost the city 4 ll. 10 s., almost four times that of the earlier instruments and comparable to the watchman’s wages for one month.17 The crier in Tours, who does not figure prominently in the account books until the end of the fifteenth century, appears to have frequently been a royal officer, not a civic employee, or at least accompanied by a royal officer, thereby diminishing the image of civic authority customarily attached to this position. For example, in the mid-1370s a Jehan Longuet and a Guillaume du Pont, each identified as a “sergeant of the king,” appear in the civic accounts for making decrees for the city “at all of the accustomed places and intersections of the city.”18 One hundred years later, the trumpeter who served as guard at Saint Martin is recorded as announcing decrees at street corners, but he is accompanied by a royal sergeant, who reinforced the image of royalty in Tours.19 Finally, at the end of the fifteenth century, the substantial cost of 4 ll. for the livery for the civic crier, with sleeves embroidered with the arms of the city, figures prominently in the account books of Tours, and Jehan de la Grainge, a “trumpeter of the city,” has the daily task of “assembling the people of the city.”20 The account books of Orléans offer even less information than those of Tours; neither regular nor ad hoc payments reveal a regular position of civic trumpeter. From at least the year of the earliest account book, 1391, watchmen (guettes) were placed on two bell-towers, one at the church of Saint Pierre Empont and the other at the church of Saint Paul, and, while a regular feature, no duties involving a trumpet are referenced. Earliest evidence for the use of the trumpet by these watchmen dates from twenty years later and involves the cost of the preparation of “the trumpets of the city” and specifically for the “master of the watch” (maistre du guet).21 In the late 1440s, a trumpet was purchased from a merchant in Orléans for the “watch at the bell-tower of Saint Pierre Empont” for the modest cost of 54 s., indicating a fairly simple instrument.22 As a city often under attack during the Hundred Years’ War, these tower-trumpeters served a critical function. During the siege of Orléans in 1428–9, two watchmen placed upon Saint Pierre Empont provided alarms and signals that became commonplace in

17 19 20 21

AMTours, CC 23, f. 91. 18 AMTours, CC 7, ff. 37–38; ff. 64–65. AMTours, CC 38, f. 108. AMTours, CC 49, ff. 252–253; CC 50, f. 98, f. 99, ff. 217v–218, f. 223. AMOr, CC 542, f. 13v. 22 AMOr, CC 555, f. 19v.

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the uneasy lives of citizens.23 According to the Journal du siège d’Orléans, on January 2, 1429, two hours after midnight the watchmen on the bell tower of the city rang the bells, thwarting an attack by the English, who were trying to scale the bastion at the Porte Regnard.24 Ten days later, bells rang again as the English made a large outcry and played their trumpets and clarions.25 At least to some degree, these watchmen/trumpeters must have been involved with city ceremony, as painted banners of red and blue linen were purchased for the instruments.26 The minimal degree to which the cities of Tours and Orléans offered regular patronage to official civic musicians is related to their lack of civic autonomy. As cities closely attached to the royal French domain, neither Tours nor Orléans was granted privilege of municipal authority before the second half of the fourteenth century, which is significantly later than many cities in France, such as Montpellier and Toulouse, where town government became the primary ruling body in the first years of the thirteenth century. It was not until 1356 that King John the Good granted Tours the privilege and obligation to take control of its defense by organizing the town watch and constructing walls, to maintain the city, and to inaugurate the archives.27 Urban authorities were under the guardianship of royal officers, however, and the privileges did not extend to the police or civil jurisdiction; Tours did not have judicial competence until 1462.28 For Orléans, it was not until the last decade of the fourteenth century that an official municipal administration was initiated and a charter of liberties was approved.29 Despite their minimal support to civic musicians, both cities invested considerable resources to honor nobility. The preparation for royal weddings and nuptial celebrations, according to the account books of Tours, was meticulous and prompted the hiring of minstrels. One of these rare occasions was the festivity surrounding the wedding of the future Louis XI, only thirteen at the time, to Margaret of Scotland, who was not even twelve, on June 24, 1436 at the chapel of the château of Tours. The match was arranged by Charles VII in hopes of ensuring assistance by the Scots in the 23

24

25 28 29

Paul Charpentier and Charles Cuissard, Journal du siège d’Orléans, 1428–29, augmenté de plusieurs notamment des Comptes de Ville, 1429–31 (Orléans: H. Herluison, 1896), 325. “A Bernart Josselin, guette à Saint Père Empont, pour ses gaiges dudit mois de juing et du mois de juillet, au pris de iiij l.p. pour mois, pour ce viij l.p. A Simon Fournier, guette à Saint Pol, pour ses gaiges desdis mois, audit pris, viij l.p.” Ibid., 22. This journal documents the events of the siege and was written by at least 1466 by a citizen of Orléans who had witnessed the events. Ibid., 25. 26 AMOr, CC 555, f. 14. 27 Chevalier, Histoire de Tours, 108. Chevalier, Tours ville royale, 47; Chevalier, “Policy of Louis XI,” 272. Debal, Histoire d’Orléans, 364.

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war against England.30 According to the Chronicle of Charles VII by Jean Chartier, the event was marked by performances on a variety of diverse instruments, including trumpets, clarions, lutes, psalteries, and others, a description indicating a standard array of loud and soft instruments.31 Among the king’s minstrels was a “Jean Fary, native of Scotland,” perhaps providing the sound of bagpipes that young Margaret would have found so comforting at this time.32 The accounts of the city of Tours for this occasion operated as a chronicle as well, offering much detail concerning the event. To honor the occasion, loud minstrels announced her entry, with payment being made “to Pierre Rossigneul and his companion minstrels who sounded their wind instruments (qui cornerent) at the Corner of the Hats at the entrance of the Dauphine.”33 The musical entertainment included a moresque, a popular dance with dramatic and stylized pantomimed gestures involving lavish and unusual costumes thought to be in a Moorish style. The city sent a person to Chinon and Loudon, over 50 kilometers from Tours, to search for appropriate costumes for the dancers. Without having any luck “four old bed sheets” were tailored into outfits, and a painter was given a substantial sum to transform the old linens and adorn the hands and legs of the costumes with twenty-seven dozen small bells. The three dancers were accompanied by a similarly adorned performer on the pipe and tabor, an instrumental combination commonly used to accompany moresques. Music of a different nature took place at the Portal of the Rich, where the choirmaster and choirboys of Saint Martin sang, accompanied by the organ, and were offered cherries, bread, and wine by the city in gratitude. In the fifteenth century, Saint Martin was not only associated with royalty but was also one of the most prestigious churches in France, with Johannes Ockeghem serving as its treasurer during the second half of the fifteenth century and Antoine Busnois as the master of the choirboys in 1465. None of the musicians mentioned in the city account books at the wedding festivities of the young Margaret of Scotland and Louis XI is specifically identified as a representative of the city, and rather, a performance by 30

31

32

33

Louis Barbé, Margaret of Scotland and the Dauphin Louis (Glasgow: Blackie and Son, 1917). See pp. 100–1 for excerpts of the municipal accounts pertaining to this event. A painting of the entry is the frontispiece of the book. Jean Chartier, Chronique de Charles VII, Roi de France, ed. Vallet de Viriville, vol. I (Paris: Chez P. Jannet, 1858), 232, “Trompettes, clairons, menestrelz, lutz et psaltérions y avoit assez; héraulx et poursuivans en grant nombre.” Francisque Michel, Les Écossais en France, les Français en Écosse, vol. 1 (London: Trübner et Cie, 1862), 185, “Jean Fary, natif d’Escosse, menestrel du roi nostre sire.” AMTours, CC 26, ff. 120–120v, “A Pierre Rossigneul et ses compaignons menestrees qui cornerent au carre aux chapeaux a la venue de madame la dauphine x s.”

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singers of Saint Martin would have signified the importance of French royalty in the history of Tours. The marriage between Duchess Anne of Brittany and King Charles VIII on 6 December, 1491 in the great hall of the Château de Langeais, twentyfive kilometers west of Tours, is yet another occasion for which that city hired musicians. In order to secure her duchy through marriage, Charles VIII arranged the wedding with the reluctant fourteen-year-old duchess, who arrived at her wedding with two beds. Upon arriving in Tours shortly after the wedding to take up residence at the château of Plessis-les-Tours, the royal couple was welcomed with the performance of mystery plays, a popular way to entertain and honor royalty in the Loire Valley in the fifteenth century. Alluding to the Duchess of Brittany, who later would become known for her intelligence, patronage of the arts, and involvement with the administration of her duchy, the mystery plays for this occasion contained powerful women. The story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, for example, would have compared the duchess to this wise, powerful, and proud African queen who brought extravagant gifts for the king. The account books of Tours reveal the lavish nature of these plays with payments for silk in all colors, brocade of gold, robes for the actors, painters, gilders, decorations, and, uncommon among such lists of expenses, musicians.34 Medieval plays generally did not call for frequent or elaborate musical numbers, but rather music tended to serve adjunct functions in the production, such as drawing the crowd’s attention or offering entertainment between scenes. Throughout France musicians rarely appear in the list of expenses of plays, but the city of Tours directed a substantial sum of money to musicians on this occasion. While normally a couple of trumpets or wind instruments and a pipe and tabor would have been sufficient for a play, to honor the duchess seven unidentified minstrels were hired for the occasion, as well as the minstrels of the Duke of Bourbon, a major figure in the court of Charles VIII.35 Thus in celebration of this important political event, the city of Tours patronized elaborate plays that offered complimentary analogies to the new queen and included musicians attached to the royal court. While it is unusual for musicians to appear among the expenses for mystery plays, they figure prominently in the account books of Tours for 34 35

AMTours, AA 4. AMTours, “Item a quatre menestriers qui furem a jouer de leurs instrumens ce jour de lautres de la Royne aud chaffaulx . . . Item aux menestriers de mons de Bourbon qui sonnerent aud chaffault led jour de lad entrée . . . Item a troys menestriers qui jouerent de leurs instrumens aud mistere . . .”

85

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celebrations in honor of royalty. Rather than light, entertaining farces, moralizing theatre was preferred, such as a performance of The Seven Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins in July of 1390 and multiple performances of the Passion that required months of preparation, in August, 1406 for the arrival of the Duke of Orléans, in May, 1455 to celebrate Pentecost, and in November, 1457 to celebrate the arrival of Charles VII.36 When the newly crowned Louis XI entered Tours in September, 1461, he was honored with the Judgment of King Solomon and King Clovis, two comparisons that the new king most certainly would have welcomed.37 Clovis, the first king of the Franks, who greatly expanded rule over Gaul, was a symbol commonly invoked by medieval French kings to further the image of a powerful and unified French nation.38 Musicians are assumed to have been a common feature of these mystery plays, yet payments for this purpose are rarely recorded. Perhaps musicians were members of the dramatic associations that organized and staged the plays, or civic musicians, such as the trumpeters of Tours and Orléans, assumed this task as part of their standard duties.39 On numerous occasions for which musicians would have been hired by cities elsewhere in France, no musicians were engaged by the city. Urban processions at Christmas time often involved minstrels and trumpeters employed by the city, but, judging from the account books of Tours, no city musicians accompanied the royal or civic officers processing to midnight mass. Similarly, for the arrival of the ambassador of the Prince of the Empire and Louis XI in December of 1479, the city arranged a magnificent feast; municipal accounts record details of the meal, but do not mention musicians.40 While urban minstrels seem to have played no role in the entrance for the King and Queen of France in November of 1500, the city offered supplementary payment to the royal heralds, trumpeters, and door-keepers.41 The minstrels of the French royal court, particularly trumpeters and his ensemble of loud minstrels, would have been a common feature of celebrations in Tours. As noted by Leeman Perkins, under Charles VII, “the court did not forgo the outward signs of wealth and splendor that were expected 36 38

39

40

AMTours, CC 13, f. 138; AA 4. 37 AMTours, CC 35, f. 155. Colette Beaune and Fredric Cheyette, The Birth of an Ideology: Myths and Symbols of Nation in Late-Medieval France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 314. For further discussion of musicians in mystery plays see Howard Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 1400–1550 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963). In Chauny, a town northeast of Paris, a corporation was formed known as the “Trompettes-Jongleurs et Singes de Chauny” (“Juggling-Trumpeters and Chauny’s Monkeys”), further suggesting that actors typically provided their own music. Louis Petit de Julleville, Les Comédiens en France au Moyen Âge (1886; Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1968), 239. AMTours, AA 4. 41 AMTours, BB 13, ff. 292–292v.

The Loire Valley

of a King of France, even during its leanest years.”42 The king used musical display to develop and sustain his image, and the city of Tours, whose history at this time was closely tied to him, patronized music in a manner that further enhanced that image. Musicians appear in the accounts of Orléans primarily because of their participation in elaborate receptions for nobility upon their entry into the city. A carefully orchestrated entrance was staged for the arrival in Orléans of Charles, Duke of Orléans, with his new young wife, Marie de Clèves, on 24 January, 1441. After being captured at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, Charles had remained in captivity in England for twenty-five years. Upon his return to France in 1440, he married Marie de Clèves at Saint-Omer in November, and then made an elaborate procession south through Tournai, Amiens, and Paris, finally passing through Orléans on his way to his residence just down the Loire River in Blois.43 Over the next few years, Charles attempted, rather unsuccessfully, to recapture some of his land lost in his absence, but then settled down in Blois and became a strong patron of the arts. To honor this historic return of the duke to Orléans, the citizens of Orléans received him and his new young wife with an enthusiastic reception that lasted for three days. As the couple entered the city to the tolling of bells 400 children with little flags greeted them, a sermon was provided, a mystery play on the virtues was performed, and a fountain bubbled with wine. Interspersed throughout the list of expenses for this event, which consisted primarily of gifts for visitors, including a silver dish with the arms of the young duchess and 4,000 escus, are multiple payments to musicians. Musicians were sought from five cities throughout the region, and a local man was paid over a day-and-a-half skilled laborer wages specifically for traveling to the farthest of these cities to acquire some of the minstrels.44 The city went to considerable trouble and expense to bring the loud minstrels to Orléans, as some came from Saint Benoit, a town thirty-five kilometers to the east on the Loire River, Janville, twenty kilometers to the north, and Cléry, five kilometers to the southeast.45 The largest allocation to 42

43

44

45

Leeman Perkins, “Musical Patronage at the Royal Court of France under Charles VII and Louis XI (1422–83),” Journal of the American Musicological Society 37 (1984): 515. Pierre Champion, Vie de Charles d’Orléans (1394–1465) (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1911), 319. AMOr, CC 655, f. 91v, “Audit Jehan de Champeaux pour envoier querir les menesterelz a Saint Benoist par Jehan Hallet pour ce viii s. p.” Ibid., “a six haults menesterels quil avoit fait venir de Saint Benoist d yenville et de clery pour la venue de monseigne dorliens et pour faire joieuse chiere pour ce x l. xviii s. p.”; f. 88v, “A Oudin de Saint Avy pour despense faicte lui et les menesterelz le jour dont monsigne dorliens arriva le lendemain a orliens et par lordonnance de la chambre furent envoiez jouer parmy la ville et pour

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musicians was for “six loud minstrels,” hired according to the accounts “for to make joyous cheer.” The only other musicians specified by type or purpose are two minstrels, along with a juggler, who “played for the city on the stage.”46 The city covered at least part of the minstrels’ general expenses while staying in the city for three days, as well as their cost of lodging.47 While it was not uncommon for cities to draw musicians from surrounding towns for large celebrations, it is noteworthy that the records do not include any references to musicians actually attached to Orléans. The city thus allocated substantial funds to create an event which elevated the status of the returning duke and assured him that he had the support of the citizens of Orléans, and yet, significantly, no musicians reflecting the city’s authority were present. Another elaborate welcome for this royal family came twenty years later, when, on July 17, 1460, the three-year-old Marie d’Orléans, the first child of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie de Clèves, after many years of marriage, visited Orléans. Minstrels, though certainly fewer in number than at the reception twenty years earlier, were hired to perform as the young girl made her entrance into the city, as well as at a large dance. “Mace Averdet and other loud minstrels” were paid 66 s. for welcoming the royal guests, leading them from the Augustinian church to Saint Croix and then to “the court of the King” where nighttime festivities took place.48 The only other civic-supported musician was Rotier, a pipe and tabor player, who was particularly noted for performing at the dance where “the ladies of the city came.”49 In 1462, three years before the Duke of Orléans’ death, the duchess finally bore a son, the future Louis XII of France. When the young Duke Louis and his mother passed through Orléans on their return to Blois on 27 May, 1469, their boat was received in “reverence and joy” when they stopped at the bridge of Orléans.50 They were met by numerous barges, two of them carrying musicians, including young singers from the churches of Saint Croix and Saint Aignan and instrumentalists of Orléans. Pierre Roier, and his companion instrumentalists, were also hired for 24 s. to accompany the duke and duchess into the city, particularly from Saint Loup to the door of Orléans.

46 47

48 49 50

resioyr le peuple de la venue de mon dit senhor pour ce ix s. iiii d. p. . . . les menesterelz du Luz qui estoient venuz de par les procureurs pour faire bonne chere pour ce xxiii s. viii d.” Cuissard, Étude sur la musique, 57. AMOr, CC 655, f. 91v, “pour les despens des dicts menesterelz faiz depuis le mardi jusques au jeudi qui furent en ceste ville dorliens pour ce lxiii s. iiii d. p.” AMOr, CC 666, f. 30, “A Mace Averdet et autres haulz menesterelz.” Ibid., “les femmes de la ville sont alees dancer avecques madame et damoyselle.” AMOr, CC 561, ff. 107v–108.

The Loire Valley

Some of the most detailed accounts of royal entries in Orléans are in honor of Louis XI, who early in his reign made frequent entrances into French towns; it has been estimated that he made fifty entries in 1463 alone, covering 2,800 kilometers.51 For example, after being crowned on August 15, 1461 in Reims, he stopped in Orléans on his way to Tours, and while entering the city under a golden canopy with fleurs de lys, he was greeted by the standard loud minstrels (hault menesterelz) and later by a children’s choir from the royal college of Saint Aignan accompanied by an organ.52 The birth of the dauphin in 1392 and 1470 prompted large displays of support and celebration, even without the physical presence of nobility. For the birth of the son of Charles VI, who would die as a child before his tenth birthday, fourteen minstrels were hired “to entertain the bourgeoisie and inhabitants of the city on account of the good news of the birth of the dauphin” who were in the streets with large fires, frolicking, and dancing for two days. According to the accounts, Jacquet Resjoy, “minstrel and four other minstrels of his sort,” who unfortunately are left unidentified; Raulet, “the gittern player and three other gittern players of his sort,” and Andre Jaquet and his four companions who “cornerent” their loud instruments were all hired for the event.53 The gittern, which is very rare in city accounts in France, was related to the lute, but smaller, with a shorter neck and only three or four strings. While not an instrument commonly employed by the cities, it was popular throughout Europe in the fourteenth century, not only among minstrels, but also among amateur musicians, and particularly for informal music-making in taverns. Each of the musicians appears to have been offered the minimal sum of approximately 7 s., as well as bread and wine, though the gittern players were offered an additional 48 s. with no further explanation. Upon hearing the news of the birth of the future Charles VIII, son of Louis XI, on 30 June, 1470 in nearby Amboise, the city council decided to have three days of celebration. The days were marked by sermons, processions, and charitable acts, such as the offering of wine and meals to lepers 51 53

Debal, Histoire d’Orléans, 421. 52 AMOr, CC 558. AMOr, CC 537, f. 24v. “A Jaquet Resjoy menesterel et iiii autres menesterels de sa sorte et estans avec lui/ Raulet le guiterneur et iii autres guiterneurs de sa sorte et a Jehan a la gueille varlet de la ville pour dens a eulx baillet pour les causes qui eusi cest assavoir/ Andre Jaquet pour lui et les iiii compaignons dessus dict lesquels cornerent et jouerent de haux instrumens pour ii jours et grant partie de la nuit, parmi la ville d’Orliens pour resjoir les bourgois, bourgoises et autres manens et habitans de la dicte ville pour cause des bonnes nouvelles que ils avoient eu de la nouvelle nessance de monseigneur le dalphin fils du Roy notre sire, et dancerent bourgois et bourgoises et autres gens, firent grans feux es carrefours de la dicte ville et grans esbattemens de gens par le temps dessus dit/ pour ce prix a eulx 4 ll. 12 s. p.”

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Table 2.1: Minstrels paid by the city of Orléans for the celebration of the birth of the dauphin in 1470 Etienne Chappeau, organiste Estienne Adverdet, menestrier Pierre Adverdet, menestrier Loranan le Bascle, guitarn Gilet du Mostier, guitarn Gilet du Mostier, his son, guitarn Jehan du Mostier, guitarn Saturnin Boet, guitarn Pierre Rotier, taborin Jehan Renart, taborin Blaise Petit, herpeux Jacquet Prestic, herpeux Guillaume des Noues, organiste Jacquet Boesseau, herpeux Claude Taborin, guitarn Estienne Barbedor, guitarn

and the infirm, but during the nights, the citizens enjoyed revelry, dances, specifically moresques, and again a fountain that bubbled spiced wine. The account book for this unusually lavish event clearly served a purpose beyond bookkeeping, as among the expenses is an impressively long and detailed list of sixteen minstrels identified by name and instrument, instead of by a more common and general reference to menesterelz.54 (See Table 2.1 for the list of minstrels at the celebration.) With one-half of the minstrels appearing in the account books of Orléans for other occasions, the lack of compensation for lodging or general expenses, and low wages, it seems likely that many of these were local musicians.55 In contrast to the occasions on which nobility were present in the city, no loud minstrels were hired; instead, these sixteen minstrels were primarily soft instrumentalists appropriate for dances and general entertainment, including two organists, seven gittern players, two tabor players, three harp players, and two identified only as menestriers.

54 55

AMOr, CC 561, f. 118v. Etienne Chappeau, organist, and Pierre Rotier, taborin player, were hired to play in earlier celebrations in Orléans; Estienne and Pierre Adverdet, identified as “menestriers,” might be related to a Mace Averdet who was hired by the city in 1460; and three gittern players, all with the name of du Mostier, might be related to two minstrels hired in 1440 in Orléans with the same name.

The Loire Valley

The Duke and Duchess of Orléans were strong patrons of the arts and regularly employed four minstrels but also offered support to minstrels of visiting counts, dukes, and bishops, as well as of the city of Orléans.56 The type of city musician that received support from the duke and duchess was the soft plucked instrumentalist. In July of 1457, the duke made a special gift to “Laurencin le Bascle, minstrel of Orléans, who played the lute many times before the Duke.”57 This particular musician was still an active musician in Orléans thirteen years later, as he appears in the city records in 1470, identified as a gittern player, for the celebration of the birth of Charles VIII. He might have also been among the “minstrels of Orléans” who two years later, in the summer of 1459, played at a couple of weddings with the financial support of the Duke of Orléans.58 Reinforcing the existence of a strong tradition of plucked soft instrumentalists in Orléans, on another occasion Marie de Clèves was specifically accompanied by the “the gittern players of Orléans” and offered them remuneration.59 This instrumental tradition could serve and honor the duke, but would not have challenged his political power. The death of royalty, besides their birth, also prompted civic allocations for music. The gruesome assassination of Duke Louis of Orléans on the streets of Paris, November 23, 1407, on the orders of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, was a staggering and destabilizing event for an already suffering France and fostered a civil war with Burgundy for the next seventy years. The murder was a culmination of the struggle between the extremely ambitious Louis and the Duke of Burgundy over the control of royal affairs when King Charles VI began to suffer from increasing bouts of insanity in 1392. Orléans, with its close attachment to the duke, contributed to the ceremonious funeral held in the city. The city paid for the painting of thirty shields with the ducal arms that were placed in the church of Saint-Samson where the funeral was held, as well as for the priests performing mass.60 An annual commemoration of the lifting of the seven-month siege of Orléans by the English with Joan of Arc at the lead on May 8, 1429 became a unique and emblematic event involving civic-employed musicians who reinforced the close relationship and bond between the city and the French crown, and particularly the role of the city in the revival of France. To honor Orléans’ involvement at this critical juncture of the Hundred Years’ War, a celebration was organized by the city, the clergy, and the 56 57

58

Champion, Vie de Charles d’Orléans, 25. Ibid., 479, “à Laurencin le Bascle, ménétrier d’Orléans, qui joua plusieurs fois du luth devant Monseigenur.” Ibid., 409. 59 Ibid., 527. 60 AMOr, CC 646, f. 17.

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Count of Dunois, acting on behalf of his captive half-brother, the Duke of Orléans, on the first anniversary of the lifting of the siege. A procession wound its way through the city, linking important religious sites in town with important military sites of the siege. With the clergy in the lead, followed by the city council and the citizens of Orléans, the route originated at the Augustinian convent, included the royal college of Saint Aignan and the abbey of Saint Euverte on the outskirts of town, and concluded at the cathedral of Saint Croix to celebrate mass as Joan of Arc had done a few days before the siege was lifted.61 The celebration became more elaborate in ritual and symbolism through the course of the fifteenth century, including a mystery play focusing on Joan of Arc’s connection to Orléans.62 In contrast to the celebrations honoring nobility, it appears to have included only vocal music, particularly the singing of hymns and motets in honor of Joan of Arc. A payment in a civic account book from this year describes how the master of the children’s choir at Saint Croix, the poet and composer Eloy d’Amerval, was paid for “having said and sung in notes in Latin and in French a motet in a procession which is made each year on the 8th of May. The motet was sung in this procession to give thanks to the grace of God for the victory that he had given to the inhabitants the day that the English lifted the siege that they had put on the city.”63 Not surprisingly for a city speckled in statues and images of the “maiden of Orléans,” and a cathedral with stained glass windows that tell her story, this annual celebration is still part of Orléans’ civic traditions today. The author of the Journal du siège d’Orléans noted an unusual occurrence involving musicians on Christmas Day 1428, during the middle of the siege, when they were not providing signals, battle cries, or displays of power, but rather solace to a beleaguered citizenry. The author notes, “The following day of Christmas, a truce from one side to the other was given and granted, lasting from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon. And during this time, Glacidas and other lords from England provided notice to the bastard of Orléans and to the lord of Saint Sevère, Marshal of France, that they had loud minstrels, trumpets and clarions: an agreement was

61 62

63

Beaune and Cheyette, Birth of an Ideology, 143. Vicki Hamblin, “En l’honneur de la Pucelle: Ritualizing Joan the Maid in Fifteenth-Century Orléans,” in Joan of Arc and Spirituality, ed. Ann Astell and Bonnie Wheeler (New York: Macmillan, 2003), 209–26. AMOr, CC 669, f. 32v, “avoir dite et note en Latin et en francias ung motet pour chanter doresenavant et processions qui se font chacun an ledit viii jour de may et qui en icelle procession derrenière a este chanté en rendant graces a dieu de la victoire que il donna ausd. habitans led jour que les anglais leverent le siege que ilz avoient mis devant la dicte ville.”

The Loire Valley

made; and the instruments were played for a rather long time, making great melody.”64 While honoring nobility was the primary reason the city of Orléans subsidized music, the most regular payment for music by this important religious center was for a daily celebration of mass. From the earliest extant account books from the end of the fourteenth century through the fifteenth century the singing of mass each day by the four mendicant orders in the church of Saint Hilary received civic support. For example, in the accounts from 1429–30, a payment is recorded “To the four Mendicant orders of Orléans, for their pension of the said term to sing the masses of the city . . .” as well as to “the masses that they sing for the city at Saint Hilary.”65 In a slightly more explicit account from the early 1480s, reference is made to “having sung and celebrated the mass of the city with the doors open each day in the church of Saint Hilary.”66 Besides providing support for the performers of the mass, the city also assumed responsibility for the candles of the church during the “masses of the city.”67 As established in Tours, mystery plays, often serving as political allegories, figured prominently in urban celebrations subsidized by the city of Orléans and, as in Tours, at least on occasion, minstrels participated. A mystery play on June 16, 1400, based on the Seven Deadly Sins, a popular religious theme in art in the fourteenth century, included “minstrels” in its list of expenses.68 More typical, however, are the accounts of the play of Saint Estienne staged in Orléans in 1446, when payments were made to the compaignons and the painters of the platforms, but no musicians.69 As with Tours, the payment records of Orléans document civic support for numerous processions, such as general processions for Christmas and Corpus Christi, but with no mention of the hiring of musicians. In conclusion, with undeveloped city governments, the cities of Tours and Orléans hired only a small number of musicians on a regular basis and did not develop musical practices that emphasized an independent civic 64

65

66

67 69

Charpentier and Cuissard, Journal du siège, 17, “Le jour de Noel ensuivant, furent données et octroyées trèves d’une partie et d’autre, durées deppuis neuf heures au matin jusques à trois heures apprez midy. Et ce temps durant, Galcidas et autres seigenurs du pays d’Angleterre requisdrent au bastard d’Orléans et au seigneur de Sainct Sevère, mareschal de France, qu’ilz eussent une note de haulx menestriers, trompettes et clarons: ce qui leur fut accordé; et jouèrent les instrumens assez longuement, faisans grant mélodie.” Ibid., 224, “Aux quatre ordres mendiens d’Orliens, pour leur pencion dudit terme pour chanter les messes de la Ville”; 232, “des messes qu’ilz chantent pour la Ville à Saint Jllaire.” AMOr, CC 669, f. 55, “pour avoir chante et celebre la messe de la ville aux portes ouvrans par chacun jour en leglise Saint Hillaire.” Charpentier and Cuissard, Journal du siège, 242. 68 AMOr, CC 644, f. 13v. AMOr, CC 658, f. 26.

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identity. The elaborate musical events that Tours and Orléans did sponsor reinforced the power of French royalty. Just as the city of Orléans did not display its coat of arms without being accompanied by those of the French crown, symbols of royal power figured prominently in these civic-supported events. Examples include the trumpeters of Tours placed upon the towers of the royal collegiate church of Saint Martin, performances by the choir of Saint Martin, morality plays with complimentary allusions to nobility, or processions steeped in themes of the rise and recovery of the French crown. As central cities of the French domain during a vulnerable period in the country’s history, music patronage by Tours and Orléans during the late Middle Ages did not project a strong image of civic authority, but rather emphasized the cities’ allegiance to royalty.

Champagne: Troyes, Reims, and Châlons-en-Champagne Medieval Champagne, a county rich in agriculture and at the center of commercial trade, supported a large, wealthy population. Its location at the juncture of two major trade routes, one extending north–south between Italy and Flanders and another extending east–west between Paris and Germany, prompted the development of large and successful fairs during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Counts of Champagne granted four cities in the southwest, Lagny, Provins, Troyes, and Bar-sur-Aube, a series of fairs, each lasting three to six weeks, which became internationally known for trade, especially in textiles, but also in diverse products from around Europe, including spices and leather from the south and furs from the north. In 1284, when the heir to the County of Champagne, Jeanne of Navarre, married King Philippe IV, the region fell under French rule, and royal fees and duties began to stifle the success of the fairs.

Troyes The narrow streets of medieval Troyes, which serendipitously form the shape of a cork, are still lined with beautiful half-timbered buildings five centuries old, and the large central indoor market reflects the city’s heritage. Troyes became one of the leading cities of medieval France competitive with Paris in the twelfth century, as it was a favorite residence for the Counts of Champagne, the site of a bishopric, and the only city to be granted the right to two fairs per year, “Cold Fair” in the winter and “Hot Fair” in the summer. By the early fourteenth century Troyes had a population of

Champagne

approximately 10,000 inhabitants; but along with the common onslaught of ailments in the mid-fourteenth century, the city suffered frequent destruction due to its proximity to the fighting in the Hundred Years’ War, and the city’s population decreased steadily to 6,000 by 1406.70 In the early fifteenth century, Troyes was the site for momentous events in the struggle over the French crown. With the formulation of the Treaty of Troyes in May of 1420 at the city’s cathedral, Henry V was declared the legitimate heir to the French throne, and a few days later in Troyes, Henry V and Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI, were married, with the bride arriving in an elaborately decorated carriage and “trumpets, clarions, minstrels and many other instruments by the hundreds and thousands” parading through the streets. While this is certainly an exaggerated account, the music must have been impressive with the presence of minstrels attached to a long list of attending royalty, including nine from the Duke of Burgundy alone.71 Troyes remained in occupation by Burgundian troops who were in alliance with England until July of 1429 when Charles VII and Joan of Arc approached Troyes prepared for battle, and the city opened its gates and surrendered back into the hands of the French crown. Following the reconciliation with Burgundy in 1435, the population rose to 10,000, and after the resolution of the Hundred Years’ War, the city reemerged as a flourishing commercial center with a population of 24,000 by 1501.72 At the close of the fifteenth century, Troyes was the second-largest city in central France following Lyons, and indeed among the largest cities in all of France. The municipal archives of Troyes have a rich medieval holding, and the accounts of the city are well preserved and allow for a clear assessment of music patronage.73 All of the approximately fifty account registers for the city organized in the Series B of the Fonds Boutiot that exist for the period prior to the sixteenth century have been examined for this study, and include seven account books for the second half of the fourteenth century, nine distributed throughout the first half of the fifteenth century, and multiple registers for each decade from 1450 on. Individual payment 70

71

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Françoise Bibolet, Histoire de Troyes (Troyes: Éditions de la Maison du Boulanger, 1997), 107. Jeanne Marix, Histoire de la musique et des musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne sous le règne de Philippe le Bon (1420–1467) (1939; reprint, Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1972), 24. Bibolet, Histoire de Troyes, 137; Bibolet, “Les Métiers à Troyes aux XIVe et XVe siècles,” in Actes du 95e Congrès national des sociétés savantes: Reims, 1970 (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1974), 115. The records have been organized by three different classification systems. See Répertoire sommaire des documents antérieures à 1800 conservé dans les archives communales (Troyes: Imprimerie et Lithographie P. Nouel, 1911).

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receipts concerning municipal officers, solemn entrances, and gifts, which are all part of Series AA, have also proven to be relevant for this study.74 In addition, K 1–5 of the Fonds Boutiot, which contain payments for royal entries into the city from 1486 to 1520, have been examined. In striking contrast to the nearby leading cities of the Loire Valley, Troyes regularly employed an official wind band.75 This practice is first evident in the city accounts of 1457, the latest date for the formation of an official civic ensemble in France, and continues for the rest of the fifteenth century.76 The city of Troyes consistently hired three minstrels and a trumpeter, except for brief periods following the deaths of musicians, which is the same size as the civic ensembles in prominent cities in the second half of the fifteenth century, including Montpellier and Toulouse. The records remain silent concerning the instruments of these musicians until 1494, when reference is made to the shawm (hault bois), confirming the formation of a common wind band.77 Most entries in these account books are disappointingly perfunctory with minimal details concerning the minstrels’ duties, which in themselves reflect on the ceremony of the city. In 1494 their function was described as “to play the hault bois during general processions,” such as for the reception of Louis XI in France, in 1469, for which a tip beyond annual wages was offered to “the minstrels and trumpet of the city for their wine having played during the procession the day of the celebration of the King.”78 Like Orléans and Tours, the city of Troyes staged many mystery plays that involved musicians. These plays were performed in a public square where large crowds were drawn by the sound of the trumpet and clarion, most likely a function filled by the civic trumpeter.79 Among these were elaborate annual productions of the Passion. For the “mystery of the Passion” in 1482/3, a member of the civic wind band and some companions were paid ironically not for performing music, but “for having guarded the

74

75

76

77 78

79

Of these, Cartons 2 and 3 with receipts relating to “Offices municipaux: officers et pensionnaires de la ville,” Carton 44 with receipts concerning “Entrées solennelles,” and Carton 45 with receipts concerning “Dons et présents” proved to be relevant. The musical life in late medieval Troyes, including the discussion of the wind band, has not been explored in previous scholarship. AMTr, B 20, f. 16. The practice is briefly mentioned in Louis Morin, Les Associations cooperatives de joueurs d’instruments à Troyes au XVIIe siècle (Troyes: P. Nouel, 1896), 6. AMTr, AA, Carton 3, liasse 9. AMTr, AA, Carton 3, liasse 9, 1494, “chacun an a jouer du hault bois tant processes generales”; B 24, f. 9, “Aux menestriers et trompette de ladicte ville pour leur vin davoir este jouent durant la procession le jour de la feste du Roy nostre Seigneur.” Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 66.

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door of the belfry.”80 The staging of plays in Troyes, as in other cities like Tours, were part of the reception for royalty, as during an extended visit from Charles VIII in 1486, when the story of David and Goliath was enacted with its implications that the young monarch could defeat his enemies. Girls offering bouquets of flowers sang with organ accompaniment for the king and his men, and “minstrels and trumpets” performed on a platform above the Fountain of the Three Maidens bubbling three kinds of wine.81 The trumpeter, at least towards the end of the fifteenth century, served a function distinct from the minstrels, that of a public crier. The trumpeter was distinguished as serving the office of the trumpet, not the office of the minstrel in the payment receipts from 1457 to 1476. For example, in 1459, it was recognized that “Jehan Fallecte, Jehan de Clelles, Perrot Cholot and Lorent Cholot, all minstrels living in Troyes, had and received from Nicolas de Lanbrasses, receiver of the said city, the sum of 12 l. for the wages and pension for the offices of trumpet and minstrels for one year.”82 From 1477 to 1482 the annual pension of the trumpeter appears in an entry separate from that of the minstrels, and after 1482 the accounts no longer include an annual pension for a trumpeter, rather only small payments for individual tasks. The trumpeter was frequently paid the sum of 2 s. 6 d. for serving as a crier, making announcements (criz) concerning mundane events, such as the sale of bread, wheat, or wine, and special occasions, such as the marriage of the dauphin or the procurement of peace.83 When the annual general assembly met in 1470 minor officers of the city council were named, including two sergeants and a trumpeter, who is described as having the authority to “to make decrees in the name of the messieurs les échevins.”84 The musicians were compensated through annual wages and were rarely paid for specific events, implying that standard expectations were attached to this office. In the earliest records for these musicians, annual payment of 3 ll. was noted for each musician, though by 1466 and throughout the rest of the century this was increased to an annual payment of 4 ll. 2 s. 6 d. The 80

81

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84

AMTr, B 33, f. 10v, “A Perrot Cholot, Felisot la calye et leurs compaignons pour avoir guarde la porte du beoffroy . . . durant le mistere de la passion.” Théophile Boutiot, Histoire de la ville de Troyes et de la Champagne méridionale (1873, reprint, Brussels: Éditions culture et civilisation, 1977), 176. AMTr, AA, Carton 3, liasse 9, “Jehan Fallecte, Jehan de Clelles, Perrot Cholot et Lorent Cholot tous menestriers demorans a Troyes avoir eu et receu de Nicolas de Lanbrasses receveur dei deniers communes de ladicte ville la somme de douze livres qui deus leurs estoit pour leurs gages et pencion deserviz . . . offices de trompecte et menestriers pour ung an . . .” AMTr, B 33, f. 7, 1482–3, “A Pierre Clerambaut trompecte pour avoir este a tous les quarrefours de la ville pour publier une mission touchant les bles . . . 2 s. 6 d.” Boutiot, Histoire de la ville de Troyes, 96.

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trumpeter received the same compensation as the minstrels until 1475, when the trumpeter’s wages increased to 6 ll., and after 1482 he was compensated with frequent small payments of 2 s. 6 d.85 On a few occasions additional sums were allocated to the musicians, such as in 1466 at the annual general assembly, when the three minstrels and the trumpeter requested and received 100 s., 30 s. for the trumpeter and approximately 23 s. for each of the minstrels.86 As this is a substantial sum of money, at least in the realm of medieval civic musicians, perhaps it was to compensate for a trip or special obligation. As mentioned above, the city of Troyes, like many other French cities, offered musicians wine as extra compensation on special occasions. While the specific roles that the three minstrels and trumpeter fulfilled in Troyes are not explicit, these musicians were attached to important displays of civic ritual and identity and served a prominent role in the city. While the annual civic wages of these musicians were about 20–25 percent of other city officers, such as 15 ll. for the sergeant of the city, 20 ll. for the receiver, or 18 ll. for the guard and bell-ringer at the main door, if the musicians had 20–25 percent of their obligations, they would have had multiple engagements throughout the month.87 In addition, the musicians were also provided with elaborate livery made of blue and violet cloth and embroidered with the coat of arms of the city in gold and silver on the sleeves and on the chest.88 The employment of these musicians was addressed at the annual general assembly of Troyes, which met for many years free from royal control, for the purpose of electing civic officials and addressing the maintenance of public projects. In the customary practice of marking civic space, these meetings were held at the “Belfry,” a tall wooden tower located at one of the two main gates into the city, which was constructed and owned by the inhabitants of Troyes on property once belonging to the descendants of the Viscount of Troyes.89 For example, in 1476, “At the general assembly of Troyes which was held at the belfry of the city the day of Saint Barnaby, 1476, in the presence of the clerk and royal notary, Jehan Royer, minstrel living in Troyes, requested wages of the city in the place of Laurent Cholot.”90 85 87 89 90

AMTr, B 26, No. 7, f. 200v. 86 AMTr, B 22, ff. 26v–27. Bibolet, “Les Métiers à Troyes,” 128. 88 Boutiot, Histoire de la ville de Troyes, 297. AMTr, B 22, ff. 26v–27. AMTr, AA, Carton 3, liasse 9, “En assemblee generale des clerge bourgeoie et habitans de la ville de Troyes tenue au beffroy de la dicte ville au son de la cloche le jour de feste Saint Barnabe . . . la requeste baille en ladicte assemblee par Jehan Royer menestrier demorans audicte Troyes par laquelle il queroit et q.. estie aux gaiges de ladicte ville ou lieu de Sen Laurent Chollot . . .”

Champagne

The personnel of the civic wind band in Troyes was stable, with members performing in this capacity for extended periods, and at least some of them had longtime attachments to the local community, as was often the case in French cities. Two brothers, Perrot and Laurent Cholot, whose father served as a guard on the belfry in Troyes, performed together in the band from 1457 until Laurent’s death in 1473, and Perrot remained in this position until 1501, serving for a minimum of forty-four years. Another long-time member, Jehan Pongoise, appears in the records from 1464 until his death in 1496. As a result, the personnel of the wind band performed without disruption from 1464 to 1473 with minstrels Perrot and Laurent Cholot and Jehan Pongoise, and from 1476 to 1496 with minstrels Jehan Pongoise, Perrot Cholot, and Jehan Royer, Laurent’s replacement. Following the death of a civic minstrel, the office was not filled promptly, most likely suggesting a scarcity of appropriately skilled minstrels in the area. As noted above, for two years after Laurent Cholot’s death in 1474, only two minstrels served in this position until 1476. When Jehan Pongoise died in the position in 1496, it would be over five years before a permanent replacement would be contracted. A temporary replacement, Jehan Vesue, filled in for five months in 1498, and he was followed by Philebert Remillon, identified as a minstrel living in Troyes, who filled in for “celebrations and processions and whenever he was asked.”91 In 1501, Remillon was still not included among the regular pensioned minstrels with Perrot Cholot and Jehan Royer. (See Table 2.2 for a list of civic musicians.) A musician served in one other civic position in Troyes during this period, that of a watchman (guect) who was placed on the belfry, a symbol of civic authority. The degree to which the duties of this watchman involved music is not made explicit. Throughout the second half of the fifteenth century, from 1457 to 1497, Perrot Cholot, who served for over forty years in the wind band, served as guect of the belfry, a payment receipt from 1483 referring to him specifically as “Perrot Cholot, minstrel, residing at the belfry.”92 The position had been filled by members of this musical family in earlier years as well, first by a Jehan Cholot in 1441 and then by an Estienne Cholot in 1450, who was identified as being Perrot’s father. The records do not describe the ceremony surrounding this position, but only mark the payment of annual wages of 12 ll. by the city and 6 ll. by the voyeur of the city, an officer who collected taxes at the gate of the belfry.93 From 91

92 93

AMTr, AA, Carton 9, liasse 9, “ait servy en son lieu aux festes processions et autrement quand il a este mande por ce faire avec les autres menestriers de la dicte ville.” AMTr, AA, Carton 9, liasse 3, “Perrot Cholot menestrier demorans au beoffroy.” Bibolet, Histoire de Troyes, 117.

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Table 2.2: Civic musicians employed in Troyes in the second half of the fifteenth century Civic Wind Band Jehan de Clesles (1457–9) Perrot Cholot (1457–1501) Laurent Cholot (1457–73) Jehan Pongoise (1464–96) Jehan Royer dit Petit (1476–1501) Jehannet Vesuc (1496–7) Philebert Remillon (1497–?) Official Trumpeters Jehan Fillecte (1459) Perrin Puitot (1465–8) Jacques de Hulst (1470) Pierre Clerambault (1471–89) Jehan Aubry (1500)

1472 to1478 Perrot was paid an additional 4 ll. for ringing the bells of the belfry twice a day, upon the opening and closing of the town gates. While these records do not refer to Perrot ever using his instrumental skills to make announcements and warnings on the belfry, it seems likely considering the consistency of this practice throughout France. The civic subsidy of music in late medieval Troyes is unique in the central regions of France of the Loire Valley, Champagne, and Burgundy, as it is the only city to have an official salaried and liveried wind band. Diverse factors appear to play a role in the existence and timing of the civic wind band in Troyes. First, while the Hundred Years’ War took a toll on Troyes during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, leaving the city in an impoverished and diminished state, by the second half of the fifteenth century, when the wind band emerged, Troyes was enjoying prosperity and was the largest city in Champagne, and had a population that had few rivals throughout France. A second relevant factor is that Troyes did not have the same history of critical attachment to the French crown as did Tours, Orléans, Reims, or Châlons-en-Champagne, offering the city more freedom to develop symbols of civic authority, such as a liveried wind band. When the wind band emerged in the 1450s the city of Troyes was experiencing a period of new freedoms and rights under the rule of Charles VII, partially in acknowledgment of the city’s willingness to surrender in 1429. In addition, Troyes had a history of instilling civic ritual. A general assembly had been formed in 1270, which met on an annual basis without royal control for the

Champagne

consideration of projects relating to the maintenance of the city, though it was not until the mid-fourteenth century that a city council was established in Troyes specifically to address the city’s need for fortification. An increase in civic ritual is evident in the mid-fifteenth century, such as a committee with leading citizens partaking in a civic-supported dinner, however modest the food and wine was. Also during this time the members of the city council, who were originally known as “councilors” (conseillers) or “those elected to the council” (esleus au conseil), adopted the more pompous title of “les messieurs des consuls.”94 The civic wind band, dressed in civic livery decorated with the coat of arms of Troyes, appears to have been one of the emerging civic symbols and coincided with a period of growing prosperity and temporary freedoms offered by Charles VII. The wind bands’ lack of prominence in the records reveals not just the city’s scribal practices, but also a lack of visibility and autonomy the city council had within Troyes. When Louis XI came to the throne in 1461, he asserted more direct control over the cities of the royal domain, and Troyes, in particular, was controlled tightly because of its location on the borders of Barrois, Lorraine and, above all, Burgundy.95 In his desire to diminish the power of the cities, earlier privileges of the city council were scrutinized carefully by the king, and Troyes became a city with some freedoms but without judicial or political power. The king had a strong presence in the city council with one-half of its membership consisting of leading citizens of Troyes, one-quarter of ecclesiastics, and one-quarter of royal officials, including the attorney of the king, the receiver of taxes, and officers of the fairs, who were the most influential members of the council. In conclusion, Troyes provides a rare example of a civic wind band in central France, and its emergence in the late 1450s, which is significantly later than for other wind bands throughout France, coincides with the resolution of the Hundred Year’s War, returning prosperity and demographic growth to the city, the emergence of expanded civic rituals, and extended freedoms granted by Charles VII; the lack of prominence of the civic musicians in the civic records perhaps reveals the tight control that Louis XI maintained and the weak history of the city council.

Reims Today, Reims is distinguished as the capital of Champagne and as the site of one of the largest and most elaborate gothic cathedrals in France. In the late 94

Ibid., 120.

95

Ibid., 129.

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Middle Ages, Reims, along with Troyes, was a leading city in Champagne with a population estimated at 20,000 by the second half of the thirteenth century, twice that of Troyes. After losing one-third of its citizens in the mid-fourteenth century, however, Reims remained stagnant at 10,000 throughout the fifteenth century, while Troyes rose in prominence.96 The prestige of the Archbishopric of Reims was partially based upon the accounts of the cathedral serving as the site of the baptism of the Frankish King Clovis on Christmas Day in 496 and then as a coronation site of the French kings beginning in the eleventh century. An especially symbolic coronation was that of King Charles VII in 1429, after the siege of Orléans and the historic march to Reims by Charles and Joan of Arc. The cathedral with its unprecedented size and “gallery of the kings” on the front façade with statues of Clovis at the center and his successors flanking him served as a symbol of the power of the French nation. A series of thirty account books dating from 1423 to 1500 and a series of deliberations of the city council dating from 1422 to 1500 are of particular relevance for this study.97 The Archives législatives de Reims by Pierre Varin provides an inventory of these series and full transcriptions of the account books from 1424/5, 1425/6, 1438/9, and 1440/1, and it has served as the basis for this discussion on patronage in Reims.98 Among the lists of expenses of the city are the wages of officers and other workers, such as receivers, clerks, captains, carpenters, and masons, so wages of any kind to musicians would appear in these sources. Unlike Troyes, the city of Reims appears to have provided very minimal support to musicians. References to “minstrels” finally appear in the midsixteenth century, but only rarely, and they offer no indication of a wind band. The first of such payments dates from 1557, when “six minstrels” are identified “who led and brought back the people making the watch on the walls to the sound of the pipe and tabor.”99 While the city of Reims in the fifteenth century hired two people to serve as watch (guet) day and night, warnings were only made with bells, not trumpets. This is evident in a 96 97

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Pierre Desportes, Histoire de Reims (Toulouse: Privat, 1983), 165. AMReims, R 424–428 (“Comptes deniers patrimoniaux”) and R 30–34 (“Conclusions du Conseil de Ville”). Pierre Varin, Archives administratives de la ville de Reims. Collection de pièces inédites pouvant server à l’histoire des institutions dans l’intérieur de la cité, 3 vols. (Paris: L’Imprimerie de Crapelet, 1839–48); Archives législatives de la ville de Reims. Collection de pièces inédites pouvant server à l’histoire des institutions dans l’intérieur de la cité. Part 1: Coutumes; Part 2: Statuts (Paris: L’Imprimerie de Crapelet, 1840–52). Varin, Archives législatives, Part 2: Statuts, 701, “à six ménétriers, qui ont conduit et ramené, au son du fifre et du tambourin, les gens faisant le guet sur les murailles.”

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payment in 1424–5, a husband and wife who were “entrusted to make the watch of the day on the bell-tower of the church and to ring the bells when they see people approaching, for 46 days at 4 s. per day, 9 ll. 2 s. 8 d.”100 Similarly, in 1441 payment was made to “Jacquet de Saint-Quentin and Raulin Tonnelier, ringers in the church of Reims, the sum of 20 s. for the pains and salary having rung the bell ordained for the watch of the night . . . to each 2 ll. for each year.”101 The use of bells, not trumpets or other wind instruments, by watchmen, while distinct from many cities in France, was not uncommon throughout central France. Trumpeters, along with heralds, messengers, and others, served as messengers and criers for the city, as they appear in a list in 1438 of “people carrying letters and news.”102 A systematic search of the account books of Reims would undoubtedly reveal further insights, though it appears that city funds for patronage of music were limited to bell-ringers and trumpeters who provided messages and warnings, with no regular or even frequent ad hoc support to minstrels. The contrast between the histories of Troyes and Reims offers various explanations for the distinct musical practices in these cities. The close association of Reims with the French crown due to the long history of French coronation ritual was a likely factor in the city’s minimal patronage of music. In addition, despite being granted a communal charter in 1139, a city council, which did not have administrative or judicial power, was not formed until 1358 by the king to help with the defense of the city. Further explanation might lie in the contrasting demographic patterns of Reims and Troyes. In the mid-fifteenth century, the point at which a civic wind band was formed in Troyes, the city had become the leading commercial center of Champagne, while Reims had dissolved into a mid-sized group of royal cities in the region.

Châlons-en-Champagne The well-preserved account registers of the city of Châlons-en-Champagne reveal the smallest amount of civic subsidy of music among all cities included in this study. With only a few missing years, the annual accounts are extant 100

101

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Ibid., 619, “A Collesson et sa femme, commis à faire le guet de jour sur le clochier de l’esglise, et tapper les cloches quand il voit gens d’armes, 4 s. p. par jour.” Ibid., 652, “A Jacquet de Saint-Quentin, et Raulin Tonnelier, sonneurs en l’église de Reins, la somme de xx s. par pour leurs peines et salaire d’avoir sonné la cloche ordonnée pour le guet de nuit . . . a chacun 2 ll. par pour ung an.” Ibid., 617 and 640, “et aussy pour dons fais à pluseurs héraulx, poursuians, trompettes, messagiers, et autres personnes apportans lettres et nouvelles.”

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from 1412 to 1500, as well as from 1375 to 1379, and the majority of these have been examined.103 Even though the account books have sections on “employees and workers,” “gifts,” and “other expenses,” sections which typically contain information on musicians, almost no references to music have been located. Payments are made to the watch (gaite) who were placed on the bell-towers of Saint Etienne and Saint Pierre, but no mention is made of the duties of these officers or any type of musical instrument. The only payment to musicians that has been located is to “minstrels and trumpets” who participated in a performance of a mystery play on May 6, 1482.104 The lack of patronage by the city of Châlons-en-Champagne is consistent with the broader patterns of patronage throughout France. The population of the city, projected at 15,000 in the second half of the thirteenth century, was large enough to support musicians, but the unusually minimal amount of civic autonomy likely curtailed the practice.105 Châlons was an enclave in the middle of the County of Champagne, whose local ruler, the bishop, since the tenth century had offered its allegiance to the King of France. Unlike the other nearby large cities of Reims or Troyes, Châlons was never successful in obtaining a commune, or even a communal charter, and it was not until 1417 that a city council was established.106 The lack of civic-employed musicians coupled with the lack of civic autonomy in Châlons-enChampagne further supports the theory that underlying the patterns of civic patronage of music in late medieval France are issues of civic power and independence. In summary, the medieval county of Champagne, at the intersection of major trade routes, was a wealthy region with large cities. Of the three principal cities in the region included in this study, only Troyes offered regular patronage to musicians and, indeed, to a civic wind band, which is a phenomenon not only unique in Champagne, but also in all of central France. The three-member ensemble of double reeds is common for wind 103

104

105

106

The following records have been examined for this study: AMC, CC 82 (1375–9), CC 83 (1412– 23), CC 84 (1423–6), CC 87 (1440–9), CC 89 (1471–9), CC 90 (1465–85), and CC 91 (1485– 1500). The series in the municipal archives of Châlons-en-Champagne that were not fully explored for this study and potentially offer relevant information are the Deliberations of the City Council (BB), which first date from 1417 and are extant for most years of the fifteenth century. Only documents cited in the inventory were examined. AMC, BB 6, f. 52, “Et aussi que les menestrez et trompettes qui avoient este aud mistere avoient bien deserve la somme de 24 ll.” This very large allocation to musicians implies that a large number of musicians were employed and/or that the theatrical performances extended over a number of days. Georges Clause and Jean-Pierre Ravaux, Histoire de Châlons-sur-Marne (Roanne, Le Coteau: Horvath, 1983), 84. Ibid., 109.

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band traditions elsewhere in France, as is its apparent function of performing in processions and celebrations, though it is the latest wind band to emerge in the study. While none of these cities in Champagne had strong and independent city councils, Troyes, which was the largest and most prosperous city of the three, developed distinct practices of civic ritual at this point. A striking aspect in the records of Reims and Châlons is the lack of support to musicians, where an explanation likely lies with the lack of a developed city council and corresponding ritual, as well as a close connection to the French crown.

Burgundy: Dijon The history of late medieval Dijon is tied to the ascendancy of the Dukes of Burgundy, as the city had been the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy since the tenth century and the seat of its administration. Within a duchy scattered with small towns, Dijon became the prominent city in the region with its approximately 10,000 inhabitants prior to the plague in the midfourteenth century; while the largest city in medieval Burgundy, Dijon is the smallest of the cities included in this study for central France.107 Beginning with the rule of Philip the Bold (r. 1363–1404), Dijon became the site of the ducal palace and symbols of ducal power became prominent within the city, with coats of arm being placed on gates and main halls, even though the dukes traveled extensively and, depending on the duke, might have only spent a small portion of their reign actually residing in Dijon.108 The picturesque city of Dijon with its well-preserved medieval center still has many vestiges from when it was the home of the Burgundian dukes. One can still climb the 150-foot “Tower of Philip the Good” and walk the pedestrian stone streets lined with timbered homes with brightly colored Flemish-style roof patterns. While Dijon suffered the typical misfortunes of the second half of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the city benefited from an influx of people drawn to the ducal residence. The city’s population decreased slightly to approximately 8,000 by the early fifteenth century, but by 1474 had increased to 13,000.109 At the death of Charles the Bold in battle 107

108

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Richard Vaughan, Valois Burgundy (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1975), 24; Pierre Gras, ed., Histoire de Dijon (Toulouse: Privat, 1981), 48. Patrick de Winter, “Castles and Town Residences of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1364–1404),” Artibus et Historiae 4 (1983): 100. Philip the Bold spent nearly one-third of his time in Dijon, John the Fearless in his fifteen-year reign only spent what would have amounted to one year in Dijon, Philip the Good again had long periods of residence in Dijon, while Charles the Bold visited the city only once. Vaughan, Valois Burgundy, 77. Gras, Histoire de Dijon, 75.

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in 1477, the fate of the powerful duchy was dramatically altered. Through the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Emperor Maximilian I, the Duchy of Burgundy returned to the French royal domain and much of the Burgundian lands were lost to the Hapsburg Empire. The archives of Dijon are unusually well preserved and contain diverse records through which to approach music in this urban setting. The municipal records of Dijon are not organized by the standard classification system used throughout France, but rather are broken into thirteen series identified as A through M. The series that received the greatest attention for this study is Series M, the extensive municipal accounts books, which are extant beginning in 1395 and are fairly continuous through the fifteenth century. Approximately twenty-five of the forty-five registers from prior to 1500 have been examined, so while further details could undoubtedly be uncovered, broader patterns of civic patronage have been solidly determined.110 Series B, concerning the administration of the city, contains records concerning the official trumpeter of the city and the minstrels who performed during Advent, as Series I contains records on the preparations and expenses for entrances of nobility and other public celebrations.111 The musical culture in the urban environment of Dijon must have been both directly and indirectly affected by the presence of the Burgundian court. The expansion of Burgundian lands in the second half of the fourteenth century to include wealthy Flemish cities made the dukes the richest princes in Western Europe, and, as has been well established in scholarship, music at the court in Dijon rivaled that of any court or city in Europe.112 Four to five minstrels were commonly on the payroll, as was a trumpet ensemble, which increased from two in the second half of the fourteenth century to six or eight under Philip the Good (r. 1419–67). These court 110

111

112

The registers that have been examined for this study are M 47–63 (excluding M 57 bis and M 62 bis), M 69, M 71, M 74, M 77–81. From Series B (“Privilèges, Franchises et Administration de la Commune”), B 58, B 58 bis, B 59, B 64 and B 64 bis, which are series of individual records, have proven the most relevant. The deliberations of the city council are also included in Series B, and of these, B 151–155 were examined. From Series I (“Police”), I 6–9, I 11, and I 37 were examined for this study. While a careful perusal of Series L, which contains the tax rolls of the city, could certainly offer important information on the minstrel community in Dijon, for this study use of the tax rolls has been limited to the excerpts included in the published inventory. Similarly, the private notarial records housed in the departmental archives are undoubtedly a source of valuable information that could be further exploited, but for this study their use has been limited to citations in secondary sources. Craig Wright, Music at the Court of Burgundy, 1364–1419: A Documentary History, Musicological Studies, vol. 28 (Henryville: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1979); Marix, Histoire de la musique.

Burgundy

minstrels, one-half of whom under Philip the Bold were of German or Flemish origin, were rewarded handsomely with salaries that were up to ten times that of well-paid urban minstrels in France. Some of these court minstrels owned homes in Dijon, many living out their lives in the city, and must have been heard from time to time seeking out performance opportunities in the streets of Dijon, as would have the many musicians who flocked to the court with the hope of finding employment.113 On occasion the duke or duchess hired urban minstrels, such as when Guillaume de Viezmolins, who appears in the municipal accounts for performing in an annual celebration during Advent, was hired by Philip the Bold in 1364 and the duchess in 1376.114 In addition, the duchess did not have her own musicians, but rather, as Craig Wright indicates, when the duke was gone “the duchess had to rely on local Burgundian performers and on whatever musicians happened to be close at hand.”115 In 1374, when the duchess celebrated the baptism of one of her children and also the wedding of her chamberlain, she hired “many minstrels” (pluseurs menestriers), among whom could have been local minstrels. Unlike the cities of Tours and Orléans, the city of Dijon generally did not contribute to the music at the festivities surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy or of other visiting dignitaries. An exception appears in the accounts of 1408 under the early reign of John the Fearless, when a Burgundian army invaded and decisively defeated Liège, a rebellious and politically turbulent town that would remain problematic for the dukes throughout the fifteenth century.116 After the invasion, important dignitaries, city officials, and a messenger who carried the news of the Burgundian victory, all accompanied by minstrels and sergeants of Dijon, traveled to Auxonne, a town in the duchy of Burgundy forty kilometers southwest of Dijon. In this procession to Auxonne, Volent, a minstrel regularly hired by the city of Dijon, and his companion minstrels were placed in front of “Mons. du Charrelois la prince.”117 In 1408, this would have been the twelve-year-old future Philip the Good, who, a few years earlier, had been named the Count of Charolais, a recently acquired territory bordering on the duchy. During the same year a “joyous entry” of the duke and duchess prompted the city to construct a platform for musicians of the “organ and other instruments,” and a substantial sum of money was paid “to three minstrels and to the trumpet of Mess. Guy de Pontailler, who played their

113 116

Wright, Music at the Court of Burgundy, 44. 114 Ibid., 23. Vaughan, Valois Burgundy, 71. 117 AMD, M 52, f. 44.

115

Ibid., 34.

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In honor of nobility

instruments for the city at the entrance.”118 The year 1408 was a crucial political time for the Duchy of Burgundy, as in the previous year the duke had successfully instigated the murder of Louis of Orléans, thus beginning the Armagnac– Burgundian civil war. Under these political conditions, the presence of the duke’s young son in an elaborate procession with musicians would have been an important symbol of the duchy’s strong future. When John the Fearless succeeded his father, Philip the Bold, in 1404, he did not retain his father’s ensemble of minstrels for three years, but then reinstated the practice in the spring of 1407, hiring four wind players and a trumpeter, perhaps motivated by political image.119 It seems, at least during 1408, the city of Dijon helped contribute to the image of Burgundian royalty through its patronage of music.120 The Duke of Burgundy directly influenced the musical world of Dijon by limiting the city’s crier to the use of a crude horn, which was perceived as hurting the image of the city and as a source of mockery. By at least 1393, and probably much earlier, the city hired a sergeant/crier to sound his horn (“le cor”) and to make proclamations. Richart Vaquier, who served in this position from at least 1397 to 1402, was paid 2 francs “to have cried on the horn and to have cried the edicts of grape-gathering . . . and many other decrees.”121 The duties of two of Vaquier’s successors, a Jehan Furny, from at least 1408 to1432 and a Guille Chassot from 1433 to 34, do not appear to have changed, as they were also hired to sound the horn and to make decrees, particularly those concerning wine-gathering, at street corners and other accustomed places within the city for a comparable salary.122 The exact nature of the horn is not clear, though a payment in 1400 “to repair and to resolder the horn of the said city” suggests that the instrument was made from metal and not an animal horn.123 In 1433, the city of Dijon made a formal request to the Duke of Burgundy “to give and to grant to the city, in place of the horn on which are made the decrees of the city, a trumpet. And all without detriment to the privileges of 118

119 120

121

122 123

AMD, M 52, f. 84, “une loige dessus la dicte porte en laquelle estoient ceulz qui ala dicte joyeuse venue jouoient dorgues et daultres instrumens 7 s. 6 d. Aux iii menestrelz et ala trompette de Mess Guy de Pontailler que ala dicte venue jouerent de leurs instrumens pour la dicte ville 67 s. 6 d. t.” Wright, Music at the Court of Burgundy, 44. The city only rarely offered support to minstrels of visiting royalty. Rare examples include providing the lodging at the hotel Chapeau-Rouge in 1407 for four days for the minstrels of Mr. Philippe de Vienne and at the end of the century offering support to the trumpeters of the King and Queen of France when they came to Dijon. AMD, M 51, f. 21; I 8, 1494; I 9, 1501. AMD, M 50, f. 18v, “avoir crie au cor et au cry les bans des vendanges . . . et pluseurs autres criz.” AMD, M 52, f. 74, 1408; M 58, f. 216v, 1433. AMD, M 49, f. 109, “pour refaire et ressoudre le cor de la dicte ville.”

Burgundy

the city because many seigneurs, foreign people and others mock the said horn and that is not a respectable thing and that it would be a most grand honor to the city to have a trumpet rather than a horn.”124 Over a year after the request was made, on November 12, 1434, the city was granted the right to have its first trumpet. In a document with a large green wax seal and tied in green and red silk string, the city was granted the right to make its proclamations to the sound of the trumpet in place of the horn, which was described as having “a harsh sound” (un rude son).125 The city was also allowed to attach a banner with the coat of arms of the city to the trumpet, as was the custom in “other good cities.” Confirming this right bestowed upon the city, a document from March 4, 1434 reads, the mandate is given to the city, that in place of the horn on which it has been the custom to make the decrees and other announcements for the city, that the city promises to make the said decrees to the sound of the trumpet. And also that the “grant Guille,” who had been the crier, will not sound the said trumpet. And that a man Joffroy de Vauthigny from the duchy of Normandy

will serve in this function.126 Joffroy de Vauthigny served as public crier for five years until 1439 and was well compensated with an annual salary of 100 s., along with the official livery of the city and lodging.127 The substantial increase in compensation for this position might have been related to its new prestige and difficulty of finding a capable individual, having hired somebody from Normandy, but it does not appear to have been due to an increase in duties. The obligations of the crier do not appear to have changed, only the instrument on which they were performed. For example, according to the account book of 1436, Joffroy de Vathigny was paid for “having made decrees to the sound of the trumpet all of the mornings in the place of the workers, which is in front of the chapel of the Duke, including the decrees concerning grape-gathering.”128 124

125

126

127 128

AMD, B 154, f. 13, “donner et octroyer a ladicte ville que en lieu du cor aquay len font les cris de la ville que len eust une trompecte Et tout sans prejudice des privileges de ladicte ville parce que pluseurs seigenurs, gens estrangiers et autres se moquent dudicte cor et . . . que se nest pas chose honneste et que ce serait plus grant honneur aladicte ville davoir une trompecte que . . . cor.” M. Olivier Langeron, “La Trompette d’argent,” Mémoires de la Commission des antiquités de la Côte-d’Or, 2nd ser. 14 (1851), 92. AMD, B 154, ff. 69v–70, “donne mandement ala villa que en lieu du cor auquel len avoit acoustume de faire les criz et autres choses touchant le fait de la ville que la ville promesse faire lesd criz a son de trompe et aussi que le grant guile qui estoir crieur ne soit sonner ladicte trompete et que ung nome Joffroy de Barthigny de la duchy de normandie.” Ibid., “lui donne la robe de livree de la ville et lui bailleront une chambre en la maison des hales.” AMD, M 63, f. 27, “davoir crye a son de trompe tous les matins en la place aux ouvriers estant devant la chappelle de mons. le duc les bans des vandanges.”

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The public crier’s use of a horn in Dijon up until the 1430s is rare in the French cities in this study, where some form of the trumpet, usually identified as a “trompette,” is used in their duties. As indicated in the document granting Dijon the use of a trumpet, it was the custom in “other good cities” in France to have a trumpet with a banner displaying the coat of arms. The only other French city in this study in which a local ruler clearly bestowed the right to have a trumpet is Albi, where after an urban insurrection, the bishop demanded that the city trumpet be nailed up in the middle of town and forced the public crier to use an animal horn. Within this broader practice in France, clearly, official proclamations made on a harsh-sounding horn in Dijon, a city with many visiting foreigners, could have very well been a source of mockery. The instrument that was purchased was of such a high quality it would have been a “most grand honor to the city.” In the margins of the formal request for the trumpet dating from August 9, 1433 is a drawing of the instrument that the city wanted, which is consistent with the description in a payment receipt for the trumpet acquired by the city four years later in 1437.129 A goldsmith, by the name of Prenot Loyet, made this S-shaped trumpet in multiple sections with silver for an incomparable sum for a city trumpet in France of 54 fr. 4 gr. In comparison, during the same period, the city of Tours bought a trumpet for only 4 ll. 10 s. The receipt from 1437 reads, “and for the fashion of this which is thirteen pieces with horn-like curves where there are many new gildings and certain letters around the buisine of the trumpet, also gilded. And in each horn are the arms of the city . . . and on the said buisine the said arms are enameled.”130 The drawing indicates three large straight pieces, two curved pieces, six connecting pieces, and the mouthpiece, which not surprisingly required frequent maintenance with municipal funds. For example, in 1438 repairs were made to the silver trumpet “which made a crude sound” costing 45 s. t. for the ironwork, and in 1464, a goldsmith “rebuilt all to new the silver trumpet of this city” for five escus of gold.131 An elaborate banner was attached to the instrument, which was made from multi-colored pieces of silk, which in

129 130

131

AMD, B 154, f. 13; M 63, f. 80. AMD, M 63, f. 80, “Et pour la facon dicelle la quelle est de xiii piecces tant cors comme combes ou y a pluseurs neux dores et certaingnes lettres autour de la busine dicelle trompette aussi dores. Et en chacun cor sont les armes de la ville . . . Et sur la dicte busine les dictes armes enamalle.” AMD, M 63, f. 125v, “qui a fait de son crud”; B 58, “refaicte toute a neuf la trompecte dargent dicelle ville.”

Burgundy

1438 consisted of green, blue, and red, and was decorated with silk tassels, buttons, and a painting of the coat of arms of Dijon.132 While Joffroy de Vauthigny, the trumpeter from Normandy, remained in the position for only five years, his successor, Philippe Bergain, filled this position for four decades, and a family member by the name of Perrenot Bergain took over from 1480 to 1505.133 The duties attached to this position remained consistent throughout the century, as both men, who were identified as “sergeant, crier, trumpeter” of the city, were to publish announcements to the sound of the trumpet each morning during the time of the grape-gathering. Their compensation remained constant throughout the fifteenth century at 100 s. a year, along with official livery, though no mention is made concerning the provision of housing. Considering the size of their salary, these criers undoubtedly were expected to fulfill more obligations than what was typically identified in the payment records, though only a couple of references to these activities in the fifteenth century have been identified. In May of 1456, the trumpeter, with his silver trumpet and banners, was given permission to travel to Chalon, just south of Dijon, with the crossbowmen to an archery contest.134 The “trumpet of the city,” along with the sergeants, was paid extra in 1479 for participating in the royal entry of the King and Queen of France, in which he performed in his red robe in front of the officers of the city, who were in turn located in front of the French royalty.135 Also during this year, the crier with the trumpet summoned to court two criminals who had escaped, which was probably a more common occurrence for the crier than performing before royalty.136 A formal reprimand of Georges de la Paire, crier from 1506 to 1529, for not doing his job appropriately in 1516 yields further insights into this position. First, he is reprimanded for knowing “nothing on how to play the trumpet, that he has neither the words nor the eloquence to proclaim the announcements and that people mock him and the city.”137 Other charges against him include that at times he did not provide the correct signals, creating serious confusion, other times he did not provide the necessary announcements at all, and he did not willingly participate with the sergeants during the celebrations of Christmas. On this occasion, he was able to maintain his position, but lost it in 1529, when he was charged with the same types of grievances. 132 134 136 137

AMD, M 61, f. 47; M 77, ff. 239–239v. 133 AMD, M 60, f. 163; AMD, B 58. Langeron, “La trompette d’argent,” 97. 135 AMD, I 7. Langeron, “La trompette d’argent,” 98. Ibid., 98–9, “qu’il ne savait rien à jouher de la trompette, qu’il n’avait ni parole ni loquance pour proclamer les ajournements, qu’on se moquait de lui et de la ville.”

111

Figure 4. Formal request for a trumpet by the city of Dijon, AMD, B 154, f. 13.

Burgundy

In spite of Burgundy’s close political and cultural connections to Flanders during this period, a region marked by its full wind bands placed on the belltowers, Dijon, at least through the fifteenth century, only hired people to sound bells from two bell-towers, not to play trumpets. One was placed at the church of Notre Dame, which housed the municipal archives and functioned as a central belfry, “to ring each day in the said church in the mornings and to ring it for opening and closing of the doors of the city and to announce assemblies.”138 Another was placed at the church of Saint Jehan specifically to sound the curfew in the evenings.139 While many variations exist on the function and duties of tower-musicians throughout France, the arrangement in Dijon to have only bell-ringers on the towers is consistent with cities located just to the north in nearby Troyes, Châlons, and Reims. Dijon did not have an official wind band for events throughout the year, though the city consistently employed minstrels from at least 1393 through the fifteenth century to perform during the pre-Christmas celebration of Advent (le temps de la solempnite de l’Advent), which marked the beginning of the liturgical year. This is the only holiday for which the city regularly hired minstrels, and unfortunately the entries in the account books concerning the minstrels’ involvement on this event tend to be repetitive, usually offering the same limited and somewhat ambiguous information. A typical entry from 1407 states that minstrels “made and played on wind instruments le doranlot before the celebration of the birth of Christ in the accustomed manner.”140 As with this entry, they almost all specify that the minstrels performed or made the doranlot, a term meaning refrain, though used ambiguously in this context.141 Frequently the minstrels were described as leading the doranlot, as if there were other participants in the procession. At least during certain years, as in this example from 1410, a person, whose position is not identified, was paid for having “led and conducted the minstrels leading the dorenlot around the city.”142 The procession apparently went around the walls of the city, as payment in 138

139 140

141

142

AMD, M 58, f. 178, 1433, “soner chacun jour en ladicte eglise le matin et le son pour ouvrir et cloire les portes pour ladite ville et pour faire les assemblees.” AMD, M 50, f. 18v, 1402. AMD, M 52, f. 38, “pour avoir fait et corne le doranlot devant la feste de la nativite nostre Seigneur en la manere acoutume.” Anna Roberts, “`The Old Refrains All Come Down to This’: Dorenlot in the Pastourelle XLVIII of the Chansonnier U and Hollander’s ‘Notes on the Refrain,’” Romance Languages Annual (1995): 145–53. AMD, M 53, f. 65, “A Jehannot Richart pour ses penes et sales davoir mene et conduit les menestriers menant le dorelot.”

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1423 was made to Jehan le Picotet, “minstrel and sergeant of the mayor of Dijon . . . to lead the doranlot on the walls.”143 A single reference from 1431 specifies that the minstrels performed each of the “matins” of the “feste de noel,” which in the context of the frequent references to performing at night suggests that the practice took place during the office of matins.144 While the exact nature of this practice remains obscure, minstrels appear to have performed music involving a refrain in front of a procession, perhaps involving other townspeople, that circled the city during matins regularly throughout Advent. If the minstrels performed regularly during this fourweek period, this would have been a relatively extensive number of contracted days for an urban minstrel in France. The minstrels involved in these processions during Advent appear to have formed a standard wind band ranging from four minstrels in 1393 to three from 1394 to1420, and only two by 1426, a size maintained throughout the fifteenth century. The decrease in ensemble size from four in the fourteenth century to two or three minstrels by the early fifteenth century appears in other French cities. As would be expected, these minstrels appear to have been shawm players, as the records commonly refer to the minstrels who “sounded their horns on loud instruments” (cornerent a haults instrumens). On an annual basis, the minstrels, along with sergeants and other officers of the city, were provided with new livery, which typically cost 3 francs per minstrel, one franc less than that of the trumpeter. The livery typically consisted of two colors that changed methodically from year to year, just as the livery of the ducal musicians did. A green or blue-green was frequently combined with another color, such as red in 1393, grey in 1399, or white in 1408. While the livery is allocated annually by the city, additional monetary payments appear on only a handful of occasions. In 1400, one year when they received monetary payment of 2 francs, the money is not referred to as a regular payment, but rather as “a special grace for one time by the said city for their pains of making the doranlot.”145 While special monetary payments were made to the minstrels in 1400 and 1413, during those years no payment appears for their livery.146

143

144

145

146

AMD, B 64 bis, “Jehan le Picotet menestrier et sergent de la maire de Dijon . . . a mener le doranlot sur les murs.” AMD, M 58, f. 121, “deux menestriers qui lavant dud noel ont corne noel tous les matins parmi la dicte ville.” AMD, M 49, f. 109, “grace especial pour une foiz par la dicte ville pour leurs penes de fere le doranlot.” AMD, M 52, f. 117. The accounts from 1411 are unique in that the minstrels were given both livery and a special monetary payment of 33 s. 4 g.

Burgundy

Table 2.3: Minstrels hired for Advent Guillaume de Viez Melin and his companion minstrels: 1395 Volant and his companions: 1400 Arslom, Jehan le Lorram, and Volant menestriers: 1407 Jehan le Picotet, Jehan le Norresser, Jehan Meneruit: 1413 Jehan le menestrey: 1421 Jehan le Picotet: 1423

The provision of only livery to minstrels is similar to the compensation of the members of the city council who also received a robe on Christmas, though of slightly better quality than that of the minstrels, valued at 4 francs instead of 3, and a goose, but no monetary wages.147 The lack of apparent monetary compensation, along with the minstrels’ apparent performance in an official capacity for the city only during Advent, is unique within cities in this study, thus raising questions. Why would the city of Dijon hire minstrels for only one occasion? Is it possible that the dukes not only limited the crier to a horn, but also limited the employment of minstrels? Or is it more likely that they were employed for other occasions, but appear in records only for Advent, as that is when they were offered their livery? The improbability of a city purchasing expensive robes for a single occasion suggests the latter explanation. If indeed the extant account books accurately reflect the offering of only livery to minstrels, why would they be satisfied with this? Might the minstrels have been allowed to wear the livery when they were performing in non-official capacities for the city? Perhaps as an underlying benefit the coat lent prestige to the minstrels, allowing them to acquire more higher-paying jobs throughout the city. The remuneration and benefits were significant enough to draw respected local minstrels and to keep them serving in this capacity for extended periods of time. (See Table 2.3 for a list of minstrels hired for Advent.) In contrast to other officers of the city who were identified by name in payment records concerning livery, the minstrels were most typically identified only as “two minstrels” (deux menestriers) or simply “minstrels” (menestriers). In records listing minstrels by name, musicians appear in multiple years, such as the minstrel Volant, who performed for Advent in 1400 and as well as in 1407, or the minstrel Jehan Picotet, who performed for Advent multiple 147

Françoise Humbert, Les Finances municipales de Dijon du milieu du XIV siècle à 1477 (Paris: Société les belles letters, 1961), 174. Humbert also identified this practice of compensation for members of the city council in Lille, Metz, and Amiens.

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times during a ten-year period, from 1413 to 1423. Some of the minstrels who performed during Advent were respected minstrels in the community. For example, Volant, who served in this position in at least 1400 and 1407, had the status of a master minstrel, and he and his partner, Jean Rossignol, took on an apprentice for three years to teach “the science of minstrelsy” (la science de menestrandise).148 In addition, Guillaume de Viez Melin, who was hired in 1395 to perform at Advent, was hired by the Duke of Burgundy on two occasions. On Saint Nicholas Day, celebrated on December 6 during the period of Advent, a feast day still actively celebrated in eastern France, other minstrels came to Dijon in hopes of finding employment. In 1483, four “companion minstrels” (compaignons menestriers) traveled to Dijon to perform at the celebration of Saint Nicolas, which was identified as being the custom.149 Since the city already had enough minstrels, however, they returned home without participating in the celebration with 6 gr. in compensation from the city. No other minstrels were paid by the city on this occasion, suggesting that the compensation of all other minstrels, whether local or visiting, was through freelance activities. The city of Dijon, as the residence of the ducal palace, presents patterns of music patronage reflecting the influence of the Dukes of Burgundy. While the city of Dijon was granted a communal charter in 1187 by the duke, which included important rights of jurisdiction, the commune struggled for autonomy under the power of the dukes.150 During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the city of Dijon lost independence, as dukes intervened in municipal affairs and municipal personnel was reduced.151 Symbols of communal power were modest in medieval Dijon; the city council did not have a central municipal building, but rather met at the convent of the Dominicans, and the bell-tower in the church of Notre Dame served the function of a municipal belfry. The most direct reflection of the influence of the dukes on urban musical practices in Dijon is the city’s request to the duke for permission to have the crier perform on a trumpet, not a horn. While the duke clearly was directly responsible for the lack of a trumpet player representing the city until about 1430, no such direct evidence exists for the practices surrounding the bell-tower or the wind band. While no trumpets or other wind instruments were heard from the bell-towers in Dijon, this is similar to practices in Burgundian cities just to the north. The appearance of a liveried wind band in connection with only a single 148 150

Marix, Histoire de la musique, 96. 149 AMD, M 80, f. 99. Gras, Histoire de Dijon, 48. 151 Ibid., 53.

Rhône-Alpes region

occasion, such as Advent, is unique within this study, and perhaps the use of minstrels was limited by the duke, as was the city’s use of trumpet players. Regardless of the explanation for this situation, the strong association of the city wth the Dukes of Burgundy would have naturally discouraged the development of urban musical practices that would have contributed to a competing image of power in Dijon.

Rhône-Alpes region: Lyons At the juncture of two central water routes, Lyons was formed by the Romans in the first century bc and later emerged as an important medieval commercial center. The Rhône River, which served as a principal pathway both to the south towards Provence and to the east towards Savoy, and the Saône River, which served as a northern connection to Paris and the Low Countries, picturesquely converge just south of the original city center. Lyons, the second-largest metropolitan area in France, has been identified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as the city’s long, rich history is preserved in its urban landscape. Remnants of a Roman theater can still be explored on the west hill overlooking Lyons, and the vieux ville, located on the banks of the Saône, is home to convents, the palace of the archbishop, and narrow winding streets with their famous traboules, or covered pedestrian passageways connecting streets. The population of Lyons in the first half of the fourteenth century has been estimated conservatively at 15–18,000, and as high as 20,000 inhabitants.152 As was so common, the Black Death of 1348, which wiped out half of the city’s inhabitants, marked the beginning of an economic depression that would continue into the fifteenth century. The economy of Lyons, however, was dramatically influenced by the king’s accordance of two fairs to the city in 1420, a third in 1444, a fourth in 1463, and his simultaneous banning of French traders from attending the fairs in Geneva. These fairs were each held for two-week periods which were spread evenly throughout the year and typically drew up to 5–6,000 people from all over Europe. The influx of trade into Lyons led to expansion of the city’s population in the fifteenth century, while other cities were still on the decline. Estimates of the population vary significantly from 10,000 to

152

Anna Maslokovic, “Common and Public: A Genealogy of Urban Space in Late Medieval and Early Modern Lyon” (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 2000), 7; André Pelletier, Histoire de Lyon, des origines à nos jours (Le Coteau: Horvath, 1990), 367.

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35,000 people for the early fifteenth century and from 40,000 to 70,000 people for the early sixteenth century.153 As with other cities in central France, medieval Lyons never achieved strong political independence. From the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, Lyons was part of the empire, and because of conflicts in the region, Frederick II made the archbishop a powerful sovereign in 1157, with whom the town struggled unsuccessfully to gain autonomy.154 In the early fourteenth century, Lyons came under the sovereignty of the King of France, and finally, in 1320, a few decades earlier than other cities in central France but over 100 years later than major cities in the south, a “commune” was legally recognized in Lyons. The city was offered the right to collect taxes, defend the city, and to elect council members, though it never acquired control of justice in the city, which remained in the domain of the archbishop, nor did it acquire a separate consulate building. Significantly, a city council was established in Lyons at the same time that the monarchy began to curtail municipal autonomy throughout France.155 In the fifteenth century in Lyons, urban liberties were reduced further due to an alliance between the French king and ruling families of the city, who were particularly known for loyal submission. As for many cities in France, but perhaps particularly surprising for Lyons considering its cultural and demographic status in France, the musical culture in the urban setting of medieval Lyons has not been studied. Frank Dobbins’ book Music in Renaissance Lyons begins with the last few years of the fifteenth century without reference to the years on which this study focuses.156 The account books of the city of Lyons and the deliberations of its city council are unusually well preserved, offering details of civic life throughout the second half of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and allow for a clear assessment of practices of civic patronage. A little over a third of the 150 payment books extant for the period prior to 1500 have been examined.157 Many of the remaining registers offer little relevance to this study, as they contain payments specifically for the military, fortification of the city, and repairs of bridges. The deliberations of the city council of Lyons

153 154 155

156 157

André Latreille, Histoire de Lyon et du Lyonnais (Toulouse: Privat, 1988), 156. Maslokovic, “Common and Public,” 7 and 62. Jean Pierre Gutton, Histoire de Lyon et du Lyonnais (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1998), 29. Frank Dobbins, Music in Renaissance Lyons (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992). The following accounts books have been examined for this study: CC 373–94, 397, 407, 414, 431, 438–43, 481–5, 511–12, 518–20, 526–7, 529, 531–2, 534, 537–9, 541, 553, 556, 638.

Rhône-Alpes region

(Series BB) are well preserved for the fifteenth century, though this study has relied upon those in published sources.158 In comparison to other cities in this chapter, the nature of civic patronage of music in Lyons is most similar to that in Tours and Orléans. In Lyons, as in these two cities of the Loire Valley, only a few musicians received regular support by the city, while at the same time elaborate receptions for nobility were patronized. As would be expected for a city with minimal political autonomy and strong allegiance to the King of France, the only musicians that appear regularly in the extensive municipal records of Lyons are two trumpeters who served as part of the watch (gaite) upon a central bell-tower of Fourvières.159 The church of Fourvières was built on the hill overlooking the Saône River with a bell-tower 295 meters tall, from which views would have extended for miles in all directions.160 Serving as guard appears to have been a central part of their duties, and at times, evidently of greater danger, they were asked to lodge permanently in the tower, and accordingly were offered beds and blankets.161 As in cities throughout France, the members of the watch were hired “to sound the watch” (corner la gaitte) once in the morning and again in the evening, usually to mark the opening and closing of the town gates.162 At times they were assigned other tasks, such as in August of 1391, when a member of the watch was paid to clean the bell-tower. At least earlier on, the trumpets provided by the city to the watch appear to have been simple instruments. Jehan Sarpolet, who was identified as a member of the watch in the tax rolls of Lyons in the 1350s and continued to serve the function into the last decade of the century, received an inexpensive trumpet (trompette) for 2 francs from the city in the late 1370s, which it was stipulated that he “return to the city whenever it is needed.”163 Confirming the continued simplicity of the instrument into the fifteenth century, in 1417 a local inhabitant of

158

159

160 161

162

163

Marie-Claude Guigue, Registres consulaires de la ville de Lyon ou recueil des délibérations du conseil de la commune de 1416 à 1423, vol. I (Lyon: Auguste Brun, 1882); Georges Guigue, Registres consulaires de la ville de Lyon ou recueil des délibérations du conseil de la commune de 1422–50, vol. II (Lyon: Archives et Bibliothèque de la Ville, 1926). The earliest identified reference to this position dates from 1364 and then is evident in many later account books. AML, CC 373, f. 41, 1364; f. 74v, 1365. Latreille, Histoire de Lyon, 97. Léon Clédat, Lyon au commencement du XVe siècle (1416–1420): d’après les registres consulaires (Paris: Leroux, 1884), 18. Georges Guigue, Registres consulaires, vol. II, 463, “Jehan du Pré, gaitte de Forvière, la somme de six livres tournois . . . à lui deuz de ses gaiges ordinaries pour corner la gaitte dudit Forvière, matin et soir à la guise acoustumé, et ce pour les moys de juillet, aoust, septembre et octobre.” AML, CC 375, no folio, “il doit rendre alla ville toutes les fois que lun voudra.”

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Lyons was paid a mere 55 s. “for the making of a ‘horn of brass’ for the watch of Forvyère.”164 An important function of at least some of these trumpeters was to take part in ceremonies in honor of nobility. A central function of Sarpolet’s fellow watch in the late fourteenth century, who was identified as “Johan the trumpeter watch of Fourvières” (Johan la trompeta gait de Forvero), was “to assemble the good people of the city to go before the seigneurs when they come to the city”; for example, in 1392 a horse was rented for Johan’s use in this function for the visit of the Duke of Berry or in 1393 when he was specifically paid “when Monsieur de Bourbon came” into town.165 In 1395 a “Marcellin the trumpeter of Saint Andéol,” a town a few kilometers south of Lyons, assembled the citizens of Lyons and performed in front of the King of France.166 Announcing the arrival of nobility continued to be an important function of the trumpeters of Fourvière later in the fifteenth century, and additional trumpet players were recruited from outside of Lyons for this purpose as well. For a royal entry in 1493, a long-time member of the watch, Jean du Pre, was paid to travel to Montbrison, a town located 70 kilometers to the southwest of Lyons, to acquire three additional trumpeters to perform for a total of eighteen days in a royal entry and celebration for the Queen of France, Anne of Bretagne.167 During the French invasion of Naples in 1494–5, Charles VIII made Lyons his base of operations, and the queen often stayed in Lyons when the king was in Italy. The town of Montbrison was smaller than Lyons, never reaching a population of 6,000; it was, however, a commercial center that obtained a fair in 1308, drawing some wealthy families, including a group of Lombards, who established a flourishing bank. Furthermore, Montbrison was the first city in the region to acquire a city council, which occurred in 1223, 100 years earlier than in Lyons. While smaller than Lyons, Montbrison had a history of political independence and wealth that evidently supported a strong tradition of trumpet playing.

164

165

166 167

Marie-Claude Guigue, Registres consulaires, vol. I, 72, “Ils ont passé un mandement de LV solz tourn. Deuz à Michiel Leclerc, habitant de Lion, pour la fasson d’un cornet de locton pour la gayte de Forvyère.” AML, CC 384, f. 201v, “a la trompeta qui assemblait los gens de la villa pour aler audevant de mons de bourbon lequel venut mercredi”; CC 387, f. 88v, 1392. AML, CC 384, ff. 335v–336, 1395. AML, CC 520, ff. 35v–36, “pour aller querir les trompetes a Montbrison et Treuls”; CC 527, No. 8, f. 16v, “ A Jehan Pra guete pour avoir este querir les trompetes et pour le sallaire desd trompetes 14 l. 10 s. t.” A trumpeter by the name of Jehan du Pre has been traced in the records from 1434 to 1493, a length of time suggesting that a son with the same name succeeded his father in the position.

Rhône-Alpes region

Since an important function of these trumpeters was to take part in ceremonies in honor of nobility, considerable expense was made for their livery and banners. As early as 1364, three robes were bought for the members of the watch, and while there is no indication that they were official livery, with their function in ceremony it is likely. In 1420, Mathieu de Lornage, trumpeter of Fourvière, received 5 ll. for a silver coat of arms that he was to wear when he performed before the dauphin, and in 1421 a silk banner with the coat of arms of the city was purchased for the trumpeter.168 This custom continued into the late fifteenth century, as in 1493, when a banner with the coat of arms of the city and official clothing were purchased for the trumpeters of Montbrison and Jean du Pre in honor of the queen’s arrival. These trumpeters also assumed the function of public crier at times as well, making official announcements. One member of the watch, Bartholomieu Bidon (1461–74), was paid specifically to publish decrees, as in Tours, alongside the Royal Sergeant.169 Many of the decrees were related to the fairs so important to Lyons’ economic prosperity, such as on May 21, 1489, when the renewal of Lyons’ privilege to hold fairs prompted a celebration and procession, which involved a mass at the Franciscan church, after which the town crier read the official letter to the sound of “three trumpets and six musical instruments.”170 As in Tours and Orléans, other than the regular payments to towertrumpeters, the rare references to musicians in the archives of Lyons are for elaborate and expensive receptions for nobility, particularly the King and Queen of France, symbolic of the city’s loyalty to the French crown. Planning for these events took months, and the deliberations of the city council offer details of preparation, such as the cleaning and decorating of the city, the clothing of participants in the procession, the lavish gifts for royalty, the theatrical tableaus to be staged, and to some degree the musicians to be hired. As a young man very early in his independent reign, King Charles VI traveled to important cities in the south of France in the fall of 1389, entering Lyons on October 14, reaching Avignon, where he met Pope Clement VII, two weeks later and grandly processing into Montpellier by mid-November. A chronicle description of his entry into Lyons reads,

168 169 170

E. Vial, “Costumes consulaires,” Revue d’histoire de Lyon 3 (1904): 48. AML, CC 431, 1467. AML, BB 19, f. 133v, cited by Marc Brésard, Les Foires de Lyon aux XVe et XVIe siècles (Paris: A. Picard, 1914), 341–2.

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In honor of nobility Overcome with joy, the inhabitants of this city welcomed their king! . . . The important townsmen came on horseback before him, all clothed in the same colors . . . At his entry in the city, he was received by four beautiful and noble maidens richly clothed and covered in gems; they carried a canopy of gold cloth under which they led him on foot to the palace of the archbishop . . . More than one thousand young children had been provided with royal clothes and distributed in the different corners of the city, on the galleries of wood, to make, at the passage of the King, loud acclamations in his honor. On this so long anticipated occasion, the inhabitants spent four days dancing and watching plays . . .171

While omitted from this chronicle description, three minstrels and three trumpeters were paid for the celebrations surrounding the king’s arrival, and banners, red clothes, and shoes were purchased for the musicians.172 Charles VII was particularly well received in Lyons, as he had granted two fairs to Lyons in 1420, which transformed the city into a commercial and cultural center at the crossroads of France, and he granted another in the 1440s. For his entry on 16 June, 1434, the deliberations of the city council of Lyons describe plans for an elaborate event with music. They read, “It is ordained that 300 of the most notable people of the city, minstrels, and trumpeters will be clothed in similar robes; the 300 people at their own expense, the minstrels’ and trumpeters’ at the expense of the city.”173 Royal entries later in the fifteenth century were elaborate affairs with allocations for expensive gifts, decorations, mystery plays of the nativity, and musicians, specifically trumpeters. The trumpeters were to wear white and red clothes that were bought for them at the expense of the city and to perform on rented horses in front of the king as he processed into town. The city council deliberations make clear, however, that there was not a predetermined trumpet ensemble that was on the payroll for such events or that even routinely filled this type of function. As established earlier, the trumpeters 171

172 173

Chronique du Religieux de Sainte-Denys, cited in Bernard Guenée and Françoise Leboux, Les Entrées royales françaises de 1328 à 1515 (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1968), 142–3, “Avec quels transports de joie les habitants de cette ville accueillirent leur roi! . . . Les bourgeois vinrent à cheval au devant de lui, tous vêtus des mêmes couleurs . . . A son entrée dans la ville, il fut reçu par quatre belles et nobles demoiselles richement parées et couvertes de pierreries; elles portaient un dais de drap d’or sous lequel elles le conduisirent à pas lents jusqu’au palais de l’archevêque . . . Plus de mille jeunes enfants avaient été vêtus d’habits royaux et distribués dans les différents carrefours de la ville, sur des galeries en bois, pour faire entendre, au passage du roi, des acclamations bruyantes en son honneur. À l’occasion de cette visite si longtemps désirée, les habitants passèrent quatre jours en bals et en divertissements de theatre.” AML, CC 379, f. 59v; CC 380, f. 103v; CC 382; CC 383, No. 41. AML, BB 3, f. 12, “Ilz ont ordonne que iiic des plu notables de la ville menestriers et trompetes seront vestus de semblables robes cest assavoir les iiic a leurs propres dispenses et lesd menestriers et trompetes aux despens communs.”

Rhône-Alpes region

who served the watch performed among these trumpeters, but frequently trumpeters needed to be sought elsewhere. In anticipation of the entry of King Louis XI in 1476, the city council made provisions for two trumpeters who should be “the best that one is able to find,” and for the entrance of Charles VIII of 1490, “the three best players” were sought for three days.174 For these royal entries, the only other payment to musicians was a monetary gift offered to the trumpeters of the king, who were, of course, paid more than the local musicians.175 In the detailed descriptions of music at such events in the sixteenth century, a regularly contracted ensemble specifically attached to the city continues to be missing. An important example is the famous and brilliant entry in 1548 of Henry II and Queen Catherine de Medici, at which the city of Lyons went to great lengths and acquired considerable debt to impress the royal party with its loyalty and support, and, in comparison to previous entries, lavish attention was paid to the music. According to the account books of Lyons, almost twenty trumpeters were paid for this occasion: five from Chambéry, a town approximately 90 kilometers to the east that was the capital of Savoy, three from Montbrison, as in the fifteenth century, five from the French royal court, and five from Lyons.176 A standard civic wind band does not appear to have been present, but rather the only reference to shawm players is to players of shawms and cornets organized by two members of the city council to perform at the city gates. Among the remaining instrumentalists were pipe and tabor players, some of whom were also from Montbrison. So while many musicians, who were provided with taffeta tunics, were part of this impressive event, the records do not indicate the existence of an official civic wind band. The banquets and other entertainment planned around the visits of royalty also seem to have created rare civic employment opportunities for musicians, including soft instrumentalists. In 1498 “the entrance of the Duke of Valentinois,” Cesare Borgia, an important general and statesman, who would accompany the King of France on his invasion of Italy in 1499, prompted the organization of special musical entertainment. A lute player and his three companions were hired to play on stage on the bridge over the Rhône River during the entrance of the duke, which was an important public space in Lyons with the chapel of the Holy Spirit. Two pipe and tabor players and a rebec player were specifically hired to accompany 174

175

AML, BB 13, “Item ont ordonné fere provision de deux trumpetes, les meilleurs que l’on pourra trouver, qui seront vestusz de blan et rouge aux despens de lad ville.” AML, CC 481, ff. 6v–7. 176 Dobbins, Music in Renaissance Lyons, 109.

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dances, identified as the “bergeres, bergidios, and morisque,” and one of the pipe and tabor players was paid extra to rehearse with the dancers of the moresque for the banquet.177 Five other instrumentalists were also hired to perform on the day of the banquet as well. For another such banquet five years later, a drummer, a rebec player, a lutenist, and an organist were paid “according to rates agreed by the town councilors” to perform at the residence of the archbishop in honor of the visit of the Count of Flanders.178 The employment offered to musicians by the city of Lyons is consistent with cities in central France, such as Tours and Orléans. The city of Lyons had close ties to the King of France and minimal political independence, and as a result the patronage of music focuses on reinforcing royal imagery. The only instrumentalists to receive regular civic employment were the towertrumpeters of Fourvières, who fulfilled duties primarily related to their function of guard. When other musicians were hired and offered clothing, it was for honoring royalty on a specific occasion, and they often were sought from nearby cities with no evidence pointing toward an official civic ensemble. In conclusion, the music was not as regularly subsidized by cities of central France as it generally was in the south of France, and it did not project an image of civic authority as it often did in the south. Within this overall pattern, however, musical practices varied significantly from city to city in central France. Châlons-en-Champagne and Reims sponsored music minimally, while Troyes, in contrast, offered regular subsidy to multiple musicians; Orléans, Tours, Lyons, and Dijon subsidized lavish musical events, but they were unusual occasions. The only official civic wind band identified in central France appeared in Troyes in the 1450s, approximately 100 years after the appearance of such an ensemble in Montpellier and Toulouse. Rather, cities in central France hired minstrels on an ad hoc basis for occasions in honor of nobility who served as symbols of royal, not civic, authority. Besides distinct practices surrounding minstrels, trumpet players who served as criers generally do not appear prominently in the civic records of central France, and in some cities, like Châlons-en-Champagne and Orléans, they are barely mentioned. The exception is Dijon, where finally in the fifteenth century the city’s request for a trumpeter was approved by the Duke of Burgundy. Furthermore, watchmen with inexpensive horns or trumpets performed

177

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AML, CC 537, f. 4v, “Ausd instrumens cestassavoir deux taborins et unus rebec qui ont servi aud eschauffault pour faire dances lesd bergeres et bergidios et ala morisque qui fut faicte le lendemain.” AML, CC 556, f. 8v.

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from bell-towers in central France and did not provide music in broader celebrations, as they did in southern cities. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the French kings developed rituals to reinforce and expand their image, during a period in which the existence of France was threatened. As Colette Beaune states, “the Valois kings developed a vibrant form of national propaganda designed to counteract their real loss of maneuverability.”179 In these cities in central France, music, which is a particularly powerful form of propaganda, was used in a way that honored and represented royalty, as well as curtailed the image of the city. An explanation for the more limited civic-supported music in central France, which tended to honor nobility, in comparison to southern France, lies in the cities’ close connections to the French crown, or, as in the case of Dijon, the Dukes of Burgundy, during a politically volatile period. Reflecting the lack of civic independence in the region, city councils developed over 100 years later than those in the south of France, therefore curtailing civic ritual, as well as fostering royal ritual. During this period when the nation and monarchy were under threat, the power of the French crown was projected through various images, including church paintings, stained glass, seals, and coins, but also pageantry with minstrels, such as mystery plays in Tours or royal receptions in Orléans.

179

Beaune, Birth of an Ideology, 313.

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For the honor and pleasure of the city: civic patronage in northern France

Images of northern French cities where minstrels congregated from all over Europe to exchange skills and repertoire and full wind bands performed from the top of belfries twice a day have been described by scholars for over the past 100 years. Unfortunately, the archives of northern French cities faced much greater destruction than elsewhere in France. Just as major battles of the Hundred Years’ War were fought at this crossroads of culture, this region was heavily bombarded by the major wars of the twentieth century. The city account books, which have served as an irreplaceable tool for establishing patterns of music patronage throughout France in this study, have been almost entirely destroyed for many cities in northern France, including Paris, Rouen, Beauvais, Tournai, Valenciennes, and Cambrai. As a result, in comparison to earlier discussions on patronage in southern and central France, this chapter addresses fewer cities, making broad comparisons and conclusions more conjectural.

Flanders: Lille, Saint-Omer, Tournai, Arras, and Douai

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The region of medieval Flanders, today northern France, Belgium, and the Low Countries, had the highest concentration of major urban centers in Western Europe outside of Italy. The principal towns of Flanders – Ghent, Bruges, Tournai, Ypres, Douai, Saint-Omer, and Lille – were concentrated in an area less than 100 kilometers wide. At the crossroads of France, Germany, and Britain, a culture based in trade resulted in one of the wealthiest and most urbanized areas in Europe. The economy of these strong commercial centers, which grew up quickly in the thirteenth century, was tied to the successful textile industry. Along with the acquisition of wealth and large populations, these cities acquired early and unmitigated independence from their often distant overlords. Despite the more limited state of the archives, scholarship on music in these northern cities is more extensive than cities elsewhere in France, as it tends to follow patterns of Flemish scholarship, not French. A significant number of Flemish historians pursued a patriotic interest in their musical

Flanders

history in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. As a result, this chapter appropriately draws upon this valuable and extensive scholarship, which might not offer historical context for civic patronage, but which puts forth a wide of array of documents. Edmond van der Straeten’s book on minstrels in the Low Countries from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries is the most wide-ranging study on the subject, pursuing the role of minstrels in over twenty cities.1 This strong scholarly foundation has facilitated important recent studies, such as Reinhard Strohm’s book Music in Late Medieval Bruges, in which the discussion of urban minstrels is based almost entirely upon documentation uncovered by earlier scholars. While valuable early studies on urban minstrels exist for Lille, SaintOmer, and other cities in southern Flanders, more recent scholarship on these cities has not addressed the medieval minstrel. As Keith Polk recently wrote, “Less information is currently available concerning the cities to the south of Flanders, partially due to the lack of interest on the part of modern scholars, and partially due to the destruction of much of the crucial source materials, esp. in the two world wars (archives in Cambrai, Tournai, and Valenciennes, for example, were totally wiped out).”2 Recently, scholars have focused on the large annual celebrations sponsored by cities in this region, addressing the political and social importance of these urban festivities, how they create a strong sense of civic pride, assert political authority, represent and negotiate urban hierarchy, and ultimately produce a social balance necessary for a successful commercial environment.3 The emblematic use and social significance of the music in these rituals, however, has not been addressed. Traditions of civic patronage in northern France are distinctive to the region, and in comparison to southern and central France, they demonstrate consistency from city to city.

Lille Lille was a leading cultural center in the French-speaking area of Flanders. While the estimates for the population of medieval Lille vary significantly, it 1 2

3

Van der Straeten, Les Ménestrels aux Pays-Bas. Keith Polk, “Susato and Instrumental Music in Flanders in the Sixteenth Century,” in Tielman Susato and the Music of His Time: Print Culture, Compositional Technique and Instrumental Music in the Renaissance, ed. Keith Polk (Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 2005), 91. Boone, “Urban Space and Political Conflict”; Alan Knight, “Guild Pageants and Urban Stability in Lille,” in Urban Theatre in the Low Countries, 1400–1625, ed. Elsa Strietman and Peter Happé (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), 187–208; Knight, “Processional Theatre and the Rituals of Social Unity in Lille,” in Drama and Community: People and Plays in Medieval Europe, ed. Alan Hindley, Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), 99–109.

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was one of the largest cities in Flanders. Estimates run as high as approximately 40,000 for 1300, though with the decimation of the Black Death and other common problems, by about 1450 the population was about 15,000.4 The rule of the Dukes of Burgundy (1384–1477) was a brilliant period in Lille’s history, as it served as one of the three capitals, along with Dijon and Brussels. Lille was chosen as the financial administrative center for the duchy, as it was a wealthy commercial center based on a high-quality wool trade, it was a short distance from Paris, and it was a principal city of French-speaking Flanders. It became the favorite royal residence of Philip the Good (r. 1419–67), who had a palace built in the city. Like other Flemish cities, Lille established privileges of self-government in the early twelfth century, with the first written charter granted in 1235.5 As a developed political entity, the twelve aldermen (échevins), known as Le Magistrat, held both administrative and judicial authority in the city, and their extensive legal jurisdiction involved all litigation for Lille citizens.6 The city government had considerable political autonomy and had control over the urban populace with responsibilities ranging from maintenance to festivals to security. The rich merchants who dominated the city aimed to create a stable political environment with a sense of balance in which commerce could flourish. Lille became detached from Flanders in the Franco-Flemish wars in the early fourteenth century and became directly part of the French domain from 1304 to 1369. It was under Flemish rule briefly between 1369 and 1384 before becoming part of the Duchy of Burgundy. Under Burgundian control, the city retained its political autonomy, but also recognized the significance of the duke’s success for the city’s flourishing status and wealth.7 The oldest account books from the early fourteenth century contain payments to waits (wetes) serving on a bell-tower, and by at least the middle of the century musicians clearly served in this position.8 These civic musicians were placed on the tower of Saint Étienne, a church serving the town’s 4

5 6

7 8

Alain Derville, “De 1300 à 1500: de grands malheurs ou de petits bonheurs,” in Histoire d’une metropole (Toulouse: Edouart Privat, 1977), 152; LouisTrénard, ed., Histoire de Lille (Lille: Giard, 1970–99), 199. Trénard reports only 25,000 for 1325, though both scholars report the same estimate for the mid-fifteenth century. Trénard, Histoire de Lille, 184. Robert Du Plessis, Lille and the Dutch Revolt: Urban Stability in an Era of Revolution, 1500–1582 (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 18. Trénard, Histoire de Lille, 221. The account books of Lille are very well preserved beginning in 1318. For this study, over onequarter of them distributed throughout the two centuries have been examined. The following registers were examined for this study: AMLi 16’ 012, 018, 021, 022, 052, 062, 073, 080, 081, 082, 083, 084, 085, 086, 088, 089, 090, 091, 092, 098, 106, 110, 115, 120, 128, 136, 137, 138, 146, 154,

Flanders

largest and wealthiest parish, a symbol of the financial success of the city.9 At the heart of medieval Lille, the city waits were strategically placed across from the town hall (halle échivinale) on the north corner of the central square of the city, known as the Grand Place, today a beautiful pedestrian area with a fountain and statue surrounded by large buildings and towers. Recognizing the symbolic use of space in Flemish towns, Marc Boone noted, “Urban townspeople had developed a highly articulated political space, marked by the presence of such symbolic buildings as city halls and belfries in and around which political statements could be made.”10 Music emanating from and filling these politically important spaces would have continually accentuated the hierarchy within the city and the independence that the city had been able to assert over its overlords. A central function of the waits throughout the end of the fifteenth century was to warn citizens of danger, particularly fires. An excerpt from an account book from 1395 reads, “To Wille Brezot, minstrel, for his salary having been on the bell-tower of Saint Étienne to announce the dangers of fire and other things that occur in the city.”11 Fire was a perpetual concern for the townspeople of Lille, who lived in extremely flammable houses constructed from reeds and trusses of straw. Even greater vigil with extended service was demanded of the waits at times. Risk increased during public festivities with frequent “fires of joy” (feux de joie), such as during the Festival of Lille, when the waits remained on duty for extended periods. For example, in 1385 the two waits were specifically requested to serve as watch three days on the tower during the festival “playing their instruments for the security of the city.”12 Obligations were also extended during times of greater threat from war, such as in October 1385, when extra compensation was offered to the waits for their work and service day and night “because of war” (cause des gheures). For the long nights on the tower, an essential annual provision for the minstrels, considering the cold and damp weather

9 10 11

12

164, 166, 167, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 186, 191, 196, 205, 209, 210, 215, 216, 219, 221, 224, 229. Léon Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels et joueurs d’instruments sermentés du XIVe au XVIIIe siècle (Lille: Imprimerie Lefebvre-Ducrocq, 1906), 122, “As wets . . . pour xxxviii jours kil furent ou clokier”; Scrive-Bertin, “Le Service des incendies à Lille à la fin du moyen-âge et pendant la Renaissance,” Bulletin de la Commission historique du Département du Nord 19 (1890): 198. The first confirmed musician in this position is Hanotin in 1376. Du Plessis, Lille and the Dutch Revolt, 5. Boone, “Urban Space and Political Conflict,” 630. AMLi, 16128, f. 27, “A Wille Brezot manestrel por sen sallaire davoir este ou cloquier saint estienene pour manifester les inconveniens des feux de mesquies et auts qui portoient advenir en le dicte ville, 36 ll.” AMLi, 16115, f. 35v, “jeuant de leurs instrumens pour le seurté de la ville.”

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in northern France, was a heavy coat worth the large sum of 45 ll.13 (A sum equal to the annual pensions of many city officials.) The waits performed daily from the tower both in the morning and in the evening, offering a regular and frequent reminder to all in the city of Lille’s wealth and importance, as it is noted regularly in the account books that these musical performances were an honorable reflection on the city. An account from 1433 indicates that Abreham Maillet and his companion minstrels provided “the watch (ghet) that is made most honorably during the day and at night playing instruments.”14 This was a demanding, and perhaps onerous, obligation for the waits, as it would have made them less mobile and able to play at festivities in other cities. In 1439, the city council reinforced the importance of this obligation and established a penalty if it was not fulfilled; they were to perform “well and notably in honor of the city” and if they did not, they would receive only half of their salary.15 The phrasing in the accounts from 1480 still indicate that this daily urban custom would have been a source of pride for the city of Lille throughout the fifteenth century, as in 1480 “the trumpet and minstrels were obligated on all days in the morning and in the evening at the bell-tower to play on the belfry well and notably at the honor of the city.”16 The twice-daily performances of the wind band might have become at times mundane to the townspeople, but it certainly must have conveyed a sense of security and well-being. While the central obligations of these watchmen/musicians remained constant throughout this period, their number increased.17 Until the last couple of decades of the fourteenth century, only one wait was offered an annual pension for serving in this position. By 1382, an additional wait was added to the city’s payroll, and two musicians would remain in this position for the next fifty years. In 1433, the number of waits expanded to three, and by 1450, four winter coats were purchased for the waits on the tower. 13

14

15

16

17

Scrive-Bertin, “Le Service des incendies,” 199, “A Micquel Draghet, trompette, pour son salaire d’avoir été Ghette au Beffroy pour magnifester les inconveniens des feux de mischief, si aulcuns fuissent advenus, avec robe et flassars (manteaux), pour un an fini le 25 septembre: 45 livres. Aux trois autres menestrels, meme somme.” AMLi, 16175, f. 50v, “le dit ghet fait plus honourablement tant ala journee come du soir manestrande.” A. de la Fons-Melicocq, “Les Menestrels de Lille aux XIVe, XVe et XVIe siècles,” Archives historiques et littéraires du nord de la France, et du midi de la Belgique, 3rd ser., 5 (1855): 61. AMLi, 16219, f. 53, “les trompette et menestrels por ci devant souloient et estoient tenuz tous les jours au matin a la cloche du jour et au vesper apres le vingeron de jouer sur le belfroy bien et notablement a lhonneur la ville.” It does not appear that the obligations of the wind band in Lille moved away from those of watchmen in the second half of the fifteenth century, a trend noted in other Flemish cities, such as Bruges and Malines.

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Throughout this period they were compensated well; an annual pension of 36 ll. for much of this period was similar to that of the valets at 32 ll., if significantly less than that of the clerks at 60 ll. This was approximately twice the wages that were offered the waits in Saint-Omer, Douai, or Amiens. The makeup of the instrumental ensemble is not designated, except for a single trumpet, though the others were most likely double reed instruments. In 1420, Abreham Maillet, who served in this position from at least 1410 until 1439, was identified as the “minstrel of the trumpet” (menestrel de le trompette), as well as a “master,” a term indicating a high degree of training and expertise. Abreham’s nephew, Pierre Parisis, also identified as a “minstrel of the trumpet,” replaced his uncle and remained in the position for over the next forty years. Next, Josse Speillart, who is described as having special skills as a trumpeter, took over the trumpet position and was given special financial enticement to remain in the city. In 1476, payment was provided “to help him to live, in the regard that he is an honest man, a strong expert in his style of trumpet, and by whom the city is honorably served, and who if by default of support, he planned to leave, abandon, the service of this city, it is with great difficulty one would be able to recover his equal.”18 The city of Saint-Omer successfully enticed him with offers of extra money, however, as he appears on the payroll of the city of Saint-Omer in 1477. After a short time, he returned to Lille and resumed service as a wait until 1485, but later in his career he moved again, this time to Bergen op Zoom. He clearly was a highly sought-after trumpet player, whose “style of trumpet” was likely that of the slide-trumpet. In the mid-fifteenth century, the member of the waits who was identified as the “minstrel of the trumpet” assumed additional obligations of sounding the bells on the belfry above the town hall.19 From 1439 on, records are consistent that bells were rung to announce dinner, an additional break, and vespers, punctuating and regulating the day for workers.20 It was always the trumpeter of the city waits who fulfilled these extra obligations and received the additional sum of 6 ll. 12 s.

18

19 20

Fons-Melicocq, “Les Menestrels de Lille,” 61, “pour lui aydier à vivre, en regard qu’il est home honneste, fort expert en son stil de trompette, et duquel la ville, est honnourablement servie, et que, se, par fault d’entretenement, il convenoit qu’il se partesist, delaissast, le service d’icelle ville, à grant difficulté l’on sauroit recouvrer son pareil.” Du Plessis, Lille and the Dutch Revolt, 5. Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels, 121 (1458), “A Pierre Paris, menestrel et trompette, un an avoir sonné les cloques des ouvriers du disner, du reson et la cloque des vespres aux heurs accoutumés 4 fl. Valant 6 l. 12 s.”

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In Lille, additional musicians joined the waits to perform in civic festivities. At least one musician, sometimes two, joined the waits to perform in broader festivities until the mid-fifteenth century, when the tower ensemble reached four members. For example, in 1382, two waits were contracted, and yet three minstrels were hired to perform in the major processions of Lille. In 1422, the two waits, Jorart Brezot and Abreham Maillet, formed the larger civic ensemble along with Mahieu Davenes and Lotard Cambier, two men who in previous years served as waits. In fact, Mahieu Davenne had served as a wait as early as 1382, suggesting that he was perhaps too old for the physically demanding job of wait, but could still perform in civic festivities. Two years later, in 1424, four minstrels “who were to serve in Epinette and other festivals” were given a silver insignia to wear; they were the two waits plus Lotard Cambier and Lotard Eighelin, a new addition to replace the very old Davenne.21 The waits received an annual pension for duties plus a winter coat, and then as members of the civic ensemble they received additional pay, a ceremonial coat, and a silver insignia to display in processions. With silver insignias and ceremonial coats, this ensemble would have served as an honorable image to represent the city.22 As the annual compensation for each wait was 36 ll., plus the expensive coat for 45 ll., it is easy to understand why the city did not want to place the full civic ensemble on the tower. Just as the city of Lille tried to entice Josse Speillart to remain in Lille, the city also offered special compensation to minstrels to serve in the larger civic ensemble. During the 1430s a special arrangement was offered to Jehan de Horlines to serve in this ensemble; in addition to his ceremonial coat, he was offered 12 ll. annually with the stipulation that he needed to reside in Lille.23 Without the twice-daily task of performing on the tower, the aldermen evidently could imagine a minstrel frequently leaving Lille in pursuit of jobs in nearby towns. This condition of the offer reveals that the city government wanted Jehan to be available regularly to perform in town, not just on special occasions. Jehan Lausiel, who was a minstrel from Tournai, a wellknown center for instrumentalists, was offered an incentive to come to Lille

21

22 23

Ibid., 124, “Le samedy ve jour de febvrier eschevins estans en grant nombre en la halle ont accordez a Abreham Maillet, trompette, Grart Bresot, Lotard Cambier et Lotard Eighelin, menestrels, de porter une ensigne dargent ou sont les armes de la ville pour designer quils sont menestrels de la dicte ville, et ce jusques au renvoy et a la voulente deschevins et pour ce qu’ils sont obligz de suivre l’Espinette et a aultres festes.” AMLi, 16180, f. 77v, “une enseigne armoye des armes dicelle ville pour honneur de le dicte ville.” AMLi, 16176, f. 40, “demourer et faire sa residence en ceste dicte ville.”

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in 1466, where he remained for a number of years in the service of the city.24 Besides offering extra compensation for highly skilled musicians, Lille supported minstrels to attend the minstrel schools to learn new skills and repertoire in such cities as Namur, Beauvais, and Cambrai. In 1436, the city specifically offered financial help to any of the minstrels of Lille “to help in support of their expenses, in going to the schools in Cambrai, for to learn some new chansons.”25 (See Table 3.1 for a list of musicians hired by the city with confirmed dates of their employment.) While it seems likely that the civic minstrels of Lille would have assumed a prominent role in the elaborate public ritual of the city, they appear in the account books for only a few events. The compensation of minstrels through annual pensions, with customary services not requiring any additional remuneration, could explain their appearance for a few events in the account books. It seems likely that their services were required on a regular basis if the aldermen wanted the civic minstrels who did not perform on the tower, like Jehan de Horlines, to reside in town. The two major civic celebrations of medieval Lille, Epinette and the Procession of Lille, which both epitomized the grand public ritual of Flemish cities, required extra expenditures involving the minstrels and are therefore documented in the account books. During the famous annual celebration of Epinette (The Small Thorn), the civic ensemble played a prominent role in creating a noble image of the bourgeois of Lille and glorifying the wealth of the city. For this series of feasts and jousts lasting for fifteen days, competitors came from all over the region as representatives of their city, including Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres, offering an opportunity for cities within the region to openly compete with one another. It originated in the first half of the thirteenth century with the acquisition of a fragment of the Crown of Thorns by the Dominicans in Lille, and it was celebrated in May until the fifteenth century, when it was moved to the carnival season by Philip the Good. Throughout its history, the festivities were closely associated with and strongly supported by royalty. Reflecting its fame, in 1338, when a ban was placed upon jousting tournaments throughout France by Philip VI, Epinette received exemption from the policy, and under Flemish rule from 1369 to 1384, the count

24 25

AMLi, 16205, f. 86v. Fons-Melicocq, “Les Menestrels de Lille,” 58, “à aucuns ménestrelz de Lille, pour aidier à supporter leurs despens, en allant aux escolles à Cambray, pour apprendre des nouvelles chanchons.”

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Table 3.1: Civic musicians of Lille, 1317–1500: dates of payment as civic musician Name

Title

Dates of Employment26

Jehan de Lome Jaguard Crier Tostre Hanotin Baudet Guilechon Jovenere Ronel Hennekin Pierart Davenne Mahieu Davenne Wille BrezotThomas Quevallet Lotard Cambier Abreham Maillet

Waitte Wette Menestrel Menestrel, Wete Menestrel Menestrel Ghisterne Manestrez Manestrez Wette Wette, Menestrel Wete, Manestrel Wette Wete, Manestrel Wette, Menestrel de la trompette Manestrel, Wette Menestrel Manestrel, Wette

1317 1359, 1363, 1365, 1366, 1367 1361, 1364 1361, 1363, 1364, 1368, 1376, 1380 1361, 1363, 1364, 1368 1363 1364 1368 1368 1382 1382, 1385, 1422 1395, 1400, 1401, 1404, 1405, 1409 1390 1395, 1400, 1401, 1404, 1405, 1410, 1422, 1424 1410, 1419, 1420, 1422, 1424, 1433, 1434, 1437, 1438, 1439 1420, 1422, 1423, 1424, 1433, 1434, 1437, 1439 1424 1433, 1434, 1437

Manestrel, Wette Menestrel, Wette Menestrel, Wette

1434, 1437, 1439, 1450 1438 1438 1439, 1450, 1455, 1466, 1470, 1471, 1476, 1477, 1480 1434, 1437, 1438, 1439 1450, 1455 1450, 1455 1455, 1466 1460, 1466, 1470, 1471 1466, 1470, 1471, 1476, 1477, 1480, 1491 1470, 1471, 1482, 1476, 1477, 1480, 1482 1476, 1477, 1480, 1482 1476, 1482, 1485 1482 1485, 1491 1491 1491

Jorart Brezot Lotard Eighelin Franchois de Thierry Wille le Clerc Pierart Brezot Pier Parisis Jehan de Horlines Jehan le Hugh Wille le Barre Jehan Lestevene Jean Le Thierry Jehan Lausel Anthonin du Riez Loyset de le Barre Jaquem Goder Josse Speillart Johanin Ranetier Miguel Draguet Collart Lebel Jehan Willimars

26

Menestrel Menestrel, Wette Menestrel, Wette Menestrel, Wette Menestrel, Ghette Menestrel, Ghette Menestrel, Ghette Menestrel, Ghette Menestrel, Ghette Trompette, Ghette Trompette, Ghette Trompette, Ghette Menestrel Menestrel

These are the dates of confirmed employment. They most likely were hired during intervening years as well.

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appeared regularly at Epinette.27 Under Burgundian rule, the patronage of the duke was essential for the success of the festival, and in turn it fostered essential popular sentiment for the duke.28 Without disruptions from war or plagues it continued until 1488 when the extravagant sums of money spent upon the celebration began to cause concern, with friars and theologians voicing unease over the excessive tax levies on the poor, as well as the resulting “vanity and lechery.”29 Besides being important to royalty, Epinette brought great prestige to the city of Lille and emphasized the wealth, power, and autonomy of its citizens, particularly the urban patriciate, who assumed the central role of royalty at these events.30 With long and colorful swathes of cloth draping from the windows and torches illuminating the streets, the town hall and its surrounding area was the center for banquets and jousting. The festival began with the election of a new king, selected from the urban patriciate and honored with a newly designed coat of arms, and a luxurious banquet and procession were staged to celebrate the investiture and consecration of the king.31 An elaborate entrance of the jousters was a highlight of the festivities, and the new king presided over the tournament with audience members as powerful as the King of France. The civic musicians had such extensive musical obligations and opportunities throughout Epinette that, when these elaborate festivities were terminated at the end of the fifteenth century, the minstrels complained to the city council that this development strongly affected their ability to support themselves.32 One role of the civic waits by at least 1385 was to serve longer hours as watch and perform from the bell-tower of Saint Etienne during three to five days of the festivities. By 1436, the larger civic ensemble served in this capacity, so an ensemble like the one in service of the Duke of Burgundy would have been heard radiating from the central political space of the city. In addition, the civic ensemble participated in the investiture banquet, as well as the following procession, along with a costumed 27

28

29

30 31

32

Évelyne van den Neste, Tournois, joutes, pas d’armes dans les villes de Flandre à la fin du Moyen Âge (1300–1486) (Paris: École des chartes, 1996), 200. Peter Arnade, “City, State and Public Ritual in the Late-Medieval Burgundian Netherlands,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 39 (1977): 312. Andrew Brown, “Urban Jousts in the Later Middle Ages: The White Bear of Bruges,” Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 78 (2000): 315–16. Van den Neste, Tournois, joutes, 187 and 201. Brown, “Urban Jousts,” 315. Periodically in the fifteenth century, the newly elected king refused his title as the “King of Epinette” because of the financial obligations attached to it. Trénard, Histoire de Lille, 227. Fons-Melicocq, “Les Menestrels de Lille,” 60; Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels, 7.

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character called “Epinette.” A description from 1496 reads, “To Espinette and the four minstrels and the trumpet for salary having played at the dinner and gone in the street with the king of the Espinette.”33 They would have been an essential component in creating an image of a royal reception, and it would have been noted by the many spectators that both the image and sound of this ensemble were identical to that of the Duke of Burgundy. The jousters entered with an elaborate pageant, with the minstrels and trumpets in the lead.34 At the end of the pageant were tableaux vivants often in general praise of the city, as in the tableau in 1442, when the impression was created that eight women were playing musical instruments by hiding professional minstrels within the chariot.35 As the King of Epinette assumed the air of royalty, these townswomen assumed the air of the learned noblewomen with sophisticated musical skills. Assuming the role of cultural patron, Lille brought in additional musicians for these tournaments, such as in 1400, when a messenger was sent to Tournai to hire two “minstrels of the trumpet” or in 1482 when payment was made to “four companion minstrels from the city of Paris for honor of the days of the past tournament” who “found themselves in front of the city council and played their instruments very melodiously.”36 During the celebration of Epinette, music was integral to the creation of the image of the patriciate of Lille as royalty. The civic ensemble of Lille also accentuated the symbolism of the Grand Procession of Lille, which was celebrated on the octave of Trinity Sunday in June. It was founded by Countess Margaret of Flanders in 1270, earlier than the celebration of the Corpus Christi Procession in Lille and much more elaborate. Organized under the auspice of the collegiate church of Saint Peter, it not only honored the Virgin, but also attracted pilgrims who helped finance the reconstruction of the church. The procession involved a large segment of the city’s population and was intentionally constructed to encourage full participation of the community. The standard arrangement for the procession included military orders, guilds, confraternities, pilgrims, city officials, clergy, and then finally the shrines and reliquaries of the Virgin Mary, which were the focal point of the 33

34 36

Claude Fouret, “La Violence en fête: la course de l’Epinette à Lille à la fin du Moyen Âge,” Revue du Nord 63 (1981): 379, “A Espinette et quatre menestrels et le trompette pour leur salaire d’avoir jeu au dict disner et aller aux rues avecq le roy de l’Espinette.” Van den Neste, Tournois, joutes, 89. 35 Fouret, “La Violence en fête,” 380. Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels, 55, “Donne en courtoisie a quatre compaignons menestrels de la ville de Paris, pour honneur de ce que es jours des joustes du Behourt darrainement passé . . . ils se trouverent devers lesdits eshcevins et juerent de leurs instrumens tres melodieusement ii escus d’or qui vallent vii l.”

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procession. The members of the city council determined the placement of the guilds and confraternities, which could total over fifty, as the coveted and prestigious spots were closer to the relics of the Virgin Mary. As Alan Knight noted, “such processions provided the inhabitants of Lille with a vision of the ideal city as a unified and harmonious community.”37 Already by at least the first half of the fourteenth century musicians were given a prominent role in the procession, performing directly in front of the relics of the Virgin to focus attention on the sacred culmination of the procession. It was customary for the civic ensemble of Lille to be employed in this function, as well as other musicians. For example, in 1361, the three civic minstrels were compensated for playing “before the relics,” and a gittern player was hired to perform in the same position, though he only received one-quarter the wages of each of the minstrels.38 In 1364, the same three civic minstrels assumed their standard location before the relics, but this year two minstrels from Douai were brought in to play the trumpet before the relics, and were paid twice the wages of the minstrels. It became customary well into the fifteenth century for the civic ensemble of Lille and two outside trumpeters to perform, particularly trumpeters from Tournai.39 These trumpeters performed not only in the processions, but also at the banquet, as in 1481 two trumpeters were brought in from Ghent to play before the city council at dinner.40 Reflecting the importance of this event, and the role of the musicians to perform “in honor of the city,” a short formal coat was given to the members of the civic ensemble to wear for these festivities. Another annual expense was red pennons with silver fleursde-lys, which was the coat of arms of the city, and silk fringes, to place on the musical instruments and to surround the relics.41 The minstrels also customarily received a tip in the form of white wine, which is diligently noted each year in the accounts, to be drunk after the procession.42 Clearly, the musicians served as a symbol of civic pride, and musicians from other cities would have contributed to the general grandeur of the occasion and presented the image of Lille as patron. As Knight writes in his discussion of pageantry in Lille, “It is perhaps impossible to visualize completely this enormous parade winding through the streets and squares of the city, but

37 39 41

42

Knight, “Processional Theatre,” 104. 38 Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels, 122. AMLi, 16136, f. 79, 1400. 40 Fons-Melicocq, “Les Menestrels de Lille,” 63. A. de la Fons-Melicocq, “La Procession de Lille aux XIVe, XVe et XVIe siècles,” Archives historiques et littéraires du nord de la France, et du midi de la Belgique, 3rd ser., 5 (1885): 369–79; AMLi, 16128, f. 61. Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels, 122.

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one can at least grasp some measure of the scale and grandeur of the late medieval Lille procession.”43 The procession of Corpus Christi was overshadowed by the Procession of Lille, which followed three days later. After originating in the diocese of Liège and then extending to the entire church in 1264, Corpus Christi was celebrated by 1283 in Lille, and a procession appeared in the course of the fourteenth century.44 By at least the early fifteenth century, the civic ensemble assumed a regular performing role during the Corpus Christi procession, as the coats and the banners were purchased for both the Procession of Lille, as well as the Corpus Christi Procession.45 Both daily performances from a central belfry and highlighted musical roles in elaborate urban ritual would have directly enhanced the image of a wealthy and independent city, but as a Burgundian capital with a favorite palace, it was also essential for Lille to project an image of a strong supporter of the dukes; their wealth and success depended upon it. Medieval royalty traveled from city to city, marking their territory and reinforcing their power. The Burgundian court, which did not have the full legitimacy of a monarchy, between 1419 and 1477 made over 200 entries into cities.46 Both sides approached these receptions as staged representations of their complex political relationships. Referring to these events, Arnade wrote, “It was an arena, in sum, characterized by a robust civic sphere where townspeople both accommodated, often begrudgingly, a Burgundian presence and clung tenaciously to a competing set of political and cultural conventions.”47 In Lille, minstrels are rarely paid for royal entries, the only explanation being that their large pension of 36 ll. covered this assumed obligation. A few exceptional entries exist: when under French rule, in 1355, the city minstrels played at the bell-tower and at the hall when King John the Good arrived in the city; when under Flemish rule, in 1381, the minstrels went to greet the Count of Flanders in a nearby town; and when under Burgundian rule, in 1466, the city paid a special sum to the minstrels for performing for a festival that was in honor of the peace of Liège and the joyous return of the Duke of Burgundy. Civic musicians also participated in military expeditions, demonstrating the city’s political alliance with royalty. Much more so than in other areas of France, the civic minstrels in Lille, located at the heart of the Hundred Years’ War, were frequently used to accompany military campaigns. Their participation was frequent enough to have been an important source of income. 43 45

46

Knight, “Guild Pageants,” 194. 44 Trénard, Histoire de Lille, 355. AMLi, 16175, f. 79, 1433, “Item quil a paye pour 1 menestrel de le trompette et iii auts menestrels de juerent de leurs instrumens aux die sacrement et process . . . 40 s.” Arnade Arnade, “City, State and Public Ritual,” 305. 47 Ibid., 304.

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For example, towards the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War in 1338, two minstrels accompanied soldiers from Lille to Saint Valery nearby on the Picardy coast.48 Two minstrels are periodically paid during the midfourteenth century to accompany soldiers to nearby cities, such as Calais, Saint Valery, and Pont-à-Vendin. In 1418, three minstrels and one trumpeter, certainly the civic ensemble, played their instruments before the crossbowmen sent by the city to serve the king and duke in the resistance of the English at the siege in Rouen.49 The frequency with which they participated in these military campaigns raises the question of how often the full complement of waits would have been heard on top of the belfry, instead of just a subset. The city of Lille allocated substantial expenditures for music, which held a visually and audibly prominent place in the urban setting of this large and wealthy capital of Burgundy. The sound of a wind band, most likely a trumpet and two or three shawms, emanated from the bell-tower of Saint Étienne twice a day, marking the central commercial square and asserting an image of civic authority. These regular performances were not specifically associated with the city government and would have lent honor to the city as a whole, as indicated in the account books. The civic wind band held a prominent role in the large urban festivities of Epinette and the Procession of Lille and contributed to the complex multi-layered imagery of these events, not simply drawing attention to the city council. In this important capital of Burgundy, the minstrels also participated in royal receptions and military campaigns to demonstrate political alliances.

Saint-Omer The citizens of Saint-Omer, another large city in French-speaking Flanders during the late Middle Ages, witnessed musical events in the streets which would have been unsurpassed anywhere in Europe. As a long-time center of international trade and exchange, international minstrel schools, organized in part by the local minstrels, were held at least seven times in Saint-Omer during the 1420s and ’30s. These remarkable conferences of musicians attracted many skilled performers from great distances who exchanged techniques, repertoire, and instruments. In addition to these informal 48 49

Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels, 122. Ibid., “En aout 1418, a Jehan de Beaurepaire qu’il a paié que done en courtoisie a iii menestrels et 1 trompette qui juèrent de leurs instrumens devant les arbalestriers envoiés par la ville au service du roi et de notre tres redoubté seigneur le duc en leur armée mise sus pour résister contre les Englois estant à siège devant Roen.”

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interchanges between minstrels on the streets of Saint-Omer, the celebrations connected to the Dukes of Burgundy would have led to highly organized and choreographed musical events. The festivities surrounding the Order of the Golden Fleece in the presence of Phillip the Good in 1440 and 1461, which included sacred ceremonies, banquets, jousts, and processions, unfolded at the abbey of Saint Bertin in Saint-Omer. This type of meeting in 1501 in Brussels was described as twelve trumpeters welcoming the nobility and announcing courses at banquets, with the final banquet marked by “the sounds of trumpets, shawms, nakers, tabors, and every kind of instrument, in such a manner that it sounded like an earthquake.”50 Due to Saint-Omer’s location on territorial borders during the Middle Ages (today only twenty kilometers from the border of Belgium), loyalties fluctuated between Flanders and France, and the city is noted today for its Flemish heritage and architecture. The town of Saint-Omer grew up slowly in the second half of the ninth century around the wealthy and important Benedictine Monastery of Saint Bertin established two centuries earlier. The protection offered by marshes and heavy woods on three sides and the construction of a nearby castle by the Count of Flanders contributed to Saint-Omer’s emergence as an important market.51 With the acquisition of the rights to a fair by the year 1000 and the construction of a canal on the Aa River between Saint-Omer and the North Sea, the city became a center for international trade by the mid-eleventh century. Already by 1127 the city was given a communal charter, the first town to receive a charter of privileges from the Count of Flanders, and under the perpetual absence of the Counts of Artois during the thirteenth century Saint-Omer gained independence; the city council had control over jurisdiction on all levels, oversaw the police, and administered the accounts, which totaled over 20,000 ll., more than the revenue of the count.52 Saint-Omer not only experienced economic prosperity and urban independence, but also a period of peace, and the city’s population grew from 12,000 at the beginning of the thirteenth century to 35,000 by the end.53 As was common, the plague devastated the city in the second half of the fourteenth century, and the

50

51

52 53

William Prizer, “Music and Ceremonial in the Low Countries: Philip the Fair and the Order of the Golden Fleece,” Early Music History 5 (1985): 124. Marci Sortor, “Saint Omer and Its Region, Changes in Market Structure and the Regional Economy in Northern France and Flanders in the Late Middle Ages” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 1988), 26. Alain Derville, Histoire de Saint-Omer (Lille: Presses universitaires de Lille, 1981), 49. Ibid., 29.

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population in the early fifteenth century was 15,000, only slightly smaller than Saint-Omer’s population today.54 While the Anglo-Flemish challenged the French at Saint-Omer in an early battle of the Hundred Years’ War, the city remained a part of France until 1382, when it was reunited with Flanders and a few years later came under the control of the Duke of Burgundy, who became the Count of Flanders and Artois and would continue rule over the city until the end of the fifteenth century. While the identity of Saint-Omer fluctuated, the “trend of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was one of increasing association with the north.”55 By the second half of the fourteenth century, the population, language, and currency were Flemish, and the city was much better connected to Flemish trade. In the early fifteenth century, Saint-Omer actively sought to acquire the rights and privileges of Ghent and Bruges, the two major cities of Flanders.56 Not until 1677, under the reign of Louis XIV, did Saint-Omer return to the kingdom of France. The account books of Saint-Omer, the Comptes argentiers de Saint Omer, are well preserved for the fifteenth century, existing for each year beginning with 1412, though the lack of accounts from the fourteenth century disallows a discussion of patronage when Saint-Omer was at its demographic peak. Each register is systematically organized, with consistent categories of expenditures from year to year. Regular expenses attached to minstrels are located under the categories of livery for officers, trips and messengers, festivals, gifts and kindness in honor of the city, and common expenses.57 By at least the early fifteenth century, the city council of Saint-Omer offered an annual pension to a wind band of four members, and it is likely that musicians were on the payroll in the mid-fourteenth century based upon practices of surrounding cities. Their function as an official representative of the city, and specifically the city council, is reflected in their identification in the records as “the 4 waits of our council members” (iiii wettes de nos senhors), “minstrels of the city” (menestrez de le ville), or 54 57

Ibid., 74 and 84. 55 Sortor, “Saint Omer and Its Region,” 31. 56 Ibid., 32. Broad patterns of music patronage have been established through the examination of one-fifth of the accounts distributed throughout the fifteenth century, so undoubtedly valuable work remains to be done in these archives. The registers that have been examined for this study are for the following years: 1416–17, 1422–3, 1423–4, 1424–5, 1425–6, 1430–1, 1431–2, 1432–3, 1438–9, 1439–40, 1446–7, 1453–4, 1469–70, 1477–8, and 1495–6. Secondary sources by Justin de Pas and Pagart d’Hermansart contain many references to relevant archival sources. Justin de Pas, “Les Ménestrels et écoles de ménestrels à Saint-Omer (XVe et XVIe siècles),” in La Vie musicale dans les provinces françaises, vol. II (1937; reprint; Geneva: Minkoff Reprints, 1972), 173–84; Pagart d’Hermansart, “Extrait des comptes des argentiers de la ville de St. Omer du XVe s,” Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de la Morinie 27 (1901–2): 353–464.

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“waits and minstrels of the city” (wettes et menestrels de le ville).58 Explicitly acknowledging the connection of the minstrels to the image of the city, many of the payments to the civic wind band were under a category of “Expenses for the gifts and courtesies made for the honor of the city” (Despens pour dons et courtoises faiz pour honneur de la ville). The livery of city officers sheds light on their status within the city, as they were grouped into categories marked by particular color combinations. The most powerful group of city council members, bailiffs, and mayors were provided with black robes; the criminal clerk, master mason, master carpenter, master gardener, as well as others, were provided with black and red robes; the part-time and least well-paid group of minstrels, messengers, the master paver, the valet of the treasurer, the “king of the ribalds,” and “other officers of their sort” were provided with dark and light blue robes.59 As became customary practice in large Flemish cities, the official civic ensemble in Saint-Omer throughout the fifteenth century was the standard combination of a trumpet, probably a slide-trumpet, and three shawms. In 1432 the city of Saint-Omer provided money to the minstrels to purchase this combination of instruments; Hamselin, the “first wait and trumpet of the city” (premiere wette et trompette de le ville), was provided with money to purchase a new trumpet, and Jehan Batherel, “wait minstrel of the city” (wette menestrel de le ville), was to purchase “three good new shawms for himself and his companion waits.”60 The inclusion of a single trumpet in the ensemble is supported by payments for the celebration of Corpus Christi to multiple minstrels and a single trumpeter (menestrelz et trompecte), as well as by the lists of individual waits receiving annual pensions, which always included a single trumpeter. This combination of three shawms and one trumpet continues into the early sixteenth century, as in 1526–7 payment is made to “Jehan Ravelin trumpet, Oudart Haverloix, Raullequin Haverloix, Mahieu Haverloix, minstrels and waits of the city.”61 It seems possible that the trumpet at least later in the fifteenth century was a slide-trumpet, as the 58

59 60

61

In records pertaining to the celebration of the crossbowmen, the city musicians are identified as “waits” from 1416 to1431, as “waits and minstrels” in 1432, as only “minstrels” from 1438 to 1469, and more specifically as “minstrels and a trumpet” from 1477 until the end of the fifteenth century. D’Hermansart, “Extrait des comptes,” 130. AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1431–2. The same amount of money was allocated for the different types of instruments, 34 s. 3 d. for the trumpet and 102 s. 10 d. for the three shawms, which would have allowed for the purchase of “good” instruments. In 1469, a challemye was purchased by the city for a city minstrel for 16 s., this time not one of such high quality. Pas, “Les Ménestrels,” 177. Justin de Pas, “Les Escarwettes à livraison Saint Omer,” Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de la Morinie (1905): 605, 1526–7, “Jehan Ravelin trompette, Oudart Haverloix, Raullequin Haverloix, Mahieu Haverloix, menestriers et wettes de led ville.”

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trumpeter in the ensemble by 1477, Josse Spillart, was described as a “strong expert in his style of trumpet.”62 The identification of minstrels as waits (wettes) is standard in Flemish cities, but how they functioned in matters of security in the city of SaintOmer, however, is not clearly defined in the records and remains ambiguous. Under “Ordinary pensions” in the account books, the individual names of the musicians and the wages are consistently listed, but with no indication of obligations. Omitted from these records is a description of the waits’ obligation to perform twice a day from a tower and to serve as watch at night, customary traditions in Lille and other cities in Flanders, though these tasks might be assumed with the use of the term “wait.” Raising further question around this practice, however, the city does not appear to have purchased heavy coats for the waits, a standard item for waits spending their nights on a tower in winter. In Saint-Omer a separate position existed for a watch (guet) who rang the bell, which was named Marie, on the tower of Saint-Denis to mark the beginning and ending of the work day and to signal for fires and danger.63 This likely did not replace the function of the waits “sounding watch,” however, as this is similar to the practice of sounding bells from the town hall to mark the work day in Lille. Extra tasks peripherally related to security seem to have fallen particularly to one of the civic musicians, the trumpet player, who was identified as the “first wait of the city” (premiere wette de le ville), tasks for which he received extra remuneration. The “first wait” announced when the members of the city watch were to take their posts in the evening and delivered supplies to each of them. In 1417, for example, minstrel and wait Jehan de Westandrene was paid “to inform the constables to be on watch each night of the year and to deliver to them their wood, charcoal, and candles.”64 The musician in this position also delivered bags of charcoal to the four majors every three months, as in 1439, when payment was made to “Jehan le Barre, called Hemselin, wait of the city for carrying to each of the four majors twelve sacks of charcoal, which is the custom . . . three sacks at Easter, Pentecost, All Saints, and Christmas.”65 These non-musical duties continued into the fifteenth century, as in 1460 Jehan le Barre, “first wait of the city,” continued 62 63 64

65

Fons-Melicocq, “Les Menestrels de Lille,” 61. D’Hermansart, “Extrait des comptes,” 126. AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1417–18, “A Jehan de Westrandene, pour faire savoir aux connestables de veiller toutes les nuits de lan et a yceulx baillier bos, carbons et candelles.” AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1439–40, “A Jehan le Barre dit Hemselin waicte de le ville pour avoir fait porter a messieurs les quatre maieurs a chacun xii sacs de carbon lesquelz ont acoustume . . . iii sacs a pasques, pentecoustes, toussains et noel.”

143

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“to inform the constables of the watch when to report to his tower each night of the year and to deliver charcoal and candles to the watch.”66 This designated musician also conducted basic maintenance on city buildings, including the town hall and a new shed, such as in 1460, when the first wait was given “payment and wages for the whole year of this account to have swept and kept clean the rooms and headquarters of the market-place.”67 The office of the first wait also involved summoning the ten jurors of the city to the marketplace, which was a duty that actually required performing a musical instrument. While the first wait assumed the majority of duties, all of the waits assumed such tasks at times; for example, on the day on which the members of the city council took office, all four musicians, along with five other officers, were in charge of wheelbarrowing the candles to the public scales, weighing them, and distributing them to each entitled person. The waits of Saint-Omer performed in processions and civic ritual, though, as in Lille, the account books do not record payments for each service, only their annual pensions and any additional payments for a service. As was common in cities in the south of France, the minstrels took part in ritual that marked the installation of the new city council in Saint-Omer on the Night of Epiphany on January 6, a holiday which appropriately honored the visitation of the Three Wise Men. A formal dinner was served in the evening for the members of the city council, the bailiff, the treasurer, the clerks, the sergeants, as well as other officers of the city.68 The city minstrels likely performed at some point in the evening, as they were in attendance and received wine on this occasion, along with other civic officers. Various forms of entertainment marked this event, such as the staging of plays and the rare civic employment of soft instrumentalists, such as in 1419, following the installation of the new council members, when players of the fiddle, lute, and gittern performed at a dinner at the mayor’s home.69 While the minstrels’ role in the celebration for the Night of Epiphany was specifically to honor the city council, in other events the minstrels enhanced the image of the city, as well as various groups within the city’s social structure. The celebration of the “Grand crossbowmen” (Grands arbalétriers) was held on May 1 of each year in Saint-Omer, and the participation of the minstrels 66

67

68 69

Pas, “Les Escarwettes,” 604, “savoir aux connestables du guet de veiller chacun à son tour par toutes les nuys de l’an et delivré carbons et candeilles aux veillans.” Ibid., “pour le salaire et gaiges de par tout l’an de ce compte avoir ramonnées et tenues nectes les chambres et offichines de le halle.” D’Hermansart, “Extrait des comptes,” 413. Pas, “Les Ménestrels,” 8, “à trois compaignons qui jouèrent l’un d’une vieille, l’autre d’un leu, l’autre d’une guisterne au disner qui se fit le nuit di XIIIe dernier passé après l’eschevinage renouvellé à l’ostel Mons le maieur . . . 5 s. 4 d.”

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is documented through an extra payment for the rental of horses for them. Such events were common throughout medieval towns and involved competitions to determine the best marksman, who would receive the royal title of the “King of the Crossbowmen” for the upcoming year. The crossbowmen of Saint-Omer, who numbered around 150, held special privileges and exemptions from civic duties, and this highly ritualized event with processions, banners, elaborate outfits, and gifts would have elevated their status within the city.70 Following the competition, the waits performed on horseback in front of the King of the Crossbowmen following a standard protocol for royal processions and contributing to the hierarchy within the city. As was standard, the account of 1416 reads, “to four waits of our members of the city council (senhors) for the rental of their horses who on the said day of May made their minstrelsy in front of the king of the grand crossbowmen, for this . . . 6 s. 10 d.”71 At times when the civic ensemble was absent, the city hired minstrels from nearby cities to fulfill the duty, such as in 1423, when the two minstrels of Dunkirk were asked to perform “their minstrelsy” in front of the King of the Crossbowmen on this day, as the wind band of Saint-Omer was absent.72 The event would have drawn competitors and spectators from all over the region and would have reflected well on the organization of the city.73 The franquefeste, or “free celebration,” was held for multiple days around the feast day of Saint Michel on 29 September in Saint-Omer and consisted of a fair at which the town’s inhabitants, as well as foreigners, could freely sell their goods following the recent harvest. Over 3,000 carts with wares ranging from food to coats, hats, and shirts entered SaintOmer on these occasions.74 At these market days, the civic pride of Saint-Omer was evident to the visitors from all over the region in banners that displayed both the coat of arms of the city and those of the Duke of Burgundy and in hundreds of discs which were carved with images of both Saint Michel and the city. Contributing to the economic and political splendor of the occasion, the city council would take part in a procession into a chapel located near the central market during which the city minstrels would “carry their candle in the chapel . . . before the

70 71

72

73

74

Derville, Histoire de Saint-Omer, 75. AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1416–17, “Aux iiii wettes de nos senhors pour le louage de leurs chevaux qui le dit jour de may juerent de leurs menestrandises devant le Roy des grans arbalests.” AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1423, “A deux menestrelz de dunquerque pour au jue de menestrandise devant le Roy des gran arbalestz.” Ralph Payne-Gallwey, The Book of the Crossbow (1903; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1995), 227. D’Hermansart, “Extrait des comptes,” 403.

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imagery of Notre Dame.”75 The city minstrels are meticulously identified by name in the entries concerning franque feste and are offered extra compensation as “minstrels and trumpets, who trumpeted and played wind instruments (cornerent) at the said celebration, as is the custom for 12 s.”76 More explicit records from the mid-sixteenth century specify that the trumpets and minstrels had the intensive obligation of performing two times each day at a chapel near the market during the entire festival, which was custom at Flemish festivals and fairs and could explain the compensation beyond the annual pension.77 At times, additional musicians participated, such as in 1453, when two foreign minstrels were paid the sizeable sum of 48 s. for playing their wind instruments at the celebrations. At these annual events, the minstrels contributed specifically to the honor of the city council and city by greeting visitors who came from all over the region. Like so many cities in France, Corpus Christi was celebrated in SaintOmer with the display of the sacrament in a processional through the city streets. As was typical, the hierarchy of the city was also on display with the professional organizations and confraternities central to the event, staging plays before and after the procession and participating in the procession with specially commissioned candles.78 Throughout the fifteenth century, the civic wind band performed at the front of the procession and was regularly offered an additional gift of wine for its participation. A representative entry in the account book of 1453–4 reads, “To the trumpet and minstrels of the city given to them in courtesy for the day of Saint Sacrement . . . they played their minstrelsy in front of the general procession as is the custom, 10 s.”79 The city of Saint-Omer also subsidized musicians to accompany military expeditions in the early fifteenth century, with its close proximity to major battles, which demonstrated the city’s political allegiance to the Duke of Burgundy. One of the city waits of Saint-Omer, Jehan Poulain, was among the casualties of the famous Battle of Agincourt in the fall of 1415, which 75

76

77 78

79

AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1416–17, “ilz porterent leur candeille . . . devant limagerie notre dame.” AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1417–18, “A Jehan de Westandrenne, Estienne Le Conte, Andrieu la Boc pour Pierre Faynient, Pierre de Noefgardin dit Affiquet, menestreux et trompettes, qui tromperent et cornerent a le dicte feste, comme il est accoutume a chascun 12 s.” Pas, “Les Ménestrels,” 4. Edmund Bowles, “Musical Instruments in the Medieval Corpus Christi Procession,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 17 (1964): 251–60; Justin de Pas, Mystères et jeux scéniques à Saint Omer aux XVe et XVIe siècles (Lille: Imprimerie Lefebvre-Ducrocq, 1913), 3. AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1453–4, “Aux trompecte et menestrelz de la ville a eulz donne en courtoise pour ce que le jour du Saint Sacrament . . . ilz juerent de leurs menestrandises devant le procession generalle comme il est accoustume . . . 10 s.”

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took place to the southeast of Saint-Omer. This battle, in which the French suffered severe losses, marked a new phase in the Hundred Years’ War during which England encroached further into French-held lands. The Battle of Agincourt proved not only detrimental to the French, but also to Jehan’s trumpet, which on this occasion was fitted with red taffeta banners with white silk fringes and the arms of the city. Providing unusual detail, the city account from the following October reads, “To Jehan Poulain, minstrel and wait of the city, who was sent with the archers and crossbowmen of this city to the battle in Agincourt, in which he had great harm and lost his trumpet and other things, which is why presently he bought two new ones, one for war and the other for peace.”80 Jehan had many opportunities to use his new warfare trumpet during the following year, such as when he accompanied troops for six days to nearby Eperlecques. Another civic minstrel, Pierre Faiment, went on multiple expeditions with troops serving the Duke of Burgundy during the Civil War, such as in 1414, when he traveled on horseback to nearby cities of Faukenberghe and Fruges to serve Hector de Saveuses, who distinguished himself that year at the Siege of Arras, or in 1416, when he and royal Burgundian minstrels accompanied troops to nearby Calais. In 1458, two of Saint-Omer’s city waits traveled over fifty kilometers to Boulogne-sur-Mer with a group of armed men and the future Louis XI, who received support from the Duke of Burgundy, after being deprived of the dauphiné by his father. On this occasion, four archers and Jehan de Croix, minstrel and trumpeter, traveled “on horseback from this city to Boulogne with many other important people and men of war who accompanied the Dauphin to the pilgrimage which was to the said place of Boulogne where they remained for four days.”81 As true elsewhere in France, the civic-employed musicians in Saint-Omer frequently served as messengers. These could be fairly extensive trips, as in a 1413 payment when “Jehan Poulain, wait of the city,” was paid “for three days on horseback having gone and returned two times from the city of Ayre (Baumetz-les-Aire kilometers south of Saint-Omer), carrying letters from the city council to Mons. de Croy,” or in 1426, when Jehan Baterel,

80

81

Pas, “Les Ménestrels,” 174, “A Jehan Poulan, ménestrel et wette de la ville qui fu envoyés avecq les archiers et arbalets de ceste v. à la bataille à Aisincourt, en quoy il eut grant domage et y perdi se trompete et autres coses, pour quoy de présent il en a accaté deux nouvelles, lune pour guerre et lautre pour le paix.” AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1458–9, “decheval de ceste ville a Boulloigne avec pluseurs autres seigneurs et gens de guerre qui accompaignerent monseigneur le Dolphin pellerinage qu’il fit audit lieu de Boulloigne ou ils vaquerent par quatre jours.”

147

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wait and minstrel of the city, was sent as a messenger for the city council over eighty kilometers to the city of Bruges.82 Musicians of Saint-Omer also performed for the Duke of Burgundy in other capacities. The city waits and minstrels performed in welcoming receptions, as did soft instrumentalists, such as in 1480, on a return trip from England, traveling through Calais and Saint-Omer, the Duchess of Burgundy was entertained by “numerous minstrels, players of harps, of lutes and other instruments” at a dinner following her arrival.83 In addition, the Duke of Burgundy, who already had numerous highly skilled musicians in his employ, offered extensive patronage to the civic ensemble of SaintOmer. In 1416 two city minstrels were not available for the franquefeste because they were in the service of the Duke John the Fearless. In 1438–9, the city of Saint-Omer considered docking the pay of the minstrels due to the number of days they were absent while in service at the residence of the Duke of Burgundy. The account reads, “To the four waits of the city for consideration of the diminution of their pension . . . as for the work that they have had for many days and nights in the service of their profession of minstrelsy at the residence of the Duke and Monsieur Charolais.”84 Such employment of city minstrels by nobility has been documented only rarely in France, such as the wind band of Montpellier working for the Count of Clermont. Pierre Faynient, who served as a “first wait” from at least 1413 to 1426, is a good example of how a person in this position performed multiple functions and traveled extensively. Pierre attended the minstrel schools with colleagues on numerous occasions in Saint-Omer, as well as in Beauvais, Bruges, and elsewhere. When the schools were in Saint-Omer, he helped organize them with the same colleagues he had for over ten years, one being his son. In addition to the standard performance obligations in the city, he was often in the service of the Duke of Burgundy on military expeditions and as a messenger. Additional income came in through cleaning civic buildings and stocking and distributing supplies. His skills were valued by 82

83

84

D’Hermansart, Les Anciennes Communautés d’arts et métiers à Saint-Omer, Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de la Morinie, vol. 16 (Saint-Omer: Fleury-Lamaire, 1876–9), 396, “A Jehan Poulain, wette de le ville, pour III jours de cheval, aiant demourant et retournant par deux fois de ceste ville à Ayre, portans lettres de par Noss. à Mons. de Croy.” For the entry of the duke into Saint-Omer in 1421, the city offered payment to “the waits and minstrels of the city.” Ibid., 417. Justin de Pas, Entrées et réceptions de souverains et gouverneurs d’Artois à Saint-Omer, XVe, XVIe, et XVIIe siècles (Saint Omer: H. d’Homont, 1908), 71. AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1438–9, “Aux quatre waictes de le ville . . . pour les labeurs que ilz ont eu en avoir par plusieurs journess et nuis ale servir de leur mestier de menestraudie es hotels de monseigneur le Duc et de monseigneur de Charolois . . .”

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149

Table 3.2: Waits of Saint-Omer, 1413–1500: dates of payment as wait Estevene le Conte: 1413, 1416, 1417, 1422, 1423, 1424, 1425 Pierre Faynient: 1413, 1415, 1416, 1417, 1423, 1424, 1425, 1426 Jehan de Westandrene: 1416, 1417, 1422 Ppraen le Roy: 1416 Jehan Poulain: 1413, 1416, 1436 Andrieu le Boc: 1416, 1417 Gilles David: 1416 Leuucque de Muelle: 1422 Pierre de Neufgardin dit Affiquet: 1417, 1422 Woutre le Clerc dit Fainient: 1423, 1424, 1425, 1430, 1431, 1432, 1438, 1439 Jehan Baterel: 1423, 1424, 1425, 1426, 1430, 1431, 1432, 1438, 1439, 1446, 1453 Jehan le Barre dit Hainselin: 1423, 1424, 1425, 1426, 1430, 1431, 1432, 1438, 1439, 1446, 1453, 1460 Pierre Coqui: 1430, 1431, 1432, 1433 Henre van Hartinghe: 1438, 1439 Gillet de Troyes: 1446, 1453 Gilles de Hellmes: 1446, 1453, 1460, 1469, 1477 Coppin le Bacre: 1453, 1460 Thomas Franchois: 1446 Jacques le Barre du Copperan: 1469, 1477, 1495 Guille de la Barrie: 1469, 1477 Jehan de Croix: 1458, 1460, 1469 Ostequm Deughieu: 1469 Josse Spillart: 1477 Jehan dit Chouranit: 1495 Oudart Hanorbres: 1495 Anthonin Huichier: 1495

the city, as in 1426 he had gone to Bruges to work, and the city offered him a substantial payment to return to Saint-Omer.85 The city of Saint-Omer compensated the musicians fairly based upon regional standards, and individuals served in these capacities for extended periods of time. (See Table 3.2 for a list of civic musicians in Saint-Omer and the years of confirmed payment to them.) Each member of the wind band received an annual pension throughout the century which remained constant at 16 ll., making them among the better-paid minor officers of the city; while the clerk of the treasurer at 40 ll. and the sergeants at 21 ll. received higher compensation, the messengers and the “king of the ribalds” at only 10 ll. received significantly less than the minstrels.86 (This is less than half of the pension of waits in Lille, but comparable to those in Arras and Douai.) 85

AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1425–6.

86

D’Hermansart, “Extrait des comptes,” 385.

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Their wages were comparable to those for approximately 100 days of labor by a mason and 160 days of labor by an unskilled laborer, suggesting that they had substantial obligations to the city, but certainly their work was not considered full-time employment.87 In addition, they all received allotments of wine throughout the year, such as at the installation of the city council, Easter, and Christmas. If a minstrel was unable to work due to illness, a temporary replacement was hired. In the 1430s, Pierre Coqui received special charity from the city for almost a year due to extended illness, even though he had been in the service of the city for less than five years, and Jehan Baterel, who served in this position for over twenty years and was identified as being the oldest and frailest of the waits, needed a temporary replacement twice during his career. Special treatment was offered to individuals with coveted skills, such as the trumpet player Josse Spillart. In 1477, for “many extraordinary services” which he had provided to the city, Josse was given 36 s. to help with the rental of his home.88 Unfortunately, the city of Saint-Omer could not keep hold of him. He returned to his home city of Lille, where he was also offered special arrangements. As a large city in close proximity to the minstrel schools, the city of SaintOmer offered unusually extensive financial assistance to a variety of minstrels to attend these events. On at least thirteen occasions from 1413 to 1441, the city of Saint-Omer offered extensive patronage to their own civic musicians to attend schools, allowing their minstrels to stay current with repertoire, skills, and instruments. As a demonstration of loyalty and allegiance, the city also offered financial assistance to the minstrels of at least ten noble families in the area to attend school in Saint-Omer and elsewhere.89 The minstrels who received the greatest support from the city of Saint-Omer were those of the Croy family, which rose to prominence under the Dukes of Burgundy and was one of the most distinguished households in Flanders and Artois. The city of Saint-Omer also offered support to musicians of other cities, reinforcing its relationship with close commercial centers. In 1431–2, for instance, the city of Saint-Omer offered support to minstrels of four noble families and the city of Dunkirk to attend school in Ypres. The city’s support would also help create a large body of skilled 87

88 89

The following are the wages for a day’s work: a carpenter 3 s. 6 d., a mason 3 s., an unskilled laborer 2 s. Ibid., 429. AMSO, Comptes argentiers, 1477–8. Assistance was provided to the following minstrels: Mons. de Croy, Mons. d’Antonius, Mons. de Fosseux, Vidame d’Amiens, Mons. de Neuville, le Conte de Sanguembque, Mons. de Lannoy, Comte de Faukenberghe, Mons. de Lalainy, Mons. Roubais, city of Dunkirk, city of Furnes.

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minstrels available for major civic events, like franquefeste, for which this area is so well known. In summary, as in Lille, the wealth and independence of Saint-Omer prompted the regular contracting of a wind band of shawms and a trumpeter. The minstrels were identified as waits and, though it is not stated in the records, most likely performed daily from a belfry. They also played prominent roles in large urban rituals, where they represented the city council, and more generally reflected well on the city. With their location at the crossroads of England, Flanders, and France, an important aspect of the minstrels’ obligations was to accompany military campaigns. While the musicians were asked to fulfill many non-musical obligations for the city council, the musical skills of these minstrels were valued, as the council regularly assumed expenses for the musicians to attend minstrel schools.

Tournai, Arras, and Douai A brief consideration of other Flemish cities in this region reveals a consistency in practices of civic patronage, specifically the employment of full wind bands to serve as watch on central towers. The damage done to archives in the twentieth century, however, prevents consideration of musical practices in some of the major cities in this area. Perhaps the greatest loss from the perspective of urban music history is the municipal archives of Tournai, which were entirely demolished in bombardments in 1940.90 Tournai was one of the largest urban centers in Flanders, perhaps only surpassed by Ghent and Bruges. In addition, records from other cities establish that minstrels from Tournai were highly sought after. One minstrel from Tournai was enticed to settle in Montpellier in 1403 and became a member of the civic wind band through a tax exemption on his personal estate for five years.91 In Lille, some of the minstrels were identified as being from Tournai, such as Jehan Lausiel, who was offered an incentive to serve the city of Lille in 1466.92 Lille even sent messengers to Tournai to seek out musicians for upcoming events, such as in 1400, when two “minstrels of the trumpet” were sought.93 One of the waits in Amiens in 1483, at least according to his name, was from Tournai, Johan de Tournay. Unfortunately, one can only imagine the rich musical traditions in Tournai that produced instrumentalists with an international reputation. 90

91

Almost the entire holdings of the communal archives were also destroyed for Cambrai, though during World War I. AMMo, BB 36, f. 7. 92 AMLi, 16205, f. 86v. 93 AMLi, 16136, f. 79.

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Arras was another major city in the region, whose confraternity organized by jongleurs in the thirteenth century offers a glimmering of the active and rich musical traditions cultivated in this city.94 The work of Adolphe de Cardevacque in the nineteenth century suggests musical practices like those in Lille and Saint-Omer.95 In 1501 a trumpet and three shawm players (ménestrieux de hault-vent) were employed by the city of Arras to perform their instruments at the top of the belfry in the morning at the opening of the doors and at the evening at their closing.96 Their compensation was very similar to the waits of Saint-Omer, which was 15 ll., an expensive coat worth 40 ll. 6 s. 8 d., and a measure of wheat. At this time, the players had to promise to close and shut all the doors of the belfry and not to leave the city without having been discharged by the city council. This compromise gave musicians a break from their demanding obligations and allowed them to travel and seek work at festivities in other cities, which was essential to their livelihood. They appear to have been allowed periods of freedom from their duties during which they could travel. At the time of this legal agreement, August 15, 1501, the minstrels promised to return and reside in the city on the day of Saint Remy, which is January 15. Similarly, on February 3, 1506, a discharge was granted to these four minstrels “since the day of All Saints’ (Toussains) until next May, during which time these minstrels will be able to attend other places as will seem good to them.”97 The city council agreed to give them their entire wages during this period, which was a generous working arrangement, perhaps reflecting the difficulty of retaining minstrels. Another major city of French-speaking Flanders, Douai, also seems to have subsidized music in traditional ways for this region. The city made familiar payments to minstrels for the celebration of New Year’s, for entries of the Duke of Burgundy and the dauphin, and for attending the minstrel school in Beauvais. In addition, Douai, like many other Flemish cities, placed a wind band on a central belfry. In 1469, three minstrels and a trumpeter played on the four turrets of the belfry on the three days of the celebration of Saint Remy, as in Lille when minstrels were paid extra for playing during Epinette.98 Recognizing similar reasons for the practice, a 94 95

96 97

98

For further discussion of this organization see Chapter 5. Adolphe de Cardevacque, “La Musique à Arras depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours,” Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences, lettres et arts d’Arras, 2nd ser., 16 (1885): 43–177. Ibid., 101. Ibid., 102, “depuis le jour de Tousssains jusques au may prochain pendant lequel temps iceulx ménestrieux se pourront pourveoir en autres lieux ainsy que bon leur semblera.” Inventaire analytique des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Douai (Lille: Imprimerie L. Danel, 1876–8), 32.

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payment record in 1538 states, “to four players of the oboe, by ordinance of the members of the city council to have played each day two times at the limited hours at the belfry of the city for the enjoyment and recreation of the inhabitants.”99 While they were not examined for this study, Douai, unlike many cities in the region, has a thorough series of extant account books beginning in 1390 and continuing through the fifteenth century. In conclusion, this region of far northern France with Flemish history had a high concentration of large wealthy commercial centers based in trade that grew up at a cultural crossroads. Their strong economy, along with early independence from their overlords, fostered rich and elaborate traditions of music patronage. In part due to the close proximity of these cities within 100 kilometers, these traditions of civic patronage are consistent from city to city in this area. Numerous opportunities existed for exchange of ideas in this densely populated region of cities with close working commercial relationships. The existence of minstrel schools uniquely in this region is an outcome of the frequent interactions between minstrels. While the schools fostered further interaction among musicians, their existence is a reflection of activities already integrated into this environment. Urban ritual in this area is marked by large conglomerate assemblies which drew spectators and participants, including minstrels, from throughout the region, and these multi-purposed celebrations helped to form and define these relationships. These cities would have also competed with each other, as they tried to rival one another with their urban traditions. Indeed, it would be surprising if cities in this region each had distinct musical customs, as they did in southern France. Musical traditions unique within France emerged in this region. The placement of a wind band on a tower to serve as waits, which at least by the fifteenth century consisted of a single trumpet and two to three reed instruments, has been identified only in this region of France. In addition, civic minstrels were a prominent part of large urban festivities, which were organized in honor of royal receptions, religious holidays, and unique local events. Minstrels were also frequently included in military expeditions because of these cities’ proximity to battles in the Hundred Years’ War. They served the practical function of watchmen, but they also performed twice a day in the morning and evening for the opening and closing of the city gates, which is consistent with Flemish cities beyond France. By the 99

Ibid., 40, “à quatre joueurs de hautbois pour, par ordonnance de Messieurs les eschevins, avoir joué chacun jour deux fois aux heures limittées au beffroy de cette ville, pour l’esjouissement et récréation des habitants . . .”

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mid-fourteenth century, a watchman who played the trumpet was posted on a tower in most sizeable Flemish cities, and over the next 100 years the number and types of musicians who were placed upon the tower expanded to include a wind band.100 As in these northern French cities, the musicians would customarily watch for danger in the evenings and perform twice a day from the tower. In Ghent, the largest Flemish city, a wind band was supported by 1390, and by at least two decades later a wind band consisting of four players, a sackbut and three shawms was supported, and by the late fifteenth century another sackbut was added. The role of the minstrels in these cities is consistently identified in the city records, as being for the “honor” and “pleasure” of the city. As the sound of the city wind band was heard twice a day from a central tower, it would not have been explicitly associated with the city council but rather interpreted as a reflection of the general wealth and well-being of the city. (It cost Lille the substantial sum of 81 ll. per year per wait to provide that service to the townspeople.) Only on occasion was the role of the wind band to highlight the city council; more often it had a broader function. The wind band emphasized the strength of the city at the celebration of the crossbowmen in Saint-Omer, the commercial success of the city at the fair in Saint-Omer, or the social hierarchy within the city at the Procession of Lille.

North of Paris: Beauvais and Amiens Despite the geographic proximity to Flemish cities of France, cities north of Paris do not appear to demonstrate the same patterns of music patronage, but rather to reflect traditions of central cities that had strong alliances with the French crown. The level of destruction suffered by these municipal archives, however, makes it impossible to create a detailed image of civic ritual. Rouen was the largest city in this area, but extant records shed little light on the use of musicians by the city. Notarial contracts are extant in large numbers, offering valuable insights into freelance practices of minstrels in the area, but nothing concerning civic subsidy. While municipal records of Beauvais were destroyed in 1940, a few conclusions concerning civic patronage have been determined. Despite heavy bombardment of Picardy during World War II, Amiens’ records are well preserved and, therefore, will serve as the primary example for this area.

100

Polk, “Wind Bands.”

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Beauvais Beauvais was a site for international minstrel schools during Lent every other year for a thirty-year period beginning in 1385 and more sporadically after that. When held in Beauvais, as was customary, the city offered support to visiting minstrels, as did the canons of the cathedral.101 Unfortunately, one can only imagine the impact these schools had upon the urban musical culture at other times during the year, because of the fate of the “archives anciennes” of Beauvais. The municipal records that are extant for Beauvais are part of the Collection Bucquet-aux-Cousteaux, which is a collection of documents, notes, and prints assembled by scholars in Beauvais in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries currently housed at the Bibliothèque municipale de Beauvais.102 For this study, Volume 69 of the Collection Bucquet-aux-Cousteaux, the records pertaining to the accounts of the city (1332–1790), were examined the most thoroughly; these included full payment accounts for a few specific years, as well as a few miscellaneous ones. The other most relevant volumes of this collection are Volumes 26–8, which are the records of the cathedral chapter. These records, though certainly not complete, offer insights into minstrel schools and patterns of civic patronage of music in Beauvais. Because of the destruction of the archives in 1940, any conclusions pertaining to civic patronage of Beauvais must remain conjectural, though the fragmentary records suggest it relates to Beauvais’ political situation. Beauvais was not a city that developed a strong civic independence. A commune was openly confirmed in 1122, but in the second half of the twelfth century the jurisdiction of the city was in the hands of the powerful bishop and in the thirteenth century royal authority asserted itself over the city. In the accounts that seem to be preserved in their entirety, such as those for 1382–3, 1384–5, 1390–1, and 1441–2, no indication exists for annually contracted or liveried musicians. Supporting this, the expenditures related to the “Wages of the Officers” in 1426 make no mention of minstrels or even any form of trumpeter. Rather, the employment of minstrels appears to have remained sporadic and ad hoc, such as in 1358, when the city gave 100 s. to the minstrels who accompanied the mayor and the soldiers of the city, or in 1382, when the city paid 4 s. for the making of the pennons for “the 101

102

AMBe, Collection Bucquet-aux-Cousteaux, Vol. 69, 64, “Aux menestreux de nos grans seigneurs de France et d’aultres Royaume qui se assemblerent à Beauvais au miquaresme . . . come il est accoustume de faire chacun an quant ilz font leur escolle.” An inventory of this collection is available. Victor Leblond, Inventaire-sommaire de la collection Bucquet-Aux-Cousteaux comprenant 95 volumes de documents manuscrits et imprimés rassemblés au XVIIIe siècle sur Beauvais et le Beauvaisis (Paris: H. Champion, 1907).

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minstrels who played before our king [King Charles VI] at his entry at Beauvais.”103 Trumpeters appear more often in these records in familiar functions, such as accompanying crossbowmen or making decrees for the city, though they do not appear on a regular basis.104 Despite Beauvais’ proximity to Saint-Omer and Lille, cities that placed musicians on belltowers to fulfill the function of watch, regular payments to a “watch” (guet) in Beauvais in 1440 reveal no use of a trumpet or other musical instrument. While any conclusion must remain tentative, Beauvais appears to have been a French city, like many others in central France, with a strong overlord, a situation in which only minimal support was offered to musicians.

Amiens Since its construction in the thirteenth century, the spectacular cathedral of Amiens has been central to the city’s historical identity. The cathedral is not only remarkable because of its size, the largest in France, but also because it was constructed in a short fifty-year period (1220–70). The brief construction period of this massive cathedral was only possible because of the peace and economic prosperity that Amiens experienced in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Its strong economy during these two centuries was based on the cloth trade with England and Flanders and the production of a special blue dye, known as woad. The city’s population has been estimated at 15–20,000 through the thirteenth century, while it was a large secondrank city in Europe, smaller than Lille or Saint-Omer.105 The successful economy was fostered by an unusually harmonious cooperation between the bishop, the city council, and the King of France.106 In 1117, a rebellion of the urban merchants against their lord, the Count of Amiens, was supported by the bishop and the King of France, resulting in the official recognition of the commune. In 1185, the line of ruling counts was eliminated altogether, and the King of France assumed direct sovereignty over the city which was maintained through the Middle Ages, except for a brief period from 1435 to 1471, when the city was attached to the court of Burgundy. Amiens struck a 103

104

105

106

Collection Bucquet-Aux-Cousteaux, Vol. 69, 25, “Pour les menestreux qui furent en l’Ost avec le maire et les soudoyers de la ville”; ibid., 96, “A Jean Bucquet merchier pour les pennonchaux qui furent bailles aux menestreux qui jouerent devant le roy notre sire a lentree de Beauvais 4 s.” Collection Bucquet-aux-Cousteaux, Vol. 69, 84, 1379–80; ibid., 335, “Item a Pierre Morel crieur et trompete et a Pierre le Boutelh sargent de la ville a este paye pour avoir faire pluseurs cris,” 1472. Stephen Murray, Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens: The Power of Change in Gothic (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 22; Ronald Hubscher, Histoire d’Amiens (Toulouse: Privat, 1986), 68. Glenn Johnson, “Aspects of Late Medieval Music at the Cathedral of Amiens” (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1991), 27.

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unique balance between having an independent and autonomous government, with twenty-four aldermen (échevins) led by a mayor, and remaining one of the strongest allies of northern cities for the King of France. While Amiens flourished up through the thirteenth century, the following 200 years were some of the worst in the city’s history. In addition to the common afflictions of European cities in the late Middle Ages, Amiens, located in the northern fields of Picardy, was a central site for French defense during the Hundred Years’ War where military campaigns were frequently launched. The city witnessed significant defeats, such as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, where the communal militias of Amiens, Beauvais, and Rouen were surprised by the English, and the Battle of Agincourt in 1414, which had a crippling effect on France.107 The extensive trade between Amiens and both England and Flanders all but stopped, having a devastating effect on the once flourishing economy of the city, and expenses of the war added new fiscal pressures, including substantial funds directed to the construction of town walls. Reflecting these difficulties, in the mid-fifteenth century the population of Amiens has been estimated at only 10,000.108 City records from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are well preserved, which is exceptional for this region. A full series of account books begins in 1377, the deliberations of the city council are continuous beginning in 1406, and official charters are sporadic throughout the period.109 In spite of the well-preserved records, the only scholarship addressing music in the urban environment of medieval Amiens was conducted by historians from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.110 As in other cities in the north, the principal musical position in Amiens was that of the “wait/minstrel,” who by at least the mid-fourteenth century was placed upon a belfry in town. His placement on the belfry contributed to his association with the city, as the belfry was constructed with the same materials and at the same location as the fortified urban fortress of the count, which was destroyed with the establishment of the commune in 107 109

110

Hubscher, Histoire d’Amiens, 82. 108 Ibid., 90. The published inventories for Amiens are unusually detailed and helpful in locating relevant records. The inventory was relied upon to identify relevant council deliberations dating prior to 1500 (BB 1–BB 18). Of the account books CC 1–CC 78, which date from prior to 1500, approximately one-third have been examined: CC 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 32, 39, 46, 47, 52, 53, 55, 61, 66, 68, 73, 76. Ernest Nicquet, La Corporation des ménétriers et le lieutenant du roi des violins à Amiens. Conférence faite à la séance du 25 novembre 1899 (Cayeux-sur-Mer: Imprimerie P. Olliver, 1899); Georges Durand, Musiciens amiénois du temps passé (Abbeville: F. Paillart, 1925).

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1117.111 The belfry became a symbol of civic independence and rule, and the square around the belfry became the center of communal life. As John Ott wrote about Amiens, “The commune . . . understood the utility of controlling urban space as a means of asserting and extending its authority.”112 This musician served the familiar, practical function of watchmen, who were “to make the watch and announce fires” from the belfry. As in other northern cities, on occasion their duties were extended, as in March of 1392, when the wait and a colleague were hired to serve for seventeen nights in the belfry “to watch and to sound an instrument (corner) for the perils of fire, at which time the King, the Duke of Lancaster and other important people were in Amiens for the treaty of peace.”113 With so many members of royalty in town to work on a peace treaty between France and England, special arrangements were deemed necessary to maintain safety. Also consistent with Flemish traditions, the city of Amiens described the function of the wait of providing warnings, but also providing a pleasing experience for the citizens. A rare description from 1462 reads: A named Jehan Boutard who the aldermen (Messeigneurs) had ordained watch of the belfry for a long time did not want to pipe a pipette at the last bell and the first bell of the day, as it has been the custom to do for more than one hundred years, for the pleasure of the people of the city, and because of this he has been asked before the aldermen, and was questioned why he did not want to pipe, to which he responded that he did not know, and that he was too old and no longer wanted to pipe . . . so the aldermen gave the said office of watch of the belfry to Jehan Mevel, menestrel, who plays well on the said pipe.114

Jehan Mevel, his replacement, served in this position for at least the next fifteen years. Despite these similarities, the music from the belfry in Amiens was much more modest than in Lille and other Flemish cities, as it was filled by a single 111

112

113

114

Henry Kraus, “The Medieval Commune at Amiens as Patron of Art and Architecture,” Gazette des beaux-arts 78 (1971): 317; Murray, Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens, 23. John Ott, “Urban Space, Memory and Episcopal Authority: The Bishops of Amiens in Peace and Conflict, 1073–1164,” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 31 (2000): 74. AMAm, CC 7, f. 39v, “pour luy aidier à veillier et à corner pour les périlz des feux ouquel temps le Roy nostre sire, le duc de Lencastre et autres grans seigneurs furent à Amienz pour le traittié de le pais.” AMAm, BB 9, f. 60v, “Pour ce que un nomme Jehan Boutard que Messeigneurs avoient ordonne guette du beffroy de nuit des longtemps a, ne voloit pipper d’une pipette a la derraine et a la cloque du jour, comme des cent ans a et plus avoit este a coustume faire, pour le plaisir du people de la cite, et que sur ce il a este mande devant Messeigneurs, et a este interrogue pourquay il ne voloit pipper, a quoy il a respondu qu’il n’y a savoit rien, et estoit trop vieux et ne voloit point pipper . . . Messieurs en leur echevinage ont donne le dit office de guette du beffroy a Jehen Mevel, menestrel, qui bien sur jouer de la ditte pipette.”

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musician, who appears to have played the trumpet, rather than a full ensemble. An inexpensive trumpet costing only 8 s. was purchased in 1402 for the wait, suggesting a crude and limited instrument.115 The document referring to the replacement of the wait in 1462 has an unusual reference to the “pipette,” the only reference to an instrument other than a trumpet for this position in Amiens. It appears to show influence of the Flemish usage for shawm, though the placement of a single wait on a tower usually involves a trumpeter, in both French and Flemish cities. The wait was provided annually with a practical, not ceremonial coat, as it was in consideration of “the great winds and cold which are at the top of the belfry.”116 The placement of only a single wait upon the tower with an inexpensive trumpet might be due to Amiens’ struggling economy, though it might be part of the central French tradition where this is standard practice. (See Table 3.3 for a list of civic-employed minstrels in Amiens.) Throughout this period the city of Amiens hired minstrels, including the wait, to perform at a few major civic events each year. The purchase of livery for minstrels is not in the account books of Amiens, though minstrels wore an official emblem with a coat of arms of the city; a document from 1407 refers to the temporary suspension of a goldsmith from his guild due to his poor quality work on the “necklaces of the minstrels.”117 The identification of the makeup of the ensemble is indefinite, though it appears to be the customary combination of shawms and trumpets. For the celebration of Ascension in 1387, payment was made “to 3 minstrels, Jehan of the belfry, who played the cornet and Thumas Cailleu and Mikiel de Molin, trumpeters.”118 In the 1390s the ensemble was made up of two trumpets and a “coradois,” literally meaning a horn with finger holes, and in 1410, only a trumpet and a “cornet sarrasinois,” literally meaning a horn from the Middle East.119 These terms might all be variants of each other, and at

115

116

117

118

119

AMAm, CC 11, f. 40. Cited by Georges Durand, Inventaire sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville d’Amiens (Amiens: Piteux, 1891), 44. AMAm, CC 20, f. 68v, “en consideration aux grans vens et froidures qui sont en hault oudit beffroy.” AMAm, BB 1, f. 23, “que il ne lui en sera rien fait, mais sera constraint à paier les amendes, est assavoir une pour chacun coler par lui fait aux ménestreux, pour lesquels sondit mestier lui a esté suspendu.” AMAm, CC 4, f. 69, “As III menestreux, est assavoir Jehan (Boistel) du Beffroy, qui jouoit du cornet et Thumas Cailleu et Mikiel de Molin, trompeurs, lesquelz aux processions, de l’Ascension et du Sacrement.” For example, the payment in 1392 reads, “A Baudet de Thois, menestrel du coradois, a Jehan Boistel et a Robin Cuvelet, menestreux de tromppes,” AMAm, CC 7, f. 62v; CC 14, f. 62.

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Table 3.3: Civic-employed minstrels of Amiens, 1387–1500: dates of payment Jehan Boistel: 1387, 1389, 1390, 1391, 1392, 1396, 1399 Thumas Cailleu: 1387 Mikiel de Molin: 1387 Pierre Cailleu: 1389 Bauduin de Thois: 1389, 1392, 1396 Robin Cuvelet: 1392, 1396, 1399, 1402, 1406, 1410, 1414 Colart de Rivieres: 1399 Jehan Lesaige: 1410 Pierre du Nuefgarding: 1402 Huet Flandrin: 1402 Jehan Harouet: 1406, 1409, 1410 Jean de Beaurrain: 1410, 1414, 1416 Simon de le Vingne: 1414, 1416, 1419 Willimot Harouet: 1416 Gille Cronier: 1418 Jehan du Bos Odenier: 1418, 1426, 1427, 1428, 1430 Jean Brumel, Espaignart: 1418, 1419, 1427, 1428, 1431, 1443 Collinet: 1419, 1428, 1431, 1443 Bourdin: 1428, 1443 Afficquet: 1428 Jacquot Finot: 1434 Jehan Boutard: 1462 Jehan Mevel: 1462, 1477 Jehan de le Vingne: 1475 Robert Motin: 1483 Johan de Tournay: 1483 Aignen de Chauvigni: 1484

times have all been interpreted as a shawm by scholars.120 References later in the century are less specific, usually referring to “three minstrels and a trumpet,” which was likely a traditional shawm band.121 The celebrations of All Saints’ Day and Christmas in Amiens are organized in a manner similar to Flemish practices. The minstrels did not perform in a procession, but rather on the belfry on the eve of the holiday and the following morning. On these holidays, music would radiate from the belfry 120

121

Anthony Baines states that the “cor sarrasinois” probably meant a shawm, not a horn of some kind. Brass Instruments: Their History and Development (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978), 87. AMAm, CC 39, f. 35v, 1454, “trois menestreux et une trompille qui ont corné le derraine et le cloque au jour au beffroy en la maniere acoustumée.”

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as on all other days, but the full ensemble would mark the day as special. The celebration of All Saints’ Day on November 1 was a ritual that coincided with the annual election of municipal officers and therefore asserted the authority of the city council, though a balance of power was symbolized through the offering of food to the royal bailiff.122 The celebration of Ascension Day in Amiens was similar to Epinette in Lille or the franquefeste in Saint-Omer: large events which coalesced various elements of the urban community and glorified the city. The celebration revolved around the relics of Saint Fermin the Martyr, who was the first bishop of Amiens in the early fourth century. Throughout the history of Amiens, Saint Fermin was used by the church to foster unity among the members of the town and church, as they shared a devotion to the local saint.123 In the procession, according to the city council deliberations, “the chair of Saint Fermin was carried honestly and joyously by some youths dressed in silk with beautiful hats on their heads singing songs pleasantly and graciously.”124 Dating back to at least 1322, minstrels performed in the procession in front of an image of Christ and the relics of the saint, not on the belfry. Following the procession, a banquet was held for important members of the community, where the minstrels provided dance music. Civic ritual and imagery were also used in Amiens to reinforce the political alliance between the city and the French crown. Often surrounded by battle, entwined images of the coats of arms of the king and the city were displayed on the gates of the city in the mid-fourteenth century to confirm their alliance. A structure originally used for rendering justice by the Count of Amiens was rebuilt in 1398 to serve as a meeting place for the aldermen and was decorated with windows inscribed with the arms of the king and the city.125 Music was an important part of this display of allegiance, royal receptions requiring weeks of planning.126 As was customary, trumpet players received payment by the city to provide official announcements for the king, and during royal visits and processions in Amiens the king’s trumpet ensemble and other royal minstrels were offered payment by the city.127 As a direct demonstration of their alliance, the city frequently hired musicians to serve in military roles for royalty. In 1410, the wait was paid 122

123 124

125 127

Albéric de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d’Amiens (1899; reprint, Marseille: Lafitte Reprints, 1976), 315. Murray, Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens, 25. Calonne, Histoire de la ville d’Amiens, 316, “Cétait le privilège des jeunes bourgeois de porter ce précieux fardeau à la procession du jour de l’Ascension, honnestement vestus de soie, chantant chansons plaisantes et gracieuses, et ayant de beaux chapeaux sur leur tête.” Kraus, “The Medieval Commune,” 320. 126 Calonne, Histoire de la ville d’Amiens, 317. AMAm, CC 61, f. 72v.

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“for playing the trumpet before the crossbowmen of Amiens who went to Paris at the request of the King” and another trumpeter was specifically hired to wake up the crossbowmen for thirty days.128 Twice in 1431 “Espaignart and his companion minstrels,” who were civic minstrels, were paid “to sound their instruments” at skirmishes, once from an old fortress and another time from the belfry.129 At times, royalty used music explicitly to reassert the balance of political power. In 1473, two years after Amiens’ return to the French crown after being part of the Duchy of Burgundy for over thirty-five years, the trumpets of the Marshal of France, who had been holding garrison in Amiens since the city’s surrender to the king, played in front of the doors of the wealthy citizens of the city.130 While perhaps serving as a gesture of honor, it would have also served as a statement of the authority of the French king over these powerful individuals in the city. Amiens’ role as a strong northern ally of the King of France is evident in its musical traditions. Amiens hired only one wait, not an ensemble, which was typical for northern French cities its size. Like Amiens, cities in central France, who were also strong allies of the French crown, placed a single trumpeter with an inexpensive instrument on the tower. Amiens, like most French cities, also pronounced its support to royalty through providing music at royal receptions and for military campaigns. The musical traditions surrounding the minstrel ensemble for special occasions appear to be consistent with those of Flemish cities in northern France. For three annual events, an ensemble of two to four players including the wait, most likely a combination of shawms and trumpets, was hired. French cities successfully asserted authority against overlords during the late Middle Ages, though the process and the degree to which a city received rights and independence varied significantly throughout France. Cities in the north began to receive charters in the early twelfth century, while some in central France never were successful in receiving a communal charter during the Middle Ages. Rights ranged from basic control over maintenance of the city to acquisition of complete jurisdiction over the city, and medieval 128

129

130

AMAm, CC 14, f. 82, “a le waitte du Beffroy pour se déserte d’avoir joué d’une trompette au devant des arbalestriers d’Amiens qui s’en aloient à Paris au mandement du Roy nostre sire”; CC 14, f. 33v, “A Robert Cuvellette, pour son sallaire de tromper et resveiller les dessus nommés arbalestriers et pavaisiers, par trente jours.” AMAm, CC 24, f. 79v and f. 94; “As menestreux des comtes de Rothellan et du comte Mareschal, lesquels aloient en Engleterre en le compaignie de plusieurs Englais en Engleterre, et asquels, le IXe jour de novembre lan 1395 fu donné, pour le reverence de leurs seigneurs,” CC 8, f. 15. AMAm, f. 61, “Aux trompettes de Mons. De Lohiac, maressal de France, 13 s. 6 d., pour leur vin et courtoisie d’avoir joué des dictes trompettes au devant des huis des notables personnes d’icelle ville.” Cited in Durand, Musiciens amiénois, 36.

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cities developed processes through which they could jockey for power and control with the various authorities in the urban hierarchy. As Stephen Murray wrote, “The objectives of the communal movement were clear – to gain control over urban jurisdiction, to substitute elected magistrates for appointed ones, to gain some power over the means of industrial production, and to establish the identity of the universality of the citizens as a free and sovereign corporation.”131 Urban ritual, in which music became an important role and symbol, was an important way in which a city asserted and reinforced its claims to authority over the urban environment and to reflect political alliances. In this setting music operated as a symbol of power, and the degree to which a city held civic authority and independence determined the nature and use of music within the urban setting. Cities with a longer history of independence and greater authority not only subsidized more music, they also created music ritual that reinforced images of the city and city council. In these settings, ritual highlighted symbols of civic authority and laid claim to historically important urban spaces, and the description and documentation of the rituals became an important way to ensure their continuation. In cities with comparatively weak civic governments, musicians did not assume a prominent role in civic ritual, and when music was subsidized, it tended to present an image of the city as a strong supporter and ally of its ruler. As essential allies to the King of France during a period in which France was under serious threat, the cities in central France did not develop civic authority or regular traditions of music ritual that emphasized an independent civic identity. Rather, the music sponsored by the cities in central France tended to be a strong pronouncement of allegiance to royal authority. Only the city of Troyes regularly employed a civic wind band, but that was not until the 1450s, 100 years after they appeared in cities to the north and south. The employment of minstrels tended to be on an ad hoc basis, and the sound of the wind band with a trumpet and shawms, an ensemble associated with institutional authority, did not figure prominently in the civic ritual. The watchmen placed on towers who provided warnings and announced the opening and closing of gates were equipped with only inexpensive horns or trumpets. The music of central French cities did not challenge the image of the royal authority, but rather supported it. The regular patronage of music and the integration of musical traditions into the daily life of a city were common in northern and southern France, two regions where the city governments had a history of independent 131

Murray, Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens, 21.

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authority. In southern France, where the history of city governments varied significantly, patterns of patronage varied as well. For example, Narbonne, with similar demographic patterns to Montpellier, but with a weaker civic government, did not cultivate extensive ceremonial practices with music. Within this region, and indeed throughout France, the extensive use of music in civic ritual in Montpellier, or at least the city’s documentation of these practices, is unique, which parallels its history as a powerful civic authority. In the mid-fourteenth century, the city council employed five minstrels, plus ceremonial trumpeters, which is unmatched in French cities in this study, and in the fifteenth century its patronage continued to be impressive with a wind band of four members and a pair of trumpeters. The extensive city records of Montpellier also reveal an unmatched number of civic-subsidized musical events, in which the civic musicians operated as representatives of the city council. As Jean-Arnault Derens wrote, during these civic occasions in Montpellier, “the consular power affirms and proclaims its hold on the city.”132 Whenever the sound of the official wind band was heard in Montpellier, it was in direct connection to the city council. The wealth and political power of cities in the far northern area of France are reflected in extensive and elaborate music patronage, as they are in the south. Because of the close proximity of the cities and the history of commercial trade in this area, basic traditions of civic patronage are consistent through this area. Civic minstrels were placed on towers to serve as waits, to perform in large urban festivities and to serve frequently on military expeditions. The symbolism attached to these musicians appears to have been quite different than in the large, independent cities of southern France. In these Flemish cities, the civic minstrels are consistently identified as being for the “honor” and “pleasure” of the city, but not explicitly or exclusively attached to the city council. The primary function of these musicians was the twice-daily performances from the bell-tower, making the sound of the ensemble quite common, if impressive, and tied to the security and prosperity of the city. Music was an important and defining feature of the medieval French city, and while it certainly offered “pleasure” to its listeners, it also provided significant social meaning.

132

Derens, “Pouvoir consulaire,” 82.

4

From confraternal processions to weddings to bathhouses: freelancing in the urban environment

As for the professional entertainer today, the livelihood of the typical minstrel in the medieval urban environment in France depended upon seeking out and securing a variety of engagements. Even a central member of a civic wind band in a large city would have needed to freelance to supplement his wages, as with only few exceptions civic employment offered a musician in medieval France merely a portion of a full-time income. The wages of trumpeters, tower-musicians or waits generally were comparable to incomes of modest artisans, such as cobblers and candle-makers, though the wages of the minstrels hired to perform only in processions and festivities tended to be one-fourth this amount. Even musicians like Monnetus Monneri, the official trumpeter in Aix-enProvence who served as a tower-musician, supplemented his income through festivals and weddings, as well as through teaching. For many professional musicians in medieval France, freelancing appears to have been the only means to an income. In Montpellier, for example, of the approximately 125 musicians identified in the city records between 1350 and 1500, less than one-half are known to have been employed by the city; in Toulouse, of the fourteen minstrels listed as guild members in the statutes of 1492, only the first three on the list, those who formed the official civic wind band, appear in city accounts from this time. While the archival evidence is scarce, diverse and isolated documents reveal that the urban environment offered a variety of employment opportunities for minstrels. The employment of musicians by institutions, such as confraternities, is comparatively well documented due to the detailed records of their financial administration. In contrast, the professional arrangements of musicians when performing in private settings must have been of an oral nature, as they are barely traceable in the historical records.

Charitable associations During the late Middle Ages, charitable associations emerged in great numbers and served essential social functions within the urban fabric,

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providing care and support to their members when alive, offering prayers for their members when dead, as well as taking on broader charitable causes within the community. In Avignon and Rouen, two of the largest cities in medieval France, approximately 100 confraternities were formed during the late Middle Ages, while in smaller cities, like Dijon and Marseilles, the number of confraternities was closer to twenty-five or thirty.1 Just as cities used music to reflect and enhance their power, confraternities employed musicians to establish their place within the urban hierarchy. These numerous organizations developed annual celebrations involving music and became an important non-municipal source of employment for minstrels throughout France. Implying a general practice in Toulouse, the statutes of the minstrel guild indicate that “celebrations of confraternities” were a regular source of employment for local musicians.2 Minstrels were offered patronage by general charitable institutions throughout France, like the confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour in Avignon or the confraternity of Saint-Romain in Rouen, as well as by confraternities attached to specific professions, such as those of the carpenters of Troyes and Avignon, or the butchers and masons of Montpellier. Particularly important to the ritual and customs of a confraternity was the annual celebration in honor of its patron saint, which was integral to the development and confirmation of a confraternity’s identity. At the beginning of Catherine Vincent’s book on medieval confraternities in France, she describes how these annual events typically unfolded. In the morning, the members met at the home of the master of the confraternity and then processed to the organization’s designated church to celebrate a mass dedicated to its patron saint. Later that day the members of the confraternity enjoyed a banquet, which was often accompanied by edifying entertainment, often involving mystery plays or the more simple tableaux.3 The elaborate annual celebration in honor of the Virgin Mary of the wealthy confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour in Avignon is unusually well documented through two registers containing the confraternity’s receipt of revenues, expenditures, and lists of membership dating from the fourteenth

1

2 3

Pierre Pansier, “Les Confréries d’Avignon au XIVe siècle,” Annales d’Avignon et du ComtatVenaissin 20 (1934): 5; Catherine Vincent, Les Confréries médiévales dans le royaume de France, XIIIe–XVe siècle (Paris: Albin Michel, 1994), 42. Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 60. Vincent, Les Confréries médiévales, 13. Jonathan Glixon has conducted an extensive study of the patronage of music by confraternities in Venice, where annual celebrations of these organizations began to rival events at St. Mark’s. Honoring God and the City: Music at the Venetian Confraternities, 1260–1807 (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Charitable associations

and fifteenth centuries.4 The confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour was formed in the early fourteenth century by Italian merchants who immigrated to Avignon following the arrival of the papacy, though it was open to all types of profession and nationalities. Based on membership lists from the late fourteenth century, 80 percent of members who identified a place of origin indicated Italy and specifically Tuscany, and the most common professions listed were merchants, craftsmen, scribes, and papal administrators.5 Any inhabitant of Avignon could join the confraternity, as long as they paid dues and led a “respectable life,” and indeed, five minstrels appear as members who, at least by name, appear to have been immigrants to Avignon. The confraternity offered a social network in town for these foreigners, allowing them to meet and interact with other Italians and to develop a sense of belonging. The rapidly acquired wealth of the confraternity is reflected by its possession by 1329 of a silver statue of its patron saint, the Virgin Mary, which was 75 cm. in height, as well as two silver candelabras representing angels.6 By about 1360, Notre-Dame la Majour had constructed two hospitals in Avignon to care for poor pilgrims, while no other charitable association had enough wealth for more than one.7 The Assumption of the Virgin Mary in August was honored by the confraternity with a special celebration for its patron saint in which minstrels had a central role. As early as two months prior to this celebration the confraternity customarily contracted one or two minstrels to locate and employ the desired number of musicians. At this time, an agreement would be made concerning the wages, and “down payment” was offered to the musicians. For example, on June 28, 1389 the confraternity promised to pay the minstrel Bertrand Bernard and “his fellow minstrels,” who were to be twelve in number, a total of 16½ fl. for the upcoming festival, and at this time Bertrand received a small sum as “down payment.”8 On August 13, two 4

5

6 8

ADV, Archives hospitalières d’Avignon, Majour, E-4 (1371–1406) and E-5 (1384–1459). Large portions of both registers are very difficult to read due to deterioration of both the paper and the ink. Jöelle Rollo-Koster, “Forever After: The Dead in the Avignonese Confraternity of Notre Dame la Majour (1329–1381),” Journal of Medieval History 25, no. 2 (1999): 117. Pansier, “Les Confréries d’Avignon,” 34. 7 Rollo-Koster, “Forever After,” 118. ADV, Arch. hospitalières d’Avignon, Majour, E-4, f. 375v, “Item die xxviii iunii Bertrando Bernard ministerio pro se et suis sociis ministeriis pro arris soluctione festi pro futuro quo tempore debent xii ministrerii et debent habere integra omnes xvi florini et dimidio/ et bene serviremur solito/ in dicto festo et ante ut est consuetum . . . habuit ipse Bertrand pro arris duos florini et dimidio” (“June 28, to Bertrando Bernard, minstrel, for himself and his fellow minstrels for down payment for the festival in the future, at which time they owe 12 minstrels and owe to all 16½ fl. We will serve well as is usual, in the said festival and before as is the custom. Bertrand himself had for a down payment 2½ fl.”)

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days before the festival, another small sum was given to Bertrand, and on August 16, a day after the festival, final full payment to the musicians was recorded.9 Each musician received approximately 1 fl. for their participation in the festivities, which was comparable to the wages of musicians paid by the city of Avignon for local processions. In addition to wages, the confraternity regularly provided wine for the musicians on these occasions, a customary practice throughout this area and elsewhere. The confraternity hired an unusually large number of instrumentalists for this occasion, which would have reflected well upon the status of these foreigners in town and would have enhanced the power and authority of the association. The number of minstrels hired for this event ranged from seventeen in 1365 to ten during the first half of the fifteenth century, significantly more than the five or six hired by the city of Avignon for civic processions. The desire for a large number of minstrels on a feast day when minstrels would have been in demand could explain the attempt to line up the musicians two months in advance. Throughout the first half of the fifteenth century a distinction between minstrels (menestriers) and trumpeters (trompetas) commonly appears in the payment receipts; and on one occasion, a further distinction was made between trompas and trompetas, implying the use of trumpets of different sizes.10 The prestigious trumpet ensemble seems to have been incorporated into the procession, as during the first three decades of the fifteenth century the number of trumpeters varied from two to six, but then from 1438 to 1457 remained constant at six. The instruments of the menestriers are never specifically identified, though the occasional use of the verb cornare in these records indicates the use of wind instruments, and likely the familiar choice of the shawms.11 Among these musicians were a small number of minstrels, often referred to as the “the good minstrels,” whose function was to accompany the silver statue of the Virgin Mary in the procession. The expenses for the celebration in 1416, for example, include payments to the “good minstrels who accompanied Our Lady in the procession.”12 These minstrels appear to have been, at least at times, provided with livery, as the confraternity paid tailors to

9

10 11 12

Ibid., “Item dicto Bertrando die xiii mensis Augusti pro parte sui salarii florin i s. xii, Item dicto Bertrando die xvi mensis Augusti pro integra solutione sui salarii de festo proxime fl. xii s. xii.” ADV, Archives hospitalières d’Avignon, E-5, f. 84. ADV, Archives hospitalières d’Avignon, E-4, f. 465. ADV, Archives hospitalières d’Avignon, Majour, E-5, f. 139v, “als bons menestriers que an compaunhat nostra dona ala prosession I fl.”

Charitable associations

make coats and hats for two minstrels.13 Evidently, to serve the important function of accompanying the silver statue of their patron saint in the procession, the confraternity wanted musicians who were highly skilled and wore official livery. Considering the wealth and size of Notre-Dame la Majour, it likely hired more musicians than the typical confraternity in Avignon, though a conclusive determination is impossible considering the scarcity of documentation. In Marseilles, the charitable order of Hôpital Saint Jacques-des-epées, which was part of a larger charitable order founded in Spain in 1200 to construct shelters for poor pilgrims who were traveling to the Holy Land, also offered employment to musicians during an annual celebration in honor of its patron saint.14 In the mid-fifteenth century the organization, which had 169 members, thirty-three being women, represented a variety of professions, including butchers, fishermen, apothecaries, minstrels, and others. Three registers with the organization’s annual dues and expenses are extant from the mid-fourteenth through the fifteenth centuries, and among the expenses for the annual celebration which involved services with five to six priests for the souls of the benefactors of the organization were regular payments to “the minstrels who made the feast of Saint Jacques” and specifically for “the cost of their wine.”15 As with Notre-Dame la Majour, this confraternity hired instrumentalists who would have elevated its status within the city of Marseilles. In 1351, three cornamuza players (meaning bagpipes or, more generally, reed players), two trumpeters, and one nakers player performed in the celebration, which was the same combination of instruments employed by the city council of Montpellier in the 1350s. In 1353, all four musicians hired for this celebration were identified as cornamuza players.16 Fifteenth-century records provide only isolated references to specific instruments, but the purchase of four pennons for trumpets in 1412 or the payment in 1455 to the trumpets (las trombas) indicate the appearance of the popular trumpet ensemble.17 In the second half of the fifteenth century, pipe and tabor players appear in these festivities, as they did in celebrations throughout southern France at this time. 13 14

15

16 17

Ibid., f. 160, 1419; f. 530, 1446; f. 684v, 1454. Augustin Fabre, Histoire des hôpitaux et des institutions de bienfaisance de Marseille, vol. II (Marseille: Imprimerie et lithographie de Jules Barille, 1854), 108. ADB, Archives hospitalières de Marseilles, II HD E/1 (1399–1409), II HD E/2 (1452–87), II HD E/7 (1349–53). II H/E 7, p. 49, 1351, “pagat als menetries que fero la festa de mosenyer Sant Jacme entre lur pres del vin, ii ll. v s.”; p. 81, 1352, “Item donem als menestriers antre vin et autras cauzas l s.” Ibid., p. 96, 1353. ADB, Archives hospitalières de Marseilles, II H/E 1, f. 125; II H/E 2, no folio.

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While minstrels were often hired by confraternities for processions in the streets during annual celebrations of patron saints, they also performed in the religious services central to these annual events. According to the statutes of the confraternity of Notre-Dame d’Août in Bordeaux dating from 1357, it was custom to hire musicians to perform in religious ceremonies, as well as the banquet. The article indicates that the confraternity provided “trumpets, pipe and tabors, and other musical instruments to honor the feast of Our Lady and to serve at the office of vespers and at the mass, similarly at the meal.”18 The confraternity of carpenters in Troyes made an annual procession with candles in “the church of Jacobins,” for which minstrels were paid for their services, as well as provided with food.19 The confraternity of SaintRomain in Rouen hired minstrels in the mid-fifteenth century to perform before “the portal of Saint-Romain,” apparently the portal of the Rouen Cathedral located near to the tower of Saint Romain, the oldest portion of the cathedral, dating back to the twelfth century.20 In addition to organizing elaborate celebrations in honor of their patron saint, professional and charitable organizations also participated in broader civic events in which musicians would have played a central role in representing and glorifying the institutions’ status within the city. In Avignon, the confraternity of carpenters during the first decade of the fifteenth century employed musicians specifically to accompany their official banners and the figure of the Virgin Mary in the elaborate general procession for Rogations, for which the city typically hired four wind players.21 On Ascension Day in Montpellier, with the city council in the lead, townspeople, organized into their different professions, processed through the city streets with charitable contributions in the form of loaves of bread. The civic minstrels were always positioned in the front of the procession introducing the city council, and at least in 1365 the butchers, as well, hired minstrels to accompany them.22 In 1367, the masons of Montpellier commissioned banners decorated with pictures of hammers for two trumpets 18

19 20

21

22

Vincent, Les Confréries médiévales, 29, “trompètes, tambourins et autres instruments de musique pour honorer la feste de Nostre-Dame et pour servir à l’office des vespres et à la messe, pareilhement au repas.” Boutiot, Histoire de la ville de Troyes, 55. Charles de Robillard de Beaurepaire, Inventaire-sommaire des archives départementales antérieures à 1790: Seine-Inférieure. Archives ecclésiastiques, Série G (Paris: Paul Dupont, 1868–1912), 227. ADV, Archives hospitalières d’Avignon, Fusterie, E-10, f. 209. Five registers with the accounts of the confraternity from this period, E-8 (1331–56), E-9 (1363–90), E-10 (1390–1411), E-11 (1412–34), and E-12 (1434–66) are extant, and yet payments to musicians have only been identified in E-10. AMMo, BB 8, f. 10.

Churches

and two reed instruments which might have been displayed in the procession on Ascension Day as well.23 The choice of the masons to employ two trumpeters and two reed instrument players, the same type of musicians employed by the powerful city council of Montpellier at this time, would have undoubtedly contributed to the prestige of the profession. This practice of charitable and professional organizations hiring musicians bears considerable resemblance to the customs of civic patronage of music at this time. Like civic musicians, the musicians hired by these organizations customarily displayed pennons with official emblems on their musical instruments, and at least on occasion wore livery, to reflect and enhance the organization’s importance within the urban community. These organizations employed wind players and trumpeters for processions, just as the cities did. When the records are more specific concerning the instruments, they indicate ensembles similar to those employed by the cities, such as the combination of trumpets, reed instruments, and nakers in the second half of the fourteenth century, and the pipe and tabor later in the fifteenth century. While many extant registers of charitable and professional organizations in these cities provide no evidence of hiring minstrels, if a portion of these institutions employed musicians for annual celebrations, they would have been an important and regular source of employment for musicians.

Churches Minstrels in religious processions organized by the church that meandered through the streets, stopping at central buildings, special portals, and churches, were a common sight in medieval cities in France. In addition to city councils and confraternities hiring minstrels for special celebrations, religious institutions also sought out the skills of minstrels. The cathedral in Beauvais in the thirteenth century established a system to ensure the successful appointment of jongleurs (musical entertainers) on religious holidays. By at least 1255 in Beauvais, a fief de la jonglerie appeared among the fiefs of the city for which officers of the bishop served as proprietors with various rights and responsibilities.24 Multiple versions of 23

24

AMMo, BB 10, f. 5, “Item et duos penones [sic] magnos pro tubis et duos penos pro cornamusis cum pictura martelli et borladura tinctatura bene et sufficienter” (“Two large pennons for trumpets and two pennons for bagpipes with paintings of hammers and borders dyed well and sufficiently”). Michel Rousse, “Le Dénombrement du fief de la Jonglerie de Beauvais,” in Littératures du Nord médiéval: études, ed. François Suard and Elisabeth Gaucher (Lille: Société de littérature du Nord, 1995), 103–9; Victor LeBlond, Les Associations de musiciens à Beauvais au XVIe siècle d’après les

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the legal arrangements surrounding the fief de la jonglerie are preserved in the Census of the Bishopric, of which the earliest dates from the first half of the fourteenth century. Some of the rights and obligations of this fief were not specific to the activities of jongleurs, such as an entitlement by the proprietor of the fief to the robe of a man on his wedding day, or payment of its value, as well as to wine and food from the festivities.25 This particular right created such opposition from the citizens of Beauvais that in 1330 the city offered to purchase this right from the bishop for 800 ll., and it was abolished. Rights that pertained to music and entertainment, however, were maintained, as, according to a letter dating from 1330 from the bishop, an obligation of the proprietor of the fief was to arrange musicians for annual performances attached to the cathedral. The letter reads, “the possessor of the said fief ought to make or to arrange to make the services and things owed to the dean and chapter of Beauvais at the annual festivals each year, that of arranging minstrels or fiddlers to sing at the cloister of the said church, as it is the custom to do.”26 In the Census of the Bishopric dating from 1377, a full accounting of the rights and obligations of the proprietor of the fief de la jonglerie, who is identified as a dyer by the name of Jehan de Puys, is provided. As earlier in the century, some of the rights surrounding the position of proprietor continue to be unrelated to minstrels or performance within the city, but rather involve tax-exempt status and the right to sell wine. The following three stipulations, however, speak directly to the purpose of the fief de la jonglerie: Item, Jehan, on account of the said fief, has from each minstrel coming to and in Beauvais, a single time 12 d., from those who sing in town (en place); and if they are refusing to pay, he is able to take their book or their fiddle if they have it, and if they don’t have it, to force them to pay. Item, Jehan is able to give the position to make chansons de geste in Beauvais, in the accustomed places, to whom he pleases, the day of Christmas, the day of Easter, the day of Pentecost, and their holidays, others are not able to sing there if it isn’t by license by the said Jehan. Item, Jehan, because of the said fief, is held to make chansons de geste at the cloister of the church of Saint-Pierre of Beauvais, the day of Christmas, the day of Easter and the day of Pentecost, from Prime until one begins the Gospel and the

25 26

minutes notariales (Beauvais: Imprimerie départementale de l’Oise, 1925), 11; Ernest Charvet, Recherches sur les anciens théâtres de Beauvais (Beauvais: D. Pere, 1881). LeBlond, Les Associations de musiciens, 12. Ibid., 13, “le possessant dudit fief soit tenu à faire ou faire faire les serviches et choses dues au doien et chapitre de Beauvès, ès festes annuelles par an, de faire canter par jongleurs ou vielleurs, au cloister de ladite église, sicomme est accoustumé de faire.”

Churches

Grand mass, or in the case that he is able to recover a singer in the city of Beauvais or around.27

Considering these entries from 1377, all minstrels, regardless of the occasion, were required to pay a fee of 12 d. to the proprietor of the fief to provide services in town, an obligation also placed on prostitutes at this time, though their fee was only 4 d. At agreed-upon locations throughout Beauvais, the proprietor provided performers on the major holidays of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. An especially important obligation of the proprietor was to organize actors/singers for the cloister of the cathedral on those major holidays in the early morning before mass, perhaps to perform songs appropriate to the day. These stipulations could have not only assured performances on these days, but could have also helped maintain the quality. These musicians appear to have been hired to perform in the tradition of the chanson de geste, a popular song type during the last few centuries of the Middle Ages in northern France described by Johannes de Grocheo in Theoria (c. 1300) as a narrative poem addressing “the deeds of heroes and the achievements of our forefathers,” including “the life and sufferings of the saints.”28 These narrative texts, which could be both entertaining and didactic, were extensive, and the performers in Beauvais appear to have relied on books that could be confiscated from them if fees were not paid. Only a few incomplete melodies for the chanson de geste exist in manuscript, presumably because the music was so short and formulaic, notation was not necessary. The fiddle, which was commonly used in non-liturgical settings in churches, could have been used to provide instrumental preludes and interludes to the sung text. A similar document concerning the rights and obligations of the proprietor of the fief in 1464, a Jehan Le Conte, tavern owner and cook, reveals a continuation of the policies from the previous century with only small alterations. The person in this position continued to collect a tariff of 12 d. from any minstrel performing in Beauvais and 4 d. from any 27

28

Charvet, Recherches sur les anciens théâtres, 558, “Item ledit Jehan, à cause dudit fief, a de chascun jongleur venant et estant à Beauvez, une fois douze deniers de ceulx qui chantent en place: et, se ils sont refusant de paier, il puet prendre leur livre ou leur viole se ils l’ont, et se ils ne la ont, faire les contraindre de paier. Item ledit Jehan puet donner la place et faire chanter de gestes à Beauvés, au lieu accoustumé, qui que il lui plaist, le jour de Noel, le jour de Pasques, le jour de Penthecouste et leurs feries, sans che que aultres y puist chanter, se n’est par la licence dudit Jehan. Item ledit Jehan, à cause dudit fief, est tenus de faire chanter de geste ou cloitre de l’église Saint-Pierre de Beauvés, le jour de Noel, le jour de grans Pasques et le jour de Penthecouste, depuis primes lasquié jusque a tant que on commenche l’Evangile et le grant Messe, ou cas qu’il puet recouvrer de chanteur en le ville de Beauvez ou environ.” John Stevens, Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative, Dance and Drama, 1050–1350 (Cambridge University Press, 1986), 236.

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prostitute. As in 1374, he was obligated to find performers for the major holidays of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, though now the additional holiday of Toussaint was also included. Reinforcing the proprietor’s connection to the world of entertainment in Beauvais, a new stipulation reads, “The said Jehan Le Conte, on account of the said fief, every time that people are playing a character or showing birds or savage beasts, either outside or in a room, is able to see the entertainment, without paying anything to the masters of the said plays or those leading the birds and beasts.”29 At times, the proprietor of the fief did not satisfy the expectations of the canons of the cathedral. In 1390, a complaint was made against the proprietor of the fief de la jonglerie, Henri de Fierville, for failing to provide music in the cloister on Pentecost, and in compensation for not meeting this obligation he needed to provide music for two other nonsolemn days.30 He continued to have difficulties lining up skilled musicians, as in 1401 Henri de Fierville claims “that he has done everything possible to find a good singer who knows how to play the fiddle” for the days of Easter, Pentecost, Toussaint, and Christmas, and in his attempt “to arrange singing with the fiddle by a good and sufficient man” the best that he was able to find was a man named Jobart, who evidently was not adequate.31 In response to Henri’s ongoing problems with arranging qualified performers, the church replaced his obligation of providing a singer/fiddle player with a fee of 40 s.32 While it is impossible to determine whether the incompetence lay with Henri or the musicians of Beauvais, this unique series of records offers insights into the organization, opportunities, and impositions of the freelance environment for minstrels in late medieval Beauvais. The cathedral in Beauvais also offered support to minstrels from as far away as Spain during annual minstrel schools held during Lent often in Beauvais during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. During this period, the expenses of the cathedral include frequent payments of support in the form of bread for the visiting minstrels.33 At least during the years when these schools were held in Beauvais, one can imagine that a large 29

30 31

32

Charvet, Recherches sur les anciens théâtres, 562, “Item led. Jehan Le Conte, a cause dud. fief, toutes fois qu’il vient en la ville de Beauvais aucunes personnes jouans de personages ou monstrans oiseaulx ou bestes sauvages, soit en place ou en chambre, puet aler veoir l’esbatement, lui deuxieme, sans rien paier aux maitres desd. jeux ou menans tells oiseaux ou bestes.” LeBlond, Les Associations de musiciens, 15. AMBe, Collection Bucquet-aux-Cousteaux, Vol. 26, 86, “qu’il a fait tout son possible pour trouver un bon chanteur et qui scache jouer de la vielle . . . de faire chanter avec la vielle par un homme bon et suffisant.” Ibid., 88. 33 AMBe, Collection Bucquet-aux-Cousteaux, Vol. 69, 60, 111, 129.

Churches

number of skilled musicians would have been available to perform at the cathedral on Easter.34 The cathedral of Rouen in the late fourteenth century demonstrated similar concerns in lining up minstrels for celebrations. The cathedral in Rouen at least at times secured the services of minstrels in a different manner; in 1398 a legal arrangement was formed through a notarial contract for employment of four minstrels throughout the year. The contract reads: Jacquet le Caron and Guille Chevalier, living in Saint Laurent in Rouen, minstrels, for themselves and acting for Simon de Pierrelee and Franchequin le Taillendier, also minstrels, or for two minstrels as good as them, promise to serve the brothers and sisters of Saint Anne, founded in the church of Notre Dame of Rouen, for one year beginning the Monday of the week of Rogations. Each is to serve in this profession the best they are able to do during this time. At Rogations, four minstrels, and at the feast of Sainte Anne, three, and at Candalmas, three, as it is accustomed to make at the merry-making for 10 l. 5 s. t. for all of the said term.35

Rogation Days, the three days before Ascension at the beginning of the growing season in May or June, were marked by general processions throughout France, creating a need for the church to line up “good” minstrels far in advance. Similarly, the confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour was concerned with securing “good” minstrels for their celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. For the feast of Saint Anne, celebrated in the middle of summer on July 26, and Candlemas, a commemoration in early February at the mid-point of winter of the presentation of Jesus Christ at the temple and of the purification of the Virgin Mary, it would have been less difficult to procure skilled minstrels. At least on occasion churches served as a reliable source of employment for minstrels, and contracts like this one in Rouen would have ensured skilled minstrels for the church.

34 35

See Chapter 5 for further discussion of these schools. ADSM, 2 E 1/157, f. 111v, “Jacquet le Caron et Guille le Chevalier demourans a Saint Laurent de Rouen mestriers pour eulx et eulx faisans fors de Simon de Pierrelee et de Franchequin le Taillendier sembablement mestriers ou de deux aussi bons menestriers comme eulx promistrent server les freres et seurs de la fraire Madame Sainte Anne fondee en leglise Notre Dame de Rouen pour un an commencement le lundi de la sepmanie de Rouvoisons pour chacun den pour les server de ceux dicte mestier au mieulx quilz pourvoit le dit terme durant cest assavoir aux Rouvoisons iiii menestriers et ala feste Sainte Anne en este iii et ala candaleur trois ainsi comme il est acoustume faire ala dite frairie pour x l. v s. t. pour tout le dit terme.” This contract is cited in Charles de Robillard de Beaurepaire, “Notice sur les ménétriers de Rouen,” Bulletin de la Commission des antiquités de la Seine-Inférieure (1897–98), 177.

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Universities The final public examinations at universities often prompted students to hire minstrels, even though it was frequently against the wishes of university officials, who sought to keep such celebrations modest. These examinations, which routinely involved public speaking and defense of a thesis, would often be staged at the cathedral. Following the successful acquisition of a license, the student would be escorted through town by friends and colleagues and then a banquet would ensue with dancing and wine provided by the student.36 Statutes from the University of Toulouse dating from 1328 concerning the festivities surrounding exams confirm that musicians were commonly employed, though the university attempted to control which students could employ musicians, as well as the nature of the music. Students who were receiving a license were allowed to engage up to two pairs of trumpeters along with a drum (tamborello), a significant musical display considering the prominent city council of Toulouse rarely employed two pairs of trumpeters. These musicians were only to be given money, not clothes, based “upon an agreement among them,” referring to a long tradition of compensating musicians with clothes.37 According to these statutes, bachelor students were not able to hire trumpeters, perhaps suggesting that this practice was left to students who were further along with their studies. While trumpeters and an accompanying drummer were allowed for the festivities surrounding the bestowal of a license, the university forbade the engagement of “mimis et joculatoribus seu histrionibus,” general terms for musical and theatrical entertainers.38 These musical practices appear to have continued throughout the century, though statutes dating from 1391 are more general and suggest less control. Two pairs of musicians, only identified as “duo paria mimmorum,” continue to be permitted for festivities surrounding students receiving a license and an unspecified number of minstrels and trumpeters for those receiving a

36

37

38

Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936), 455. Claude de Vic and Joseph Vaissete, Histoire générale de Languedoc avec des notes et les pièces justificatives, vol. VII (Toulouse: Edouart Privat, 1879), 523, “Item quod nullus sit ausus habere in sua licentia ultra duo paria tubarum cum uno tamborello, que in eundo ad ecclesiam & redeundo ad hospicium tamen posit secum habere; quibus tubicinatoribus & tamborello dare pecuniam tantum valeat & non vestes, prout conventum extiterit inter eos.” Ibid., 522, “Item quia, secundum beatum Augustinum, donare res suas mimis & joculatoribus seu histrionibus vitium immane est & non virtus.”

Weddings

doctorate.39 The statutes of the minstrels’ guild in Toulouse from the late fifteenth century imply that minstrels continued to be a regular phenomenon at the festivities surrounding the licensing of doctoral students, but also of bachelor students at the University of Toulouse.40 While similar practices took place in Montpellier, university officials were less tolerant of them. The statutes of the University of Montpellier in the early fifteenth century insist that the festivities surrounding doctoral students be more modest; the students were not to ride on horses to the cathedral of Notre Dame-des-Tables and were not to be accompanied by trumpeters.41 Similarly, statutes of the University of Caen forbade “minstrels and trumpeters” from such festivities.42

Weddings The ritual and celebration attached to weddings appear to have been an important source of income for minstrels, though documents rarely offer details with minstrels’ precise involvement. The most direct and widespread evidence is the guild statutes of Paris, Amiens, and Toulouse, which, when establishing equitable professional practices among minstrels, refer frequently to weddings, as well as meals of engagement. Ironically, the other substantial, if indirect, evidence for the participation of minstrels at weddings is city ordinances, frequently reissued, that attempt to prohibit minstrels’ presence at such events. While notarial contracts have proven to be a rich source of information concerning professional obligations of minstrels, such contracts tend to be concerned with long-term obligations, not an isolated event like a wedding. An apprenticeship contract from Aixen-Provence dating from 1444, however, does confirm the importance of the wedding among employment opportunities for urban musicians, as the

39

40

41

42

Ibid., 590, “Item quod licenciati possint habere una cum tribus duo paria mimmorum, quales pro tempore in civitate habentur . . . Item quod doctor novus possit satisfacere mimmis & tubicinatoribus, condecenter tamen & honeste.” ADH, E 1318, “ung cascun menestrier et confrayre de ladita confreyria, que aura sonat en festa de doctor licenciat ou bachelier qui se feran en tholosa . . . pague et sia tengut de pagar a la dita confreyria tres diniers de tournes.” Alexandre-Charles Germain, Cartulaire de l’Université de Montpellier 1181–1400 (Montpellier: Ricard Frères, 1890), 318. “Baccalarius doctorandus, pedes semper et sine equis et simpliciter sine tubis . . . vadat ad Ecclesiam” (“Students receiving a doctorate go to the church always on foot and without knights and simply without trumpets”). Rashdall, Universities of Europe, vol. II, 462.

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civic-employed trumpet player had an apprentice promise to accompany him at weddings, among other obligations.43 Weddings would have provided minstrels with a steady and substantial source of employment, as they were common events throughout the year with the exceptions of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or the week preceding Pentecost.44 Except for Lent, these are times of year in which minstrels were frequently hired by the city for other celebrations. The extended nature of wedding celebrations also would have contributed to their importance as a source of income for minstrels. It was standard for friends, family, and neighbors to accompany the couple to the church in a procession where a priest received them at the front entrance. They then entered into the church for a nuptial mass, which was followed by a procession to the wedding feast. The priest would often come to bless the newlyweds’ home, particularly their wedding bed, and wedding festivities would generally not conclude until the next morning. Even though extended wedding rituals were common throughout France in the late Middle Ages, civic authorities often attempted to limit the festivities surrounding the event. Some ordinances aimed to limit the size of the wedding, such as in thirteenth-century Montpellier, where a limit was set at twenty people for a wedding banquet. Others sought to limit the length, such as the curtailment of festivities beyond noon of the next day or beyond three meals. Some ordinances specifically tried to limit the role of minstrels in wedding celebrations. At times their number was limited to two to four players, apparently to control disruptions, and at other times they were prevented from attending at all. Another approach to limiting problems was to limit the amount of money that could be spent on minstrels. These ordinances also indicate that minstrels served different functions; some were on foot and others on horseback, this latter group likely performing in a procession, not just a banquet.45 Noting the prevalence of prohibitions controlling wedding festivities, Robert Muchembled wrote that authorities were worried that these festivities could quickly get out of hand. He wrote, “It might easily end on a challenge to established values that took place in a dream time and an unfenced space. This was what made it dangerous from the authorities’ point of view and led them to try to hem it in with a well-defined ritual that marked the limits beyond which a return to normal life would be impossible.”46 43 44

45 46

ADB, Dépôt annexe d’Aix-en-Provence, 302 E 282, no folio. Philippe Contamine, La Vie quotidienne pendant a Guerre de Cent Ans: France et Angleterre (XIVe siècle) (Paris: Hachette, 1976), 177. See Chapter 6 for further discussion of these ordinances. Robert Muchembled, Popular Culture and Elite Culture in France 1400–1750 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985), 133.

Weddings

According to the guild statutes of Amiens, minstrels could only perform at one wedding a day, a restriction the guild needed to reinforce through a later amendment.47 Reflecting the understandable desire of minstrels to work around this rule, in 1490, a harp player and a taborin player had to pay a 20 s. fine for performing at two weddings on a single day.48 The intention of this amendment, in addition to distributing work among minstrels, might have been to address the quality of work, making sure that minstrels fulfilled their rather extended obligations. Perhaps the guild sought to keep minstrels from running off to another wedding when their original obligations often continued into the evening. So while the details concerning minstrels’ involvement in weddings are scarce in the archives, it is clear that weddings were very important sources of income throughout the Middle Ages, even if during the thirteenth century there were attempts to control their participation. All types of musicians, including trumpeters, were hired throughout the day and night of the celebration, and some performed on horseback, most likely during the processions to and from the church. Musicians also participated in festivities prior to weddings. An ordinance in Montpellier from 1255 sought to limit the participation of musicians at festivities outside the home of brides prior to a wedding, seeming to allude to the popular custom known as a charivari or “a noisy sneer upon newlyweds” at their home involving dancing, drinking, costumes, as well as violence and revenge.49 It states, “We establish that no jotglars henceforward will come nor ought to come to a house with a woman who is to be married, when it is closed, nor at night, open or secretly, with or without instruments or in another form. During the day he is able to come there to sing and to bring instruments or not; on the condition that he will have no trumpets.”50 Charivaris were frequently directed towards unpopular people and marriages in France during the last centuries of the Middle Ages, and in late medieval Montpellier specifically the remarriage of a widow or widower often led to a charivari.51 They continued during the late Middle Ages “in

47 49

50

51

AMAm, AA 13, ff. 204v–205, Article 8. 48 AMAm, CC 68, f. 25. Richard Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology (1952; reprint, New York: Octagon Books, 1970), 166. Le Petit Thalamus, 142, “Item establem, et establem vedam, que neguns jotglars dayssi enan non vengon ni auzon venir a mayzon de novia, pueys que sera fermada, ni esser de nuegs, a prezen ni a rescostz, ab estrumens ni ses estrumen ni en autra forma. De jorns empero i puescon venir et esser e cantar e de portar ab estrumens e ses estrumens; empero trompas noy iaia.” Natalie Zemon Davis, “The Reasons of Misrule: Youth Groups and Charivaris in SixteenthCentury France,” Past and Present 50 (1971): 52; Baumel, Histoire d’une seigneurie, vol. II, 395.

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spite of indignant protests against their appalling excesses launched by secular and ecclesiastical authorities.”52 A reference to this type of practice, along with the type of violent behavior that accompanied charivaris, dates from 1454 in Amiens. A group of people went “to play behind Saint Leu” along with a “harp player who played before houses where young girls to be married lived.”53 A group of people who “liked the said girls” approached the harp player and cut the strings of his instrument. In the end, sticks and daggers were drawn, and the violence led to someone’s death. Clearly, the songs of the harp player were not wishing the soon-to-be-married girls well, but rather were offensive to them and their friends. It must have been this type of behavior and incidents that led to authorities trying to curtail the presence of minstrels at such festivities. An entertaining woodprint dating from 1494 from Lyons could be a depiction of a musical charivari involving a lutenist, two recorder players, and two singers who are dressed in traditional fools’ dress with asses’ ears.54 Pointing to a charivari, an older woman on the receiving end of this serenade is clearly not happy with their presence beneath her window, as she is dumping out her chamber pot and splashing them with the contents. So while this was a common practice and one can assume a source of income for minstrels, it was an activity that came with penalties and risks.

On the streets and at festivities Most minstrels must have, at least periodically, sought performing possibilities on city streets, whether it was scratching out a tune in the town square hoping to receive some handouts from passersby, or whether it was fulfilling an informal expectation of playing at a reception for visiting royalty. Minstrels were a common and integral part of informal street festivities, whether or not they were considered desirable by some members of society. The behavior surrounding minstrels on the streets was often criticized and curtailed, such as when they performed on religious property of monasteries and churches, but

52 53

54

Bernheimer, Wild Men, 66. Durand, Inventaire-sommaire . . . Ville d’Amiens, vol. II, 130, “compaignon harpeur qui jouoit au devant d’aucunes maisons où demouroient aucunes jones filles à marier.” Monique Decitre, Fêtes et chansons historiques et politiques: Lyon, Lyonnais, Beaujolais: patrimoine et folklore (Lyons: Éditions Lugd, 1995), 131; Pelletier, Histoire de Lyon, 401.

On the streets and at festivities

these restrictions confirm that they commonly contributed to songs, dances, and games throughout French cities.55 Large festivities created important opportunities for minstrels who would congregate at such events in search of compensation. In 1491 when the city of Lille chose to terminate the important and longstanding festival of Epinette, the civic minstrels complained that this development strongly affected their ability to support themselves. The compensation they received from the city was not substantial enough to create such a reaction, rather it must have been the loss of their ability to freelance for multiple days in such a large crowd of people that prompted this response. In 1470 in Orléans, sixteen minstrels were drawn to the city and found employment for a celebration for the birth of the son of Louis XI. Unfortunately, some outof-town musicians were turned away in Dijon in 1483 for the period around Saint Nicholas Day, being told by the city that enough minstrels had already been engaged. Fairs were another such phenomenon important to a minstrel’s livelihood. In 1296 a jongleur in Troyes was awarded the right by Phillip the Good to collect taxes on his fellow performers attending the nearby fairs in Champagne, demonstrating that these entertainers were a standard fixture at these international events.56 During the extended visit of King Charles VI of France to Montpellier in November of 1389, all types of minstrels would have likely found opportunities to perform. Jean Froissart notes in his chronicle that the king remained in Montpellier for twelve days since he enjoyed the town so much. He wrote: All that he saw there, the aspect of the town and of the married ladies and the young ladies, the style they lived in and the amusements which were provided for him and his court, were very greatly to his liking. To tell the truth, the King was still completing his education, for at that time he was young and light-hearted. So he danced and danced the whole night long with the lively ladies of Montpellier . . . every day and night there were parties, dancing, and entertainment, and always more to come.57

In 1392, in honor of the birth of the son of King Charles VI, the future Charles VII, celebrations extended for over a week and involved “diverse 55

56

57

See discussions throughout Chapter 6 for detailed examples of attempts to control minstrels’ behaviors performing on the streets. Bernard Bernhard, Notice sur la confrérie des joueurs d’instruments d’Alsace, relevant de la juridiction des anciens seigenurs de Ribeaupierre (Paris: Bureau de l’annuaire de la noblesse, 1844), 8. Jean Froissart, Chronicles, selected, translated and edited by Geoffrey Brereton (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1968), 361.

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instruments and songs and dances . . .” and “many minstrels.” During these festivities, “students made a large celebration for the entire day in front of the consulate throughout the whole city, with dancing, with minstrels and with large decorations and singing rhymed couplets.”58 Similarly, when the Queen of France came to Amiens in 1463, all the bells of the city rang, and all night long people made fires, sang songs, and played games.59

Inns and bathhouses In addition to performing on streets, musicians must have found audiences in places of entertainment, such as taverns, inns, and bathhouses. A penalty was placed against a chaplain in Rouen, July 5, 1410, for behaving like a minstrel, who specifically “was playing at taverns and weddings night and day with a lyre and other stringed instruments like a minstrel.”60 A few musicians in Montpellier, Avignon, and Dijon have been noted who owned inns and bathhouses. Simon Requier, who was a minstrel, tower-trumpeter, and public crier in early fifteenth-century Montpellier, owned an “old” and a “new” bathhouse, appropriately situated near the Street of the Baths (Rue des bains).61 In Avignon, a minstrel, Poncius Blaconi, who performed in processions during the 1430s for both the city and the confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour, owned a bathhouse.62 Another musician in Avignon, Brocardus de Campanino de Pavia, who was identified as a “player of musical instruments” (tactor instrumentorum musicorum) in numerous fourteenth-century records, owned many pieces of property, including an inn with a tavern.63 In 1413 in Dijon, a fine was placed against a tailor who had been disruptive during the night with prostitutes in the hostel of a “master of the organ,” and during the same year a minstrel, Estienne Volant, owned a hostel in which women bathed.64 While some bathhouses only served a utilitarian function, others were centers of entertainment where a person could receive a meal, hire a prostitute, or listen to music. Referring to medieval bathhouses, Jean Larmat writes, “Most often, in medieval 58

59 60 61 63

64

Le Petit Thalamus, 421–3, “amb estrumens diverses et am cansos et am danssas” and “am motz menestriers”; “los estudians feron gran festa tot lo jorn al plan del cossolat e per tota la vila, danssans am menestriers et am grans paramens e cantan coblas rimadas” Durand, Inventaire-sommaire . . . Ville d’Amiens, vol. I, 179. Beaurepaire, Inventaire sommaire . . . Seine-Inférieure, Série G, 216. AMMo, Inv. 6, No. 248 (CC 580), ff. 148–148v. 62 ADV, 3 E 5/717, ff. 303–304. Brocardus “owned as many as eight hotels from 1336 until 1354, when he acquired an inn with a tavern.” Tomasello, Music and Ritual, 30. AMD, M 54, f. 82 and f. 96v.

Teaching

literature, the bath is an enjoyable pastime, even voluptuous, that one offers to his guest, to a friend, a recreation taken willingly in company.”65 Paintings from the fifteenth century commonly depict musicians performing in bathhouses for men and women bathing together.66 Confirming these literary descriptions and paintings, the statutes of the minstrels’ guild in Toulouse dating from 1532 states that minstrels were not “to play instruments in the houses of prostitution and other places of debauchery” with a penalty of 5 ll., suggesting that this was not an uncommon occurrence in the fifteenth century.67 Perhaps these musicians who owned bathhouses and an inn performed for their customers or arranged for their friends and colleagues to provide musical entertainment.

Teaching As is the reality for many freelancing musicians today, medieval urban musicians supplemented their income through teaching. A common teaching relationship among professional musicians was the apprenticeship, an agreement in which the master did not specifically receive monetary compensation from his apprentice, but rather an agreement which would foster further income through having the apprentice’s services at his disposal. (Apprenticeship contracts are discussed in Chapter 5.) A different model than the apprenticeship that put money into the musician’s pocket was the individual lesson, which, rather than emphasizing on-the-job training over a long period of time, emphasized teaching a group of pieces for a set price. Furthermore, it was a mode of transmission where the students appear to have been amateur musicians, and so not surprisingly, played soft instruments. Whereas musicians seeking a profession in music sought out an apprenticeship, amateur musicians sought out individual music lessons, creating a substantial source of income for urban musicians.

65

66

67

Jean Larmat, “Les Bains dans la littérature française du moyen âge,” in Les Soins de beauté: moyen âge-début des temps modernes. Actes du IIIe Colloque internationale, Grasse (26–28 avril 1985), ed. D. Menjot (Nice: Facultés des lettres et sciences humaines, Université de Nice, 1987), 204, “Le plus souvent, dans la littérature médiévale, le bain est un passe-temps agréable, même voluptueux, que on l’on offre à son hôte, à un ami, un divertissement pris volontiers an compagnie.” An example of a painting of a bathhouse scene with a musician from Germany and dating from 1470 is provided in Edmund Bowles, Musikleben im 15. Jahrhundert, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, vol. 3, no. 8 (Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1977), 150–51. Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 64.

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Direct and detailed evidence of this professional opportunity is a notarial contract from Avignon dating from 1449, which formalizes an agreement for music lessons between the instructor Mosse de Lisbon, identified as a Jewish cloth dyer, and a student at the University of Avignon.68 There is no mention of teaching skills, but rather, pieces. In the contract, Mosse promised “to teach and to instruct Anthonius to play the following songs (carmina sive cantinellas) on the gittern or harp: first, Joyeux spoyr, Sperance, Rostit bollit joyeux acontre, La bone volonte que j’ey with two steps containing the aubedance and the pas de Breban, the two bergeres, Le joly vertboys and Jauffroy, and the accustomed entrance to all dances.”69 Of the first four pieces, which appear to have all been part of the basse danse tradition, Rostit bollit joyeux was one of the most popular basses danses in the fifteenth century “that was making the rounds of Europe, from royal court to barnyard.”70 Frederick Crane has identified the work as being “mentioned more often in documents and literary works than any other dance in B-T [two of the most important sources for the basses danses], over a period of more than a century, and in several countries.”71 The music for the dance Joyeux spoyr appears in two different sources, though the music or references to the other two dances have not been identified.72 The dances involved two difference dance steps: the laubedance, or slower basse danse proper, and the pas de Breban, a faster dance step that customarily followed the slower basse danse. The two bergeres were probably bergerettes, a poetic form related to the formes fixes at the height of its popularity in the midfifteenth century. The fee for learning this group of pieces was set at 5 fl., evidently regardless of the number of lessons it required Anthonius to learn them. For half of the fee, Anthonius gave Mosse one of his gitterns or harps valued at 2½ fl., which is described as an instrument of “modest value”; and he paid the remaining 2½ fl. in advance at the time the contract was made. Anthonius could, however, redeem his instrument at any time by paying 68

69

70

71

72

ADV, 3 E 8/714, ff. 136–136v. A transcription and discussion of the document appears in Pansier, “Les Débuts du théâtre,” 40–2. ADV, 3 E 8/714, f. 135v, “Ipsum Anthonium docere et instruere ad ludendum de citara sive arpa/ Carmina sive cantinellas sequentes/ Et primo Joyeux spoyr/ Item Sperance/ Rostit bollit joyeux a contre/ la bone volonte que j’ey/ a deux mesures contenant laubedance et le pas de breban/ deux bergeres cest assavoir le joly vertboyz et jauffroy/ Et lentrea acostumea a toutes dances.” Daniel Heartz, “A Fifteenth-Century Ballo: Rôti Bouilli Joyeux,” in Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese, ed. Jan La Rue (New York: W. W. Norton, 1966), 359. Frederick Crane, Materials for the Study of the Fifteenth Century Basse Danse (Brooklyn: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1968), 100. Ibid., 91.

Teaching

Mosse the equivalent sum of 2½ fl. At this rate, teaching would have been lucrative work, as the fee of 5 fl. is a substantial sum in comparison to what musicians in Avignon were paid for other services. For comparison, in the mid-fifteenth century in Avignon, trumpeters were each paid ½ fl. by the city to perform in a procession, and the two musicians who sounded the watch were each paid a monthly stipend of 2½ fl. The contract also states, “if the said Anthonius is overtaken by death or any illness and goes away or leaves this city due to an epidemic or other urgent accidental reason, and all of the above songs are not learned, it is then agreed that the said Anthonius is held only to pay the said Jew for songs that he has learned.”73 The final conditions read, “the said Jew promises to the said Anthonius to teach the said songs faithfully and without deceit and fraud,” and “the said Anthonius promises to learn and to practice the songs carefully with all his power without fraud or negligence and frequently to come to lessons and to practice.”74 A little over two months later, on January 24, 1450, the contract was cancelled, as all of the agreements had been fulfilled. A book recording the personal expenses of George Cely, a wool merchant of the Staple Company in Calais, included a number of payments in 1474 to a Thomas Rede also of Calais, identified only as a harp player, suggesting a professional status.75 George Cely, like Anthonius in Avignon, played string instruments, the harp, and the lute. While this book of expenses does not detail the conditions of their arrangement, it is clear that the wool merchant most commonly paid for the transmission of dances and songs. The price of instruction was determined by the number of pieces he learned, not the number of lessons. For example, on October 22, George paid 7 s. “ffor to lerne to harpe xx daunsys” and on November 1, he paid 3 s. 10 d. “to lerne xiiii daunsys and an hornpipe on the leut.” In both situations, the merchant set the rate of three dances per sou. On December 25, the merchant paid Thomas Rede for teaching him three songs identified by name at the cost of 3 s. 6 d., almost three times the price of learning a dance. On two occasions, 73

74

75

ADV, 3 E 8/714, f. 135v, “Quod si dictus Anthonius preoccupatus morte vel infirmitate aliqua quod absit vel recessu ab hac civitate ex causa impidimie vel urgenti casu fortuito et dicta carmina non didicerit omnia ut convenerit quod tunc dictus Anthonius teneatur solum solvere dicto judeo de carminibus que didicerit.” Ibid., “Dictus Judeus promisit dicto Anthonio dicta carmina sibi fideliter et sine dolo et fraude docere/ et cum debita mensura/ Et dictus Anthonius promisit/ diligenter et sine dolo et neglicencia toto posse dicta carmina addiscere et repetere ac ad lectionum sibi dandam frequenter venire et repetere.” Alison Hanam, “The Musical Studies of a Fifteenth-Century Wool Merchant,” Review of English Studies 8 (1957): 270–4.

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reference is made to the teaching of broader skills. On March 10, in addition to paying for six dances, he paid for being taught the fingering on the harp, which cost him 9 s.; assuming earlier rates, learning the harp fingerings was worth approximately twenty-one dances. Also suggesting that learning specified skills was quite a bit more expensive than learning a particular piece, on November 14, he paid 3 s. 6 d. “to lerne to teune the leute.”

Instrument making This sizeable population of urban minstrels in France would have clearly required a large number of instrument makers, though their presence and practices are even harder to document than those of the musicians themselves. The scarcity of references to people specifically identified as some kind of instrument maker points to the lack of specialization with this skill. This is particularly true with makers of loud wind instruments, who were not specialists, but rather who blended these skills with some other profession as well. Some of these makers were players themselves who built their own instruments and perhaps those of their colleagues. A tower-trumpeter in Montpellier, Petrus Ayle, was one such musician, as his city contract dating from 1403 includes a special stipulation that he was not to make trumpets while on duty.76 Consistent with this stipulation, Petrus is identified in this contract as a turner (tornyer) or someone who produced round shapes in wood or metal, particularly with a lathe. Two other musicians in the civic wind band in Montpellier have also been identified as turners: Petrus Ayle’s father, Johan Ayle, and Marsal Fabre, identified as a “minstrel turner” (menistryer tornyer) in his manifest of property in 1477.77 For one additional connection, Martin Masaret, a member of the civic wind band in the second half of the fourteenth century in Montpellier, was the father of the turner Jacob Martini.78 Inexpensive trumpets, perhaps built by instrumentalists like Petrus Ayle, were used by members of the watch in French cities, such as in Tours in 1426, when a new trumpet was purchased for only 4 ll. 10 s. for the watch on the tower of Saint Martin.79 High-quality trumpets were sought from skilled metalworkers, such as goldsmiths and silversmiths, but these craftsmen were not identified strictly 76

77 79

AMMo, BB 36, f. 55v, “recolligere aliquos fayditos nec tubicinatores docere seu ibi trompam facere” (“not to entertain others, nor to teach other trumpeters, nor to make a trumpet while there”). AMMo, BB 36, f. 55v; Inv. 6, No. 269, (CC 597), f. 164v. 78 ADH, II E 95/446, f. 12v. AMTours, CC 23, f. 91.

Instrument making

as instrument makers either. In Dijon in 1433 an expensive trumpet was purchased by the city council from a highly skilled goldsmith. This S-shaped trumpet in thirteen pieces was made of silver by a goldsmith by the name of Prenot Loyet for the sizeable sum of 54 fr. 4 gr. The repair work of this instrument also required the attention of a specialist, as in 1464, five escus of gold was paid to Symon Rousselt, a goldsmith, who “rebuilt all to new the silver trumpet of this city.”80 While the cost and the detailed information concerning the trumpet in Dijon are unusual, many French cities bought a silver trumpet for the official crier and must have employed the services of skilled metalworkers. For example, the city of Amiens in 1406 paid a goldsmith for the purchase of a silver trumpet, and the city of Toulouse in 1420 paid 8 ll. only for the reparations of the city’s silver trumpet.81 Similar to the goldsmith with refined skills to construct an elaborate trumpet in Dijon, skilled woodworkers were hired to construct quality shawms. Two local “superior wood workers” formed a legal contract with two council minstrels in Montpellier in 1429. Durandus de Vinea and Jaufredus Julain alias Verdelet sold “a bombard with a key and a shawm made in Bruges” to the woodworkers, who might have intended to use these instruments as models for their own construction.82 Bruges was a wellknown center for instrument making during the late Middle Ages, and both court and civic musicians throughout Europe would buy instruments from cities in the Low Countries. The key on the bombard that is referred to in the notarial contract was an innovation of Flemish instrument makers during the early fifteenth century and was added to facilitate the covering of the lowest hole. These woodworkers did not exclusively build instruments, however, as they were contracted by another minstrel at the time of this transaction to construct a wine vat.83 While makers of loud wind instruments identified in the archives of French cities have been identified either as instrumentalists or some type of metal or woodworker, makers of soft instruments are actually identified 80 81 82

83

AMD, B 58, “refaicte toute a neuf la trompecte dargent dicelle ville.” AMA, CC 13, f. 28; AMT, CC 1856, f. 37v. ADH, II E 95/547, ff. 291–291v, “nos johannes de clareto loci sancta margarite de peyrola et guillemus de manse superiori fusterii . . . confitemur et in veritate recognoscimus nos debemus vobis durando de vinea et jaufredo julian alias verdelet ministreris montispessulani presentibus ac scilicet septem scuta auri . . . pro precio unus bonbarde cum clave et unus chalmale operis de brutges” (“We Johannes de Clareto of the district of ‘St. Margarite de Peyrola’ and Guillemus de Manse superior woodworkers . . . acknowledge and in truth recognize that we owe to Durandus de Vinea and Jaufredus Julian alias Verdelet minstrels of Montpellier namely seven scuta of gold . . . for the price of one bombard with a key and one shawm made in Bruges”). ADH, II E 95/547, ff. 290v–291.

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From confraternal processions to weddings to bathhouses

as such. In Montpellier in 1404 a “Mastyre Enric Alaman who makes harps” appears in a record with property listings for tax purposes, a record in which it is customary to identify the profession of the individual.84 Also indicating a high degree of specialization with harp making, in the mid-fifteenth century in Dijon, Oudot Bergeret was identified as a “maker of harps and other instruments” in tax records.85 Similarly, in Avignon during the late fourteenth century, P. Palau, “master of harps,” sold two harps to the royal court in Aragon and the will of a Petrus Polerii dating from 1452 in Avignon identified him as a “maker of harps.”86 The identification of another maker in Avignon in 1426 as a master, “Master Petrus de Parisius who built organs and other musical instruments of strings,” suggests a profession with set training periods.”87 These makers did better than Jehannin du Meix, identified in the tax records of Dijon in 1453 as a “maker of organs,” as he was described as having a profession of little value and as not being able to find work for the past four to five years.88

Non-musical sources of income Finally, professional urban musicians in France frequently supplemented their income through non-musical sources. Many musicians owned rural pieces of property, including vineyards, fields, olive-groves, orchards, and gardens, and evidently did some farming. A number of musicians also owned both urban and rural property that they let to tenants. Professional musicians have also been identified in these cities who owned and operated a stall for selling fish, and, as previously noted, bathhouses and inns. (See Chapter 6 for a discussion of minstrels’ ownership of property.) The world of the freelancing minstrel could be quite diverse and sophisticated. Urban minstrels in France appear to have performed in a variety of settings to support themselves and their families, and did not rely solely upon the city or any other single source of income. The nature of their employment ranged from highly reliable jobs arranged months in advance for specific duties and wages to impromptu performances on the streets in 84 85 86

87

88

AMMo, Inv. 6, No. 239 (CC 571), f. 82v, 1404, “Maystre Enric Alaman que fa las arpas.” AMD, L 106. Maricarmen Gómez, “Minstrel Schools in the Late Middle Ages,” Early Music (May, 1990): 216; ADV, 3 E 9I/24, f. 323. ADV, 3 E 12/60, no folio, “Magistre Petrus de Parisius qui faciebat organa et alia instrumenta cordarum musice.” AMD, L 648, “facteur d’orgues.”

Non-musical sources of income

the hopes of drawing an audience and some remuneration. Employers would seek commitments two months in advance, create complex systems to line up performers for special days, and distinguish between the highly skilled, or “good,” minstrels and the others. Like Monnetus Monneri referred to earlier, Poncius Blaconi from Avignon was a typical medieval urban musical entertainer with multiple sources of income; he was hired by the city to perform in processions, he participated in the annual celebrations of the confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour, he owned a bathhouse, and undoubtedly much more.

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5

Playing en couble: professional relationships among minstrels

Whether a medieval urban minstrel supported himself primarily in a freelance setting or through civic patronage in France, his world involved complex relationships with his colleagues. Some of them were legally binding and breaking them could result in hefty fines, while others were based upon strong social expectations. Some were defined by guilds and applied to everybody in the profession, while others were formed by individuals and involved only a designated few. The profession of minstrelsy had a level of organization and communication that connected minstrels from multiple cities, as well as countries, and allowed them to interact on a regular basis. These diverse associations allowed for tightly organized ensembles with sophisticated musical practices that shared repertoire and skills. They also provided minstrels with a safety net when they met hard times. In addition to these professional alliances, individual minstrels throughout France created relationships with their colleagues that went beyond the professional into personally charitable and socially supportive roles. In this sophisticated musical world Abreham Maillet, a wait/trumpeter in Lille, was supported by the city council to travel to the annual international meetings of minstrels or to host such meetings in his own town, and Martin Andree, a respected minstrel in Marseilles, formed a carefully defined legal partnership with an entertainer who complemented his skills.

Confraternities

190

Confraternities, which were often associated with, though not exclusive to, a particular profession, began to appear rapidly throughout Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth century, often preceding professional guilds by one or two hundred years. These institutions were social and charitable organizations that focused on the well-being of their members, while guilds, in contrast, often included the social concerns of a confraternity but were less inclusive and were predominantly concerned with

Confraternities

controlling a profession.1 As was typical for other professions throughout Europe, the confraternity was the earliest type of organization specifically associated with minstrels in medieval France, with two examples being those of Arras and Fécamp in the far north. The Confrérie des Jongleurs et des Bourgeois d’Arras has already been discussed extensively in scholarship.2 This confraternity, as was usual for such institutions, was open to members of all professions, but this one, which dates from around 1175, was associated specifically with jongleurs, or general entertainers and musicians. The origins of this confraternity are shrouded in the popular belief that a miracle involving two feuding jongleurs, the Virgin Mary, and wax from a holy candle offered “protection against the plague and sudden death” for all the people who officially joined the confraternity. The membership of the confraternity, which included the well-known composer Adam de la Halle, is unusually well documented through a manuscript that records the names of its members upon their death from 1194 to 1361. This confraternal organization was concerned with the social welfare of its members; in addition to protecting its members from the plague, it secured spiritual benefits from the church, provided burial services and offered support to destitute members. The confraternity associated with jongleurs in Fécamp, which was a small coastal town northeast of Paris and close to Arras, was formed earlier. The confraternity was organized and attached to the large abbey in Fécamp by at least the early twelfth century. The earliest surviving charter for the confraternity, however, dates from between 1189 and 1219, though it only survives in a copy dating from the early fifteenth century.3 The membership of the organization was described as being for “joculatores, knights, and others,” so, as for the one in Arras, particularly associated with, but not limited to, musicians and entertainers. As with other confraternities at this time, the abbey offered spiritual benefits to its members, and through annual membership fees the organization was able to offer support to its poor and sick. Each year on the feast day of its patron saint, Saint Martin, 1 2

3

Vincent, Les Confréries médiévales. Carol Symes, “The Lordship of Jongleurs,” in The Experience of Power in Medieval Europe, 950– 1350, ed. Robert Beckhofer (Hampshire: Ashgate, 2005); Edmond Faral, Les Jongleurs en France au Moyen Âge (Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, 1910), 133–8; Roger Berger, Le Nécrologe de la confrérie des jongleurs et des bourgeois d’Arras (1194–1361), 2 vols. (Arras: Commission départementale des monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais, 1963–70); Slocum, “Confrérie, Bruderschaft,” 259–60. Leroux de Lincy, Essai historique et sur l’Abbaye de Fécamp (Rouen: Édouard Frère, 1840); Léon Fallue, Histoire de la ville et de l’abbaye de Fécamp (Rouen: Nicétas Periaux, 1841); Robert Lemouton, “Les Jongleurs,” Bulletin des Amis du Vieux-Fécamp et du Pays de Caux (1988–9): 57–60.

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the monks joined the jongleurs in a procession. As the charter of the confraternity states how the members wish to appear before God “in exultation” with their hurdy-gurdies, drums, fiddles, psalteries, organs, and harps, perhaps the processions for their patron saint were marked by a variety of instrumental sounds.4 While evidence has not been identified for a widespread custom of confraternities for jongleurs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the appearance of confraternities associated with jongleurs, though distinct from the highly formalized profession-oriented minstrel guilds, reflects an important stage of development towards a profession with formalized expectations and responsibilities between its members.

Guilds Institutions that were concerned with the organization and governance of the professional world of minstrels appear to have emerged significantly later than the confraternities in Arras and Fécamp. For five French cities evidence has been identified for a minstrel guild prior to 1500: Paris (1321), Montpellier (1353), Amiens (1461), Rouen (1484), and Toulouse (1492). These minstrel guilds emerged later than those for many professions which had already begun to appear by the mid-twelfth century in France, developing most rapidly in Paris.5 The five cities with minstrel guilds were among the largest cities in medieval France, and among these, guilds appeared earliest in the two largest cities of Paris and Montpellier. The population of Paris is very difficult to determine, though estimates for the early fourteenth century range from 60,000 to 200,000, making it comparable to the large cities of Italy.6 Montpellier had a population nearing 40,000, Toulouse was slightly smaller, closer to 30–35,000, and Amiens and Rouen approached 20,000. Not all large French cities appear to have had guilds, as a handful of other cities in France with populations nearing 20,000 have no evidence of minstrel guilds prior to 1500. While it is certainly likely that records pertaining to minstrel guilds have been lost, the large number of surviving statutes for other professions in these cities suggests that formal guilds for minstrels might not have existed in these remaining large cities, let alone in 4

5 6

Lemouton, “Les Jongleurs,” 59, “simphognies, timbres, vieles, psalterions, orgues, harpes, fieules.” Peter Lewis, Later Medieval France: The Polity (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1968), 251. Philippe Dollinger, “Le Chiffre de population de Paris au XIVe siècle: 210,000 ou 80,000 habitants?” Revue Historique 216 (1956): 35–44.

Guilds

cities below 20,000. Demographics appear to have affected a city’s need for a guild, with large cities offering more professional opportunities for musicians and creating a need for professional control, though other factors would have likely been involved as well. The early formation of a guild in Montpellier, for example, only thirty years after that in Paris, could have been associated with the power and autonomy of Montpellier’s city council and the prominent role civic-employed musicians held in their numerous ceremonies and celebrations. Three sets of statutes from this period are extant allowing for a comparison of goals and procedures. Those from Paris, first written in 1321 and then registered with the provost’s office in 1341, are the earliest surviving examples of their kind in Europe.7 The original form of these statutes comprised eleven articles with four additional points adopted in 1407, and this expanded form remained in place through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In Amiens, a comparatively short set of statutes with nine articles, which were modeled after the 1407 Paris statutes, were officially granted in 1465 and maintained until the end of the sixteenth century.8 The third set of statutes from Toulouse survives in an original form from 1492 and a revised form from 1532.9 In comparison to the earlier two statutes, those from Toulouse are longer, with twenty-three articles that offer greater insight into working relationships between minstrels. For Montpellier and Rouen, the guild statutes are not extant. Evidence of a guild in Montpellier is a list of guild officers for all professions in the city, identified as “consuls des métiers.” For each year from 1353 to 1393, again from 1412 to 1422, and then sporadically for the rest of the fifteenth century the officers of the minstrel guild are recorded.10 Further evidence of the profession’s organization and prominence in Montpellier, if not specifically of a guild, is the participation of musicians throughout the fifteenth century in the annual custom on Ascension Day of the distribution of bread contributed by the city council and the different professions to those in need.11 The comparatively minimal evidence for a minstrel guild in Rouen in the

7

8 9 10

11

Bernard Bernhard, “Recherches sur l’histoire de la corporation des ménétriers ou joueurs d’instruments de la ville de Paris,” Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes 3 (1841): 377–404 and 4 (1842): 525–48. AMAm, AA 13, ff. 204v–205, October 21, 1465. Nicquet, La Corporation des ménétriers. AMT, HH 66, ff. 433–438 and ADH, E 1318. Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers. AMMo, Inv. 6, “Regestre des senhors consoulz et curials de la villa de Montpellier”; GG 1–16, “Livres des consuls des métiers.” AMMo, GG 1–16, “Livres des consuls des métiers,” 1416–96. See Chapter 6 for further discussion of this practice.

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fifteenth century consists of a much later set of statutes that refers to the formation of the minstrels’ guild in Rouen in 1484.12 Theoretically, all tradesmen within the medieval city were obligated to join their respective guild and follow its rules. The profession of minstrelsy certainly covered a wide range of activities, functions, and skills. At one end of the continuum were musicians who scratched out simple tunes and were considered beggars by passersby or jugglers who embellished their act with a little music, and at the other end were highly trained minstrels who were sought out by the cities to perform in civic wind bands or trumpeters who, after fulfilling an eight-year apprenticeship, performed in processions and sounded the watch for the city. Some of these musical performers did not meet the standards of the minstrel guilds, some did not have the financial resources to enter the guilds, or others might not have wanted to join with the hope of avoiding its fees and restrictions. To determine the extent to which a guild actually served to organize and control minstrelsy in an urban setting, consideration needs to be given to the types of musicians included in these professional organizations. The constitution of the minstrel guilds in medieval France was diverse. All three extant statutes explicitly state that all types of instrumentalists were members of the guild. In Paris and Amiens both “loud” (haulx) and “soft” (bas) musicians were explicitly included, while in Toulouse a more general reference is made to “all sorts of instruments” (toutes sortes d’instruments). In Montpellier, both loud and soft instrumentalists appeared as members, though only two soft instrumentalists have been located as officers (a lute player in 1477 and a rebec player in 1490), perhaps reflecting a lack of prominence, either in number or importance.13 Freelance musicians, as well as those employed by the city, were members of the guilds, though the official trumpeter of the city appears to have been excluded from at least the guild in Toulouse. The list of guild members in Toulouse in 1492, the year the guild was established, does not include either of the official trumpeters of the city.14 No references are made to anybody as a “singer” in any of the guild statutes; while it seems likely that some of the minstrels in these guilds sang, they might have primarily been identified as instrumentalists. (This is also consistent with the rare references in city records not only to singers, but to singing in general.) One final pattern to note in the membership of minstrel guilds is the apparent exclusion of women. In the 12 13 14

ADSM, 5 E 495, No. 97. AMMo, Inv. 6, “Regestre des senhors consoulz et curials de la villa de Montpelier,” f. 6. AMT, CC 1872, 30–1.

Guilds

early fourteenth century in Paris eight women were among the thirty-seven minstrels in the guild, though no women appeared in the later lists of musicians from Paris, or in the guilds of Toulouse and Montpellier. Supporting this impression that women did not figure prominently in the professional world of urban music making, female minstrels have not been identified in city records. The minstrel guilds in France were diverse in their inclusion of a variety of instrumentalists who found employment both as freelance and civic-employed musicians; female minstrels and singers, however, while most likely active within the city, are not identifiable within the guilds. Consideration of the size of these minstrel guilds, even though difficult to establish, sheds light on the exclusivity of these organizations. In Toulouse, the names of fourteen minstrels were attached to the statutes of 1492. If these were the only members, the ratio of minstrels to the broader population would be 1:1430 based upon a population of 20,000.15 In Paris, the names of thirtyseven minstrels were attached to the statutes of 1321. If a low estimate of 60,000 is used, the ratio of minstrels to the broader population would be approximately 1:1500, similar to that in Toulouse, and of course much larger if an estimate closer to 200,000 is used. Based upon tax records in Paris from the late thirteenth century, the ratio of minstrels to the general population ranged from approximately 1:500 to 1:800.16 Even considering the uncertainties of the population of Paris, the discrepancy in ratios drawn from the tax records and the statutes suggest that either these thirty-seven minstrels were only a representative group from a larger membership, or only a portion of the minstrels in Paris were members of the guild. While apprentices, as well as visiting foreign musicians, would have expanded the number of available musicians in Toulouse and Paris, it seems unlikely that the guild actually included all professional musicians in town. Considering the undoubtedly diverse skills in a city’s minstrel population, maintaining quality must have been an issue within this profession, as it was among many organized professions in the Middle Ages.17 Assessment and specification of quality in the profession of music, which must be tied to the qualitative skills of an individual, is more difficult than many other professions where the details of materials and size of a measurable product can 15 16

17

For the population of Toulouse see Wolff, Les Toulousains, 42. Lawrence Gushee, “Two Central Places: Paris and the French Court in the Early Fourteenth Century,” in Symposium “Peripherie” und “Zentrum” in der Geschichte der ein- und mehrstimmigen Musik des 12. bis 14. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: 1976), 140. Bo Gustafsson, “The Rise and Economic Behaviour of Medieval Craft Guilds: An EconomicTheoretical Interpretation,” The Scandinavian Economic History Review 35, 1 (1987): 9.

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be clearly defined. While recognition of various skill levels in music, and a resulting hierarchy within the profession, is evident in many cities, a specified system to control the quality of the profession has been identified only in Paris. In the Paris statutes of 1407, the skill levels of minstrels were stringently addressed by requiring a formal audition into the guild. In order for a minstrel to be allowed to perform at a celebration or wedding he would need to be “observed, examined, and passed for sufficient” by the king of minstrels or one of his deputies.18 While it would seem that control of quality would be an issue in all cities, special circumstances surrounding the Paris statutes might have prompted its admittance procedures. First, the city’s larger population with its increased performing opportunities would have likely resulted in musicians flocking to Paris, making quality control a more pressing issue. In addition, the statutes of Paris are from a substantially earlier time than those of Amiens and Toulouse, a time when minstrelsy was just gaining recognition as a formal profession within the urban setting and perhaps greater concern for image and standards existed. In Toulouse, significant differences were recognized among the skill levels of the minstrels and distinct conditions were placed upon them. The entrance fee for skilled musicians was significantly higher than for those who were less skilled. An article reads: any foreign minstrel who comes to Toulouse to play instruments and to make money in Toulouse, trained and expert in entertaining (jogar) and playing in an ensemble (en Couble), as tenor, alto, contratenor, and soprano (tenor, dessus, contra et sobradessus) is held to pay for his new entry 10 s., one-half to the confraternity and the other half to the reparations of the city of Toulouse. All other foreign minstrels, as it is said, not expert or trained to play in an ensemble, 1 s. only to the confraternity.19

According to the statutes, these professional ensembles were “two to six or more” minstrels, and the use of the term “en couble” in these statutes implies the ability of the minstrels to play in an ensemble with instruments of different ranges and functions. It seems possible that in Toulouse in the 18

19

Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 306, “Et aussi nulz desdiz menestrels ou apprentis ne se pourront louer à festes ou nopces, jusques à ce que ycelui roy des ménestrels ou sesdiz députez les ayent une fois veuz, visitez et passez pour souffisans.” AMT, HH 66, ff. 435–435v, “Item staturen et ordeneren, Que tout menestrier estrangier qui vendra en tholosa per sonar de instrument et gasanhar argent en tholosa, excercitat et expert a jogar et sonar en couble com es, tenor, dessus, contra et sobradessus, sia tengat de pagar per sa novuela intrada, detz soulz de tournes applicadors per la mytat aladita confreyria, et lutra mytat alas reparacions de ladita villa de tholosa, Et tout autre menestrier estrangier ainsi com dit es non expert ny excercitat per far couble, ung solz de tournes, aladita confreyria tant solament.”

Guilds

late fifteenth century, as elsewhere in Europe at this time, instrumental ensembles that could perform counterpoint were in demand.20 The statutes did not specify as to the different types of jobs these musicians would fill, but rather it appears to have been assumed that the musicians performing with more sophisticated ensemble skills would automatically be sought after for the more lucrative jobs. Further distinction among guild members included the identification of officers needed to enforce the rules of the guild. In the Paris statutes of 1321 the last article reads, “Finally, two or three worthy representatives of the profession are to be chosen to enforce the statutes. These officials are to be elected each year by the guild members and confirmed by the provost of Paris in the name of the king.”21 The 1407 statutes indicate that a “king of minstrels” is to be designated, who will enforce the rules, judge quality of new minstrels, and be the final judge in professional matters.22 In Toulouse on the annual celebration of the patron saint, three officers were elected by the confraternity; one minstrel was to be from the official wind band of the city (couble de la Maison communale) and two from the other minstrels in the city. These officers are encouraged to be very honest and warned not to show favoritism to friends. The statutes read, “They will disclose without hiding any faults during the year and they will not excuse them for love or for friendship.”23 In Montpellier the guild officers ranged in number from two to four, fluctuating with the city’s population. Both civic and non-civic musicians served this function, and officers were intentionally drawn from different categories of instruments by the early fifteenth century. By 1415, one officer represented the “minstrels” and two represented the “trumpeters,” and by the last couple of decades in the fifteenth century one officer each represented the “minstrels,” the “trumpeters,” and the “pipe and tabor” players.24 A primary purpose of medieval guilds, including these minstrel guilds, was to provide the religious services of a confraternity and to formalize practices of social welfare among colleagues. The minstrels of Paris provided financial support to a hospice established in 1328 to serve musicians passing through the city, as well as musicians who fell ill in Paris. Attached to the hospice was a chapel, known as “Saint Julien des Menetriers,” where .

20 21

22 23

24

Polk, German Instrumental Music, 165. Slocum, “Confrérie, Bruderschaft,” 265; “Item, que ou dit mestier seront ordonné II ou III preudes hommes de par nous ou de par nos sucesseurs prevos de Paris ou nom du roy.” CharlesDominique, Les Ménétriers, 305. Bernhard, “Recherches sur l’histoire,” 531. Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 59, “Ils dévoileront sans rien cacher les fautes de leur année et ne les absoudront ni par amour, ni par amitié.” AMMo, GG 1–16.

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mass was said on a daily basis and sung on a weekly basis, and matins and first and second vespers were performed as well in celebrations dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Julien.25 The first four articles of the statutes in Amiens establish the financial support of a confraternity dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Each member of the confraternity was to pay 3 d. for each job he played and 6 d. as an annual membership fee, while the minstrel from outside of Amiens was to pay 12 d. for each job played and 15 s. as a fee to join the confraternity. The charitable practices of the confraternity, however, are not specified. Clearly, this was a social organization, as two-thirds of the fee collected from a foreign minstrel wishing to join the confraternity was to be used by its members for “to drink and to spend together.”26 The confraternal practices are delineated in the greatest detail in the statutes from Toulouse. The Virgin Mary was again the patron saint, and the confraternity celebrated the Visitation of the Virgin Mary in July each year. On this occasion, the minstrels were expected to attend the mass, with no excuses being considered legitimate. Similar to Amiens, members paid 3 d. each time they played a job, and new entry fees for foreign minstrels were 10 s. for skilled players and 1 s. for less-skilled players. The Toulouse statutes require all of its members to help in the burial of their colleagues, which is one of the most pervasive guild customs in Europe. On these occasions, each minstrel was to say Psalms of the Requiem seven times at the mass, and if he was not familiar with it, he was to say five Pater Nosters and seven Ave Marias.27 The guild offered monetary assistance to minstrels who fell ill or became destitute, expecting repayment when they were able. The minstrel who declared bankruptcy was additionally warned that he was expected to perform at any celebration available to him, evidently to discourage minstrels from exploiting the system.28 In addition to formalizing collegial charity through guild statutes, minstrels appear to have looked out for the well-being of their colleagues through more informal means as well. In the wills of minstrels and their relatives in Montpellier, which frequently include bequests of money and 25 26 27

28

Bernhard, “Recherches sur l’histoire,” 388–91. AMAm, AA 13, f. 204v, Article 4, “pour boire et depenser ensemble.” Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 59, “De même, nous statuerons et ordonnerons que le jour de l’enterrement de ce trépassé, les bayles et confrères de ladite confrérie soient tenus de faire célébrer pour ledit trépassé et autres fidèles tréspassés, une messe basse de requiem à leurs propres coûts et dépens. De plus, chaque bayle ou confreres sera tenu de dire pour ce trépassé les Sept Psaumes de Requiem, s’il sait les dire, et s’il ne les sait pas, il sera tenu de dire cinq Pater Noster et sept Ave Maria.” Ibid., 62,“de jouer dorenavant d’instruments dans aucune fête qui se ferait dans la ville ou sa juridiction sous peine de prison.”

Guilds

clothing to colleagues or their families, a sense of responsibility for the welfare of their colleagues is evident.29 A wife of a civic minstrel of Montpellier specified that she was to be buried at another minstrel’s grave site and appointed him as the executor of her will, a function given only to a person in whom the testator had full confidence.30 Describing the relationship between executor and testator, Louis de Charrin, in his study on wills in Montpellier during the Middle Ages, writes, “In general the testator chose two or three friends in whom he had full confidence, very often people of the same craft or of the same profession.”31 In addition, a notarial contract from 1421 documents the donation of a vineyard by one of the wealthier civic minstrels of Montpellier to one of his poorer colleagues.32 Further legal interactions between minstrels, involving selling property to one another and serving as witnesses for each other’s various legal contracts, suggest a close minstrel community. A primary professional purpose of medieval guilds was to provide stable incomes and to create equal opportunities for their members. The formation of a guild automatically served this function by limiting competition, as theoretically only members of the guild were permitted to practice the craft. Also, it was common for statutes to attempt to distribute the work among its members by limiting the output of labor and by placing sanctions upon members who did not follow the rules. In an attempt to provide a fair economic working environment, honesty between colleagues was also established in the guilds. Besides controlling internal competition, external competition was curtailed by diverse means. These economic concerns are evident in all three of the extant minstrel statutes, though important differences exist between the cities. The statutes of Amiens reveal the greatest concern for fair and even distribution of work among musicians, perhaps due to fewer available jobs in the smaller city. First, a musician could not solicit work at an actual event, but rather prior arrangements had to be made.33 While no central location for arranging jobs is indicated in the statutes, like the “Street of the Jongleurs” (Rue aus Jongleurs) in Paris, it is possible that the minstrels of 29 30 31

32 33

ADH, II E 95/436, ff. 36–36v, 1411; II E 95/414, ff. 63v–65, 1420. ADH, II E 95/414, ff. 56v–57v, 1420. Louis de Charrin, Les Testaments de la région de Montpellier au Moyen Âge (Ambilly: Presse de Savoie, 1961), 125, “En général le testateur choissisait deux ou trois amis en qui il avait pleine confiance, très souvent des gens du même métier ou de la même profession.” ADH, II E 95/415, f. 94. AMAm, AA 13, ff. 204v–205, Article 7, “Quiconques se yra ou fera presenter par aucun a aucun seigneur de festes ou nopces sans etre requis par ledit seigneur ou de par lui, il paiera xx solz d’amende a convertir comme dessus.”

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Amiens had an official meeting place, as at this time there was a “house of the Minstrels” located in the Grand Marche.34 Two other stipulations that directly controlled the output of labor were in place in Amiens. First, minstrels in Amiens could not play alone at a job, but rather had to perform with at least one other musician.35 Second, no musician could engage himself for more than one event in a single day in Amiens.36 The minstrel guild in Amiens had a difficult time enforcing this stipulation, as in 1489, an amendment to the statutes was issued to reinforce it.37 The amendment did not prevent the problem, however, as the next year a harp player and a pipe and tabor player, had to pay a 20 s. fine because they had lined up two weddings in a single day.38 In Paris, the statutes tried to create equal access to jobs without directly limiting the output of a musician. As in Amiens, a musician was not allowed to solicit work at the celebration or wedding itself, but rather prior arrangements had to be made.39 He was further instructed that, when anyone appears in the Rue aus Jongleurs to hire a musician, nobody should interrupt or interfere when the potential client is speaking to a musician.40 The only article that might have impacted the number of engagements of a minstrel was a requirement for all musicians who are committed to an engagement “to stay until the end of the festivities before taking another,” though this article would also help contribute to the integrity of the profession.41 The statutes of Toulouse reflect a more pervasive concern for integrity and honesty, both between colleagues as well as between minstrels and the broader community. The Toulouse statutes moralize, “Because a single 34 35

36

37 39

40

41

AMAm, CC 55, f. 8. The document records the selling of the house in 1476–7. AMAm, AA 13, ff. 204v–205, Article 6, “Ne pourront jouer a festes ou nopces festes de Saint par parroisse ou assemblees qu’ilz ne soient deux au moins et sur xx solz d’amende, a appliquer moictie a la ditte ville, v solz a la ditte confrairie et v solz aux compaignons.” Ibid., Article 8, “S’aucun se loue a plus d’un homme et a plus d’une nopce ou feste le jour, il paiera et escherra en xx s. damende a convertir comme dessus.” AMAm, BB 16, ff. 52–52v. 38 AMAm, CC 68, f. 25. Bernhard, “Recherches sur l’histoire,” 401, Article 4, “Item, que nuls menestreurs ou menestrelles, ne aprentiz quelque il soient, ne voisent aval la ville de Paris pour soy présenter à feste, ne à noces pour-euls, ne pour autres, et s’il fait ou font le contraire qu’il enchée en l’amende.” Ibid., Article 6, “Item, que se aucun vient en la rue aus jougleurs pour louer aucuns jougleurs ou jougleresses, et sus le premier qui li demanderres appelera pour louer, nulls autres ne s’embate en leurs paroles, ne se facent fuers, ne facent faires, et ne l’appellent pour soy presenter ne autrui, jusques à tant que le demanderres et le premier jougleur appellé soient departis de marchié que li demanderres s’en voit pour louer un autre.” Ibid., Article 2, “Item que se trompeurs ou autres menestreurs ont fait marchié ou promis à aler à une feste, que il ne la puissant laissier tant comme ycelle feste durra pour autre prendre.”

Guilds

sheep infects the flock, we state that the bail will not receive as a member of the confraternity anybody who does not appear good and honest.”42 Trying to ensure that minstrels approached their professional commitments with integrity, when musicians in Toulouse arranged to play at a wedding or other celebration, they could not commit themselves to another until the celebration was finished, as in Paris. Similarly, minstrels were warned not to leave one obligation for another higher-paying one or to ask a colleague to fill in for an obligation. Furthermore, as a partner in an established ensemble, a minstrel was required to inform his partners of all the income he received through performing.43 If a minstrel wanted to change the ensemble with which he performed, he needed consent from all of his partners and then to change the license.44 Along with the attempt to control competition among guild members, medieval guilds typically controlled competition from outside the city, at the same time offering foreigners conditions under which they could sell their goods. The most stringent fees placed upon foreign minstrels were in Amiens. If a foreign minstrel wished to join the guild in Amiens, he was expected to pay a substantial fee of 15 s.; this was approximately twice the fee for a local minstrel to enter an apprenticeship and seven times the typical compensation for a minstrel at a civic-sponsored event in town. The article reads, “If anyone comes to live in this city, for to play or to gain money at the cause of the said profession, he will pay 15 s., that is 5 s. to the confraternity and 10 s. to the fellow minstrels (compaignons) for drink and to spend together.”45 The statutes also demand that foreign minstrels who come to Amiens to play a single job pay the fee of 12 d., twice the annual dues of a local minstrel. It reads, “Each player from outside coming to play in Amiens or its suburbs at weddings or festivals will pay 12 d. to the confraternity, 42

43

44

45

ADH, E 1318, “Item, et parce qu’une seule brebis infecte tout le troupeau, nous statuerons et ordonnerons qu’il soit permis aux bayles de la confrérie de recevoir comme membre de la confrérie n’importe qui, pourvu qu’il soit de vie bonne et honnete.” Ibid., “quant alcun del couble logat en alcuna festa levaria largent del couble et sos companhons, Que incontinent tal companhon que ainsi auria levat largent per tout lo couble sia tengut de rendre bon et loyal compte aldit son couble de tout so que aura levat et so sus pena de una liura.” Ibid., “De meme, nous statuerons et ordonnerons, Messeigneurs du Capitole, que si le cas arrivait qu’un ménétrier de Couble fasse ou ait fait marché de lui et de toute sa couble, nommant nom par nom des compagnons de la Couble, que ledit cas ne soit pas permis, ni licite, à ce compagnon ménétrier qui aura fait marché de cette couble, ainsi par lui nommés, de permuter, ni changer ses compagnons de couble par lui nommés, sans licence ni consentement de la couble et de celui qui aura loué toute ladite couble, sous peine pour chaque fois de dix sous tournois applicable et divisible comme il est dit.” AMAm, AA 13, f. 204v, Article 4, “S’aucun vient demourer en icelle ville, pour jouer ou gaigner argent a cause dudit estat et science, il paiera xv solz, c’est assavoir v solz a la ditte confrairie et x solz aux compaignons pour boire et despenser ensemble.”

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which will be put in the said box.”46 Foreign minstrels were most likely a very real and common threat to the livelihood of local musicians in an environment that did not have unlimited opportunities. The famous minstrel schools of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Flanders and nearby towns of Cambrai, Tournai, and Beauvais would have caused many minstrels to travel through the area. Documenting what must have been a fairly common phenomenon, in 1390, the city offered wine to the minstrels of M. de Raineval, an officer in the court of Charles V and VI, who were in Amiens because they had recently “gone to the school.”47 Other references to foreign minstrels appear in the city account books throughout the fifteenth century, such as on January 1, 1429, when the city offered wine to the minstrels of Amiens and Mondidier to drink together.48 Similar conditions were placed upon foreign minstrels seeking work in Toulouse. All foreign minstrels who planned to settle in the city were required to present themselves to the officers of the guild before engaging in professional activities and were required to pay a fee. As discussed earlier, the fee for musicians capable of playing in an ensemble was significantly higher than for those that could not. Also, a lower fee was asked of minstrels who came to perform for a single occasion. A fee of 9 d. was assessed to all foreign minstrels, as well as “private” minstrels, evidently meaning minstrels who were in the employ of a member of nobility, who came to play during Carnival or Christmas, a period when outside minstrels were needed to provide music at the extra festivities.49 Just as the Paris guild established less stringent means to curtail competition with local minstrels, comparatively little is in place to keep foreign minstrels from working in Paris. The Paris statutes required the foreign minstrels to comply with all guild rules while in town with the threat of being banished for a year, but no special rules or fees were applied. Perhaps in the significantly larger city of Paris, opportunities to perform were more readily available and foreign musicians were more easily absorbed into the urban environment.

46

47 48

49

Ibid., Article 3, “Chacun joueur du dehors venant jouer a Amiens ou en le banlieu ausdites nopces ou festes, paiera xii deniers a icelle confrairie, qui seront mis en la ditte boiste.” AMAm, CC 6, f. 95, “as menestreux de Mon. de Raineval qui alèrent as escolles v s. iv d.” AMAm, CC 23, f. 65, “une kane de vin pour etre donnee aux menestreux de Mondidier et d’Amiens pour boire ensemble une kane de vin . . . v s. p.” AMT, HH 66, ff. 435–435v, “Item, nous statuerons et ordonnerons que tout ménétrier privé ou étranger qui jouera dans Toulouse ou son gardiage pendant les fetes de Noel ou de Carnaval soit tenu de payer à la confrérie dix deniers tournois, soit dix deniers pour Noel et dix deniers pour Carnaval.”

Guilds

In other French cities, including Lyons, Beauvais, Marseilles, and Aix-enProvence, references to professional customs often associated with a guild have been located, but no evidence for an actual guild has been found. In Lyons by the early sixteenth century attempts were being made to establish a guild or at least customs of a guild, but it was denied by the city. In 1517 a case was heard in the court of the seneschal in Lyons revealing a hierarchy within the minstrel community, including an acknowledged king and legally recognized masters, and the desire on the part of some established minstrels to regulate their profession and to make it more exclusive. The case involved “Jehan d’Escosse, calling himself king, and certain others named Petit-Jehan le Rebequet, Molhet, and certain other associates, who called themselves sworn masters of the art of pipe and tabor players and minstrels of the city.” These musicians sought “to obligate the new pipe and tabor players and instrumentalists to become masters, to make masterpieces, and to pay for certain banquets and to pay money, according to certain ordinances that they had made among them, based upon certain letters newly obtained by them from the king.”50 Their specific requests were to require minstrels to serve an apprenticeship or at least receive training, to prove their skills, to assume costs for social events, and to pay dues. The city prevented the king and master minstrels from making what was thought to be “a large damage and detriment for the public,” perhaps demonstrating a concern with restrictions that could limit the size of the minstrel population in town and result in an increase in the cost of musical entertainment. In Beauvais, as discussed in detail in the previous chapter, all minstrels were required to pay a fee in order to provide services in town, as were prostitutes, and this requirement would have certainly limited competition. In addition, the granting to a sole performer the right to perform chansons de gestes on certain holidays could have controlled the quality of the performances. While the regulations surrounding these customs in 50

AML, CC 652, “Jehan d’Escosse, soy disant roy, et certains nommez Petit-Jehan, le Rebequet, Molhet et certains autres leurs consorts, eulx disans maistres jurez de l’art des taborins et ménestriers de la ville . . . vouloient contraindre les nouveaux tabourins et instrumens de passer maistres, faire chefs d’ouvre et paier certains banquetz et argent, selon certains ordonnances qu’ilz one fait entre eulx, soubz umbre de certains lettres par eulx nouvellement obtenues du Roy, qui estoit au grand dommaige et détriment de la chose publique.” Petit Jehan le Rebequet appeared in the accounts of Lyons from 1507 until 1547 and Molhet, taborin player, also has been identified in the accounts since 1507 and was buried in Saint Paul in 1524. G. Tricou, “Les Musiciens Lyonnais et le Roy des Violons,” Revue Musicale de Lyon 1 (1903–4), 149. This document reflects a common distinction between pipe and tabor players and other musicians, such as in the guild of Montpellier, which had special categories for officers for trumpets, pipe and tabors, and minstrels.

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Beauvais developed for different purposes, they did achieve some of the same outcomes as a minstrel guild. In Marseilles, the common custom and obligation of attending and assisting in funerals of colleagues seems to be reflected in the will of Petrus Alaman alias Tamborin, a public crier in Marseilles from at least 1378 to 1395. In gratitude to his colleagues, Petrus’ will makes a provision of a meal of bread, mutton, and wine for all of the “minstrels of Marseilles” at the time of his funeral and allocation of 1 gros to each minstrel who helped bury him.51 In Aix-en-Provence, musicians served as apprentices to mastermusicians, and in various cities throughout France, isolated minstrels received the respected title of “master” (magister), implying a master/ apprenticeship system. So while minstrel guilds were formed in the larger cities in France in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many cities even with active minstrel communities do not appear to have had formalized guilds. Important customs associated with guilds were in place in these cities, however, particularly those of creating hierarchy, controlling competition, and offering social support.

Apprenticeships Many of the same broad professional concerns that permeate the guild statutes appear in legal professional relationships between individual musicians. Formalized commitments with diverse purposes, lengths of time, and obligations between musicians seem to have been a widespread practice in France at this time. While notarial contracts that legalize these relationships are rare prior to the sixteenth century, references to such relationships are common. These types of long-term relationship would have been essential in a musical culture based in an oral and ensemble-based tradition. The master–apprentice relationship was a basic feature of the medieval guild system and a common way for trade skills to be transmitted. As Steven Epstein states in his study on medieval guilds, “This was the most pervasive method of education the premodern European world ever developed.”52 While often regulated by guilds, these relationships were also formed outside the guild system. Beyond being a means to pass on the body of knowledge and skills, the apprenticeship system addressed central concerns 51 52

ADB, 351 E/86, ff. 41v–42. Steven Epstein, Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 106.

Apprenticeships

within the guild system. Because of the requirement of long terms of apprenticeship before entering the work force, competition within the profession was limited significantly and quality was instilled. It has generally been thought that musicians transmitted their skills in this manner, though evidence concerning apprenticeship agreements between musicians during the Middle Ages is rare throughout Europe. Keith Polk writes, “The training of young musicians in the master/apprentice pattern of the medieval guilds was yet another area in which musicians followed the model of other artisan trades. As with so many other areas, however, we have very little specific information.”53 Based on the statutes of Amiens and Paris, the apprenticeship system was pervasive, but both offer only minimal insights into the conditions of apprenticeships. The Paris statutes of 1321 explicitly state apprentices must follow all of the same rules as master minstrels, along with some special limitations. If an apprentice was at a tavern he was prohibited from revealing details of his profession and could only make professional arrangements for himself and his immediate family, being specifically instructed to respond to inquiries with: “Seigneur, I cannot hire anyone but myself by the ordinances of our profession, but if you need minstrels or apprentices, go to the Rue aus Jongleurs and you will find good ones.”54 An additional stipulation in the statutes of 1407 sets the length of the master–apprenticeship agreement at six years.55 In the Amiens statutes, the only control placed on the apprenticeship system was a required entrance fee; for children of master musicians already in the guild to enter an apprenticeship cost only 8 s., while for all others it cost 20 s., half going to the confraternity and half to the minstrels themselves.56 The Toulouse statutes, in spite of being comparatively detailed, make no mention of requirements pertaining to the apprentice–master relationship, and in fact make no distinction between masters and apprentices. The detail given to professional relationships without mentioning apprenticeships raises the question of

53 54

55

56

Polk, German Instrumental Music, 125. Bernhard, “Recherches sur l’histoire,” 401, Article 5, “Seigneur, je ne puis alouer autrui que moy mesmes par les ordenances de nostre mestier mais se il vous fault menestreus ou aprentis alés en la rue aus jougleurs, vous en trouverés de bons.” Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 306, “Et avec ce, que nulz menestrelz ne pevent prendre ou louer aprentiz se ils ne sont soufissans pour leur monstrer, ne prendre les diz aprentiz à mains que de six ans, sur paine de privacion de ladicte science, an et jour, se ce n’est par la congié et licence desdiz roy ou députez.” AMAm, AA 13, ff. 204v–205, Article 5, “Que les enffans des maistres d’icelles science ne paieront pour leur aprentissage que viii solz, moictié à la ditte confrairie et l’autre moictié aus dis compaignons.” Article 9, “Que tous aprentis non estans filz de maistres pour leur aprentissage paieront xx solz moictié à la ditte confrairie, et l’autre moictié ausdis compaignons.”

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whether the apprenticeship system was not a required part of the profession or whether the details were left to the discretion and preference of the masters. A handful of notarial contracts legalizing apprenticeship agreements between musicians offers valuable insights into the nature of these relationships. Four apprenticeship agreements have been located in Rouen between 1394 and 1406, and with the first reference to a minstrel guild in Rouen appearing over fifty years later, these contracts point to an apprenticeship system in place outside of a formal guild structure.57 The backgrounds of the four apprentices are not revealed in the contracts, except that they were all from Rouen and all young enough to have their fathers form the legal commitment. One of the masters, who is involved in two apprenticeship contracts, is identified only as a minstrel (menesterel), leaving open his instrumental specialty. Another master is given the unusual designation of “minstrel of metal and copper,” which would have likely included different forms of horns and trumpets.58 The most unusual designation of a master is to Jehan le Forestier in 1394 as a “rehearser (or reciter) of beautiful speaking and a player of the hurdy-gurdy and other instruments as much as the mouth”; another contract from this time reiterates this combination of skills, identifying Jehan and his partner as “singers and rehearsers of beautiful speaking of the mouth and also the hurdy-gurdy.”59 While the terminology is unusual for descriptions of minstrels, Jehan was clearly a singer and story-teller who played various instruments, but particularly the hurdy-gurdy. Three of the four contracts from Rouen require a seven- or eight-year commitment, only slightly longer than the six-year term set by the Paris guild, though the one remaining contract in Rouen requires a substantially shorter commitment of only three years. Generally in the medieval guild system, the length of apprenticeships correlates to the level of skills required by the profession, with ten years being the longest term imposed upon apprentices in the most demanding professions, though the length of a term was also often set to limit the competition in the market. Regardless of the reason for the training periods for these Rouen musicians, they would have 57

58 59

ADSM, 2 E 1/155, f. 93v, 1394; 2 E 1/155, f. 200v, 1395; 2 E 1/158, f. 137v, 1401; 2 E 1/161, f. 81, 1406. The series of notarial records in Rouen, which date back to 1360, are the oldest in northern France and could serve as an important source on urban music making. While hundreds of potentially relevant records survive, with no index, it would be an extremely time-consuming process to identify more relevant contracts. ADSM, 2 E 1/155, f. 200v, “estienne engueneut menestrel darain et de cuivre.” ADSM, 2 E 1/155, f. 193v, “jehan le forestier recordeur de beaus diz et joueur de listrument de chiffonyez et dautres instrumens tant de bouche”; 2 E 1/156, f. 55, “Jehan le Forestier et Thomas Godart chanteurs et recordeurs de beaudiz de bouche que ala chiffonye.”

Apprenticeships

allowed young musicians to become technically proficient and acquire a substantial repertoire as they performed alongside a skilled musician. A master in Rouen who required an eight-year contract included the contingency that, if he were to die during this term, the apprentice would be obligated “to finish his service with Raoulin de la Roche, his brother.”60 Possible explanations for the significantly shorter contract of only three years might lie in the age of the apprentice who is identified as eighteen, allowing for the possibility of prior musical training, as well as in the specialty of the master, who was a singer and story-teller, a specialty perhaps requiring less time to master. The nature of the duties of the apprentices, unfortunately, is shrouded in the vague and generic language for these types of contracts stating only that the apprentices “during this time will serve well and diligently.”61 In one contract it is stipulated that the apprentice “will not travel outside of his house for to live elsewhere in any manner. If he does the father will be held to go to search where he is and to bring him back to his said master at his own expense.”62 The compensation provided to all four apprentices is the customary “necessities of drinking, eating, clothing and sleeping well and sufficiently during the said time.”63 One exceptional stipulation again involving the master, Jehan le Forestier, is his promise to his apprentice that he “will be clothed in a rather good state which he is in at present; he will be given a hurdy-gurdy of the price of 15 s. t.”64 This extra compensation, which went along with a short three-year contractual period, might also correlate to the older age of the apprentice. In return, the master promises the apprentice in typically generic and vague language “to teach him the best that he is able and knows how to do.”65 It was not uncommon for medieval guilds to limit a master to a single apprentice; however, this was not the situation in Rouen at this time. The master, Colin de la Roche, took on an apprentice in 1401 for eight years, and then in 1406 took on another for seven years, creating an overlap for three years, unless the first was terminated early. Multiple apprentices would have

60 62

63

64

65

ADSM, 2 E 1/158, f. 137v. 61 Ibid., “fera deservira et acomplira bien et deuement.” Ibid., “que il ne sestrangera hors de son hostel pour aller demourer ailleurs en aucune maniere sauf que se il y aloit ledit pere le serait tenu daler querir ou il seroit et ramener a son dit maistre a ses propres coustz et depens.” ADSM, 2 E 1/155, f. 93v, “ses necessitez de boire menger vestir caucher bien et suffisamment ledit temps.” Ibid., “en la fin dicelui terme le vestira en aussi bon estat qui lest a present Et sy lui doura une chifognie du pris de xv s. t.” Ibid., “pour lui aprendre au miex quil pourra et saura le dit temps.”

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provided Colin with members for an ensemble with whom he did not need to share the profits. Two apprenticeship contracts from Dijon in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries are similar to those in Rouen. In 1390, Huguenin de la Chapelle committed himself to two master minstrels of Dijon, Voulant and Jean Rossignat, to learn minstrelsy (menestrandise) for two consecutive terms of three years.66 “Volant and his companions” were often compensated by the city of Dijon from 1396 to 1408 to perform the Doranlot at Advent, as well as for performing at other municipal affairs. While having two masters is unique, if these two minstrels were partners, as they probably were, they would have contributed to their student’s education as they performed in an ensemble together. The younger musician promised “to serve them and to learn the science of some instrument” that they deemed appropriate for him. In addition to the standard promise that they would provide him with room and board, at the end of the six-year term they promised to give him four gold francs and buy him a musical instrument that pleased him. The second apprenticeship contract from Dijon dates from 1405, and involves two apprentices who were brothers, Jacquot and Jean Bilote, identified as carpenters, who committed themselves to the comparatively short term of three years to Jacot Lécrivain, minstrel, none of whom have been identified in the municipal records.67 The master made the standard promise of teaching them the art of minstrelsy, but he also made the rather unique offer of giving them one-third of their profits. An apprenticeship contract dating from September 21, 1444 involving a trumpet player from Aix-en-Provence offers more details than those from Rouen or Dijon. The master, Monnetus Monneri, who held the position of city trumpeter and had a daughter married to a trumpeter of the royal court of Provence, was a respected trumpeter in town. The unusually favorable financial terms for Monnetus suggest that this was a coveted placement for an apprentice. The apprentice, Anthonius, agreed “to pay the said Monnetus for making this agreement to the said Anthonius namely for every week and at the end of every week during the said time namely four silver gros.”68 An apprentice or his parents usually incurred no fee for entering into an apprenticeship. Furthermore, this was not just a nominal 66

67 68

ADC, B 11312, f. 31. Bernhard, “Recherches sur l’histoire,” 529; Slocum, “Confrérie, Brudershcaft,” 269. ADC, B 11353, f. 16. Marix, Histoire de la musique, 96. ADB, Aix, 302 E 282, no folio, “Anthonius teneatur et debeat solvere dicto Monneto pro sponcione facienda ad dictum Anthonium scilicet pro qualibet septimana et in fine cuiuslibet septimane dicto tempore durante videlicet grossas argenteas quatuor.”

Apprenticeships

fee, but was more than what Monnetus paid a trumpeter who served as his journeyman. Another reason an apprentice would pay a fee to his master was if the apprentice wanted to secure a shorter than typical term, as might have been the situation with Anthonius, who appears to have been older than the average apprentice. Anthonius, himself, made the oath, not his father, which means he was probably at least in his mid to late teens, and he seems to have already received some training as a cobbler, as he was identified as such in the contract. The term was set for five years, slightly shorter than the six- to eight-year terms in Rouen and Paris. In comparison to the Rouen and Dijon contracts, the obligations of the apprentice are identified in detail and offer some rare insights. According to the contract, Anthonius Romei was “obliged and indebted to serve the said Monnetus Monneri in the present city namely for the space of five continuous and complete years to be computed forward from next Sunday namely for festive days and participating in processions and weddings and other days at night and in the morning making and sounding the watch as is customary in the present city.”69 Anthonius needed to accompany Monnetus at all of his freelance activities, but in addition he needed to perform with him, or possibly in place of him, when Monnetus fulfilled his obligations of sounding the watch. An apprentice would have offered welcome flexibility to a trumpeter obligated to go to the top of the central bell-tower twice a day year after year. In return for these duties, “they agreed that the said Monnetus is obliged and indebted to instruct Anthonius well and faithfully in the art of trumpeting and the trumpet during the said time.”70 The final two conditions of the contract establish that Anthonius was to assume some domestic duties, an obligation not uncommon for an apprentice.71 Anthonius was either obligated to help out with every meal 69

70

71

Ibid., “Anthonius Romei teneatur et debeat servire dicto Monneto monneri in presenti civitate scilicet spacio quinque annorum continuorum et completorum ut a proximo die dominica inante computandum scilicet diebus festivis et in associandis processionibus et se sponsalibus et aliis diebus de nocte et de mane in faciendis et pulsandis pro gacha ut assuetum in presenti civitate.” Ibid., “Monetus moneri teneatur et debeat ipsum Anthonium bene et fideliter instruere in arte tromparie sive de la trompeta dicto tempore durante.” Ibid., “qualibet cenna dicto tempore durante dictus Anthonius teneatur et debeat iuvare dictum Monetum ad [. . .dem] vel [r. . . . and] cenas vel ad alia necessaria spacio quindecim dierum dumtaxat cuiuslibet [. . .] tempore predicto durante et ipsis quindecim diebus quibus ipse Anthonius iuvabit dictus Monetus debeat et teneatur, mutuare dictum Anthonium eundem Monetum propriis septimanalis et expensis et ipse Anthonius propriis quindecim diebus durnatibus sit francus et liber apparcione dictorum grossorum quatuor pro qualibet septimana. Quod dictus Monetus dictis quindecim diebus durantibus teneatur dare dicto Anthonio pro vita sua videlicet unum grossum argenteum scilicet qualibet die dominica dictorum quindecim dierum unum grossum argenti.”

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or to help with “other necessary things” for at least fifteen days each year, during which time Monnetus paid for Anthonius’ weekly expenses. Also during these fifteen-day periods, Anthonius was not obligated to pay the weekly fee of four gros, but instead received one gros from Monnetus. The contract implies that Monnetus was responsible for providing meals for Anthonius; while no mention is made concerning the provision of clothing and housing, these were standard features of apprenticeship arrangements and may have been assumed.

Journeymen relationships The journeyman fit into the professional hierarchy during this period as a worker who had already received formal training but who had not been able to establish himself as an independent master. For young workers just completing an apprenticeship in many professions, the difficulty of acquiring enough capital to work independently would prompt them to form journeyman contracts. Journeymen would hire out their services to a successful and established member of the trade for an agreed fee and term and hope to acquire enough capital to open their own shop or business. For the inexperienced or non-established urban musician, this type of professional relationship offered an opportunity to receive a steady income, while gaining experience, professional contacts, and perhaps greater skills and repertoire which might allow him to work independently in the future. While equipment and capital would not have been an issue for young minstrels, establishing a reputation, connections, and a repertoire could have been a challenge. Based upon notarial records, journeymen relationships between minstrels are less common than apprenticeship agreements. On August 2, 1396, in Rouen, two minstrels, Jehan le Forestier and Thomas Godart, hired the services of another minstrel, Colin Griffouel, for six months. Jehan, who had taken on an apprentice a couple of years earlier, and Thomas, as discussed earlier, were both identified as “singers and rehearsers of beautiful speaking of the mouth and also the hurdy-gurdy.” Colin was from the city of Metz in the county of Lorraine, not from Rouen, so the journeyman arrangement could have been advantageous before he made connections in the area. According to the contract, Colin was to be provided drink, food and lodging and was to be paid 5 escus of gold, which was valued at 112 s. 6 d. t., which considering that he was being provided with room and board, were substantial wages for six months. The promise that Colin makes

Partnerships

to his two employers perhaps reveals why he was of value to them. He promises “to serve them well and diligently in this that they do, as much as in writing than otherwise.”72 Considering that the two masters were known for story-telling, it seems possible that an important reason that the two minstrels of Rouen entered into this relationship was to benefit from Colin’s ability to write down texts, a skill they perhaps lacked. Two trumpeters in Aix-en-Provence formalized a contract on April 30, 1450 in the form of a lease of manual labor, known as a “locatio conductio operarum,” which has the features of a common master–journeyman relationship. In this contract, a trumpeter named Anthonius Gili leased his services to a well-established trumpeter in Aix, Monnetus Monneri, who was discussed earlier in context to an apprenticeship. Anthonius promised to lease himself to Monnetus for the customary length of one year, “serving in all work” and specifically “making festivities with trumpets.”73 Monnetus promised to pay Anthonius the modest annual stipend of 10 fl. divided into three-month installments, which was significantly less than a city trumpeter’s annual stipend in Aix of 36 fl. While Monnetus’ salary as city trumpeter of Aix has not been established, a person in the position a few years before him in 1442–3 was paid 36 fl. per year.74 The annual income of Monnetus would have been higher than this, as he was an active freelance musician, performing at weddings and other festivities. Anthonius also received clothing, including such items as a pair of stockings (caligara), shoes (sutula), and a shirt (camisia), and apparently housing on the second floor of Monnetus’ home.

Partnerships Legal partnerships, identified as a societas, companhia, or comanda, in which each partner contributed a set amount of capital and/or labor, and shared in the profits and losses, was common at all levels of society.75 This type of equal partnership seems to have been common throughout France among urban musicians. As noted earlier, according to the statutes of the 72

73

74 75

ADSM, 2 E 1/156, f. 55, “pour les servir bien et deuement de ce quil set et sara faire tant en escriptur que autrement au meulx quil pourra et saura.” ADB, Aix, 306 E 277, no folio, “serviendum in omnibus operibus . . . faciendum festa cum trumpetis.” AMAix, CC 449, f. 24, f. 31, f. 36v. John Pryor, Business Contracts of Medieval Provence: Selected Notulae from the Cartulary of Giraud Amalric of Marseilles, 1248 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1981), 216.

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minstrel guild in Toulouse, it was customary for minstrels to perform professional obligations in groups of “two to six or more,” which were referred to as a “couble.” The guild statutes mandated that partners in such formalized ensembles honor the commitment to one another, treat each other fairly, and offer full financial disclosure. On occasion minstrels would go to a notary to legalize these relationships. In 1398, four minstrels of Rouen made an agreement to work together for a year for specific obligations at the cathedral. While they might have performed together on a regular basis, this contract speaks only to their commitment to Saint Anne at Notre Dame on three particular occasions throughout the year.76 A partnership, identified as a “societas,” was formalized between two minstrels in Marseilles on August 4, 1432.77 This particular partnership involved a local minstrel (mimus) of Marseilles, Martinus Andree, and a minstrel from the northern Italian town of Chieri, Johannes Dayguina. Based on the numerous notarial contracts in which he has been noted between 1429 and 1439, Martinus Andree appears to have been a prominent and prosperous minstrel in Marseilles who played the bagpipe and other wind instruments.78 According to these contracts, he owned several pieces of property in Marseilles, including a couple of homes, a vineyard, and an empty lot. In some records Martinus received the respectful term of “master,” including “master Martinus Andree wind player and minstrel” (magistre martinus andree corneiator et ministrerius) and “Master Martinus Andree wind player and sounder of instruments of minstrels and shawm players” (Magistre Martinus Andree corneiator et pulsator instrumentorum dictorum mimarum sive cornamusis). In their partnership Martinus Andree and Johannes Dayguina “promised each other in turn to make and to exercise a good and legal partnership in their art ‘of playing wind instruments’ in festivals” for one year.79 The first condition of their contract states that “the said Martinus is obliged and indebted to teach and to instruct Johannes his partner in the specified art well and lawfully during the above-mentioned time.”80 This stipulation

76 78

79

80

See Chapter 4 for a full discussion of this document. 77 ADB, 351 E/194, ff. 109–109v. ADB, 351 E/192, no folio; 351 E/193, f. 10, f. 16; 351 E/194, f. 21; 351 E/239, ff. 230–230v; 351 E/ 240, ff. 49v–50; 351 E/241, ff. 108v–109v; 351 E/243, f. 144; 351 E/198, no folio; 355 E/136, ff. 112–113, f. 178v. ADB, 351 E/194, f. 109, “promiserunt sibi adinvicem et vicissim facere et exercere in eorum arte . . . cornare in festisbonam et legalem societatem.” Ibid., “dictus Martinus teneatur et debeat ipsum Johannem eius socium docere et instruere in dicta arte bene et legaliter durante tempore supradicto.”

Partnerships

raises the question of how skilled Johannes was as a musician and why Martinus would have chosen him as a partner. The contract continues with a provision holding all partners liable for any loss to the partnership caused by fraud or negligence, a standard element of this type of business arrangement. The contract states that: Martinus and Johannes, partners, are not able to nor ought not during the said period accept any minstrel partner nor to mix with other minstrels unless pregranted with express consent by Martinus and Johannes themselves, under penalty of five florins to be paid half to the royal court of the present city and the other half to the obedient partner.81

The contract concludes with the financial arrangements, which were of central importance in these partnership contracts. An equal division of the profits is agreed upon by these two minstrels, with one exception. It is specified that “of all profit acquired through Johannes during the said time from the said art of playing wind instruments, Martinus has and ought to have half. The same coming to Johannes, except marsupiis jocalibus given to Johannes himself, which ought to remain only with Johannes.”82 While ambiguous, it is possible that “jocalibus” derives from joculare, meaning “to entertain, juggle, or jest,” so “marsupiis jocalibus” may refer to “money for entertaining,” or money received by Johannes for activities other than playing wind instruments. The reason Johannes anticipated and was solely entitled to special remuneration, while this appeared not to have been the case for Martinus, might have been due to his additional entertaining skills, such as juggling. This would help explain why audiences would offer money specifically to Johannes, even though Martinus appears to have been a better musician than Johannes, as the contract states that Martinus was required to teach Johannes the “art of playing wind instruments.” Ultimately, this provides insight into the motivation of their partnership. In the “societas” in medieval Marseilles, each partner frequently made unique contributions to the partnership; in this situation, Martinus was a skilled and wellestablished musician in Marseilles, while Johannes evidently had other entertaining skills that could help attract an audience. 81

82

Ibid., “Martinus et Johannes consocii non possint nec debeant durante dicto tempore ullum socium mimum accipere nec cum aliis mimis se in miscere nisi precederet de ipsorum Martini et Johannis expresso consensu sub pena quinque florins aplicanda pro medietate curie Regie presentis civitatis et alia parte obedienti.” Ibid., “de omnibus lucris per dictum Johannem aquirendis dicto tempore per durante ex dicta arte pifaro Martinus habeat et habere debeat medietatem partem obventure eidem Johanni exceptis marsupiis jocalibus dandis ipsi Johanni quae eidem Johanni insolum remanere debeant.”

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While the “societas” was common in medieval Marseilles and elsewhere in Europe, notarial contracts documenting this type of legal partnership between minstrels during the late Middle Ages are extremely rare. A particularly early example of this type of partnership dates from 1310 from Lucca and involves five trumpeters who agree to share all gain and profit evenly and to not teach the “arte tubarie et trombette” to others unless they all agree.83 It is not, however, until the second half of the sixteenth century that partnership agreements, or contracts of association, between musicians become common.84 These later contracts follow a format similar to the one from Marseilles; partnerships vary in length from one day to thirty-five years but are fairly consistent in providing for the equal distribution of profits. While actual contracts documenting partnerships between musicians in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are rare, the frequent references in account books of cities and confraternities from this period to a particular minstrel and his “socius” or “compaignon” raise the possibility that this type of professional relationship, with varying conditions and degrees of commitment, was not uncommon. For urban musicians who were part of a primarily non-written performance tradition, it must have been mutually advantageous to enter into these partnerships and to perform regularly with the same musicians.

Minstrel schools Beyond these personal and professional relationships between individual minstrels and even beyond the guilds within cities, the phenomenon of minstrel schools, or conferences, that met annually for at least 100 years during this period demanded cooperation, organization, and communication between minstrels not only from different regions, but even from different countries. Minstrels descended upon designated northern French, Flemish, and German cities during Lent to interact with and learn from their colleagues.85 The minstrels and their employers were willing to take on the expense and danger of the long trips to the schools for the opportunity to “learn new songs,” emphasizing the value placed upon new repertoire and 83 84

85

Luigi Nerici, Storia della musica in Lucca (Lucca: Tipografia Giusti, 1880), 39. François Lesure, “Les Orchestres populaires à Paris vers la fin du XVIe siècle,” Revue de musicologie 36 (1954): 39–54; Madeleine Jurgens, Documents du Minutier Central concernant l’histoire de la musique (1600–1650), vol. I (Paris: SEVPEN, 1968). Rob Wegman, “The Minstrel School in the Late Middle Ages,” Historic Brass Society Journal 14 (2002): 11–30; Gómez, “Minstrel Schools,” 212–16.

Minstrel schools

perhaps the inability to learn new songs in a written form.86 The cities during these schools must have been bustling with small groups of minstrels sharing techniques and pieces, friends catching up with one another, minstrels hoping to make new professional connections, performers searching out the latest in musical instruments, non-musicians seeking out entertainment, and vendors peddling a variety of wares. With both court and city minstrels attending these schools, one wonders if stratification occurred or if an interaction took place among musicians with diverse backgrounds, offering city minstrels an opportunity to learn repertoire and technique from the most sought-after minstrels in Europe, such as those of the Duke of Burgundy, who were in regular attendance at the schools. In northern France, Beauvais and Saint-Omer most commonly served as host cities, though others included Cambrai, Soissons, and Valenciennes. The schools were held in northern French cities from approximately 1360 to 1440, though the phenomenon emerged a few decades earlier and continued a few decades later in Flemish cities. Schools were held in Beauvais every other year for a thirty-year period beginning in 1385 and more sporadically after that, while schools were held in Saint-Omer almost ten times from 1424 to 1441. Both cities were centrally located for minstrels traveling to the schools, and both cities had a tradition of offering substantial support to musicians. The location of the school rotated from year to year, perhaps to equalize travel distances for minstrels, but also perhaps to distribute among cities both the benefits and burdens of hosting such events. The participants from France in the minstrel school tradition were primarily from the north along the Flemish border. The only urban minstrels from France that have been documented attending these schools were from the north, including minstrels from Beauvais, Amiens, Lille, and SaintOmer. Even the relatively nearby towns of Troyes or Orléans do not appear to have offered financial support for these events. It is unlikely that any urban minstrels from central or southern France without assistance from their city could have afforded such an extensive trip. It was customary for musicians to receive support from their employers, whether nobility or a city council, to attend these schools. As the account book of Beauvais in 1399 describes, the minstrels were at the school during Lent “for the honor and love of their masters” (pour l’onneur et amour de leurs maistresses), offering a rare direct acknowledgment that the new skills and repertoire sought by the minstrels at the schools brought honor to the 86

Leblond, Les Associations de musiciens, 16, “Dati sunt de gratia ducenti panes capitulares mimis in hac civitate de diversis partibus pro cantilenis novis addiscendis confluentibus,” 1400.

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employer, but also enjoyment.87 For an example of such compensation, in 1421, the city of Saint-Omer helped its four members of the wind band travel approximately fifty miles to attend the school in Bruges by offering them 72 s., or 18 s. each, a substantial sum, at this time, as a minstrel would typically be paid 3 s. to perform for an event in Saint-Omer.88 In 1432, the four civic minstrels of Saint-Omer received much more generous support of 1½ ll. each to attend the school in Ypres, which is only half the distance to Bruges.89 In addition, cities hosting the schools offered further support to all minstrels in attendance. When held in Beauvais, the city offered bread and wine to the visiting minstrels, particularly to those of royalty, such as in 1385, when Beauvais gave “to the minstrels of our grand seigneurs of France and other royalty who assembled in Beauvais during Lent . . . as is the custom each year when they make their school” wine and bread valued at 19 ll. 12 d.90 Canons of the Cathedral of Beauvais also offered regular support to the minstrels who came to Beauvais, specifically in the form of bread, including substantial offers of 200 and 400 loaves. Likewise, the city of Saint-Omer in 1426 offered to “minstrels of many seigneurs of Picardy and of Flanders who assembled in this city in the schools 2 l. de gros” or in 1433 support to six sets of royal minstrels, as well as to those of the city of Veurne (Belgium).91 Perhaps Beauvais and Saint-Omer sought to entice a large numbers of minstrels, as their presence would be an economic boost for the city. Some minstrels could also count on aid from other cities in the area. For example, when the school was in Beauvais in 1390, the city of Amiens offered wine to the minstrels of Monsieur de Raineval who were passing through the city.92 The city of Saint-Omer also customarily supported minstrels of local royalty, such as those of Monseigneurs de Croy, de Neufville, d’Antoine, and the Count of Fauqenberge when attending the school of Ypres in 1432.93 During this same year the city also assisted the 87

88 90

91

92 93

AMBe, Collection Bucquet-Aux Cousteaux, Vol. 69, 166, “Item aux menestreux et corneurs qui firent a Beauvais leur fete en assemblée en caresme echu au term de ce comte pour l’honneur et amour de leurs maistres.” Pas, “Les Ménestrels.” 89 AMSO, Compte de l’Argentier, 1432–3. AMBe, Collection Bucquet-Aux-Cousteaux, Vol. 69, 64, “Aux menestreux de nos grans seigneurs de France et d’aultres Royaume qui se assemblerent à Beauvais au miquaresme . . . come il est accoustume de faire chacun an quant ilz font leur escolle.” AMSO, Compte de l’Argentier, 1425–6, “Aux menestrez des pluseurs seigneurs de picardie e de flandres assemblez en ceste ville aux escolles en courtoise . . . x l. v s. viii d.” AMAm, CC 6, f. 95, “As menestreux de Mons. de Raineval qui alèrent as escolles v s. iv d.” AMSO, Compte de l’Argentier, 1431–2.

Minstrel schools

minstrels of Dunkirk, even though they would not have traveled through Saint-Omer on the way to school. Much of the financial assistance might have been prompted by an obligation to royalty in the area, but the support of nearby city minstrels might have been prompted by the desire to have trained minstrels in the area. Such widespread events would have posed organizational challenges, such as simply accommodating the influx of minstrels and vendors during the early spring, when this region was cold and wet. As would seem predictable, it seems some of the tasks fell to designated local musicians. For example, when the school was held in Saint-Omer in 1440, special compensation was extended to “Henre one of the waits who has been King of the school,” most likely Henre van Hartinghe, who was a musician in the employ of the city that year.94 As already established, it was common practice for the city of Saint-Omer to compensate the minstrels of the civic wind band when they attended school, whether at home or away, but when it was held in Saint-Omer, they received additional compensation. For example, in 1434 the minstrels of Saint-Omer received a standard sum of 6 ll. for attending the school, but also an additional sum of 8 ll. for expenses accrued during the school.95 In 1426, the minstrels of the city were more specifically paid for their expenses in the month of March “to make entertainment with the foreign minstrels who came to hold their schools” in Saint-Omer.96 The profession of minstrelsy in France during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was highly organized at various levels. Like many other professions in medieval French cities, minstrels addressed professional issues concerning quality, competition, and social well-being of colleagues through guilds and private legal partnerships, as well as informal customs. The widespread organization of the profession and the individual partnerships would have also facilitated the transmission of repertoire and skills. While not all cities had minstrel guilds, the customs and relationships associated with such institutions were common throughout France.

94

95 96

AMSO, Compte de l’Argentier, 1439–40, “A Henre lun desd wectes qui a este Roy de lesde escolle.” AMSO, Compte de l’Argentier, 1433–4. AMSO, Compte de l’Argentier, 1425–6, “a faire chiere aux estranges menestrez qui sy vinrent tenir leurs escolles 6 l.”

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6

“A minister of Satan” and “an honor to the city”: conflicting images of the medieval minstrel

Minstrels were common in medieval French cities, performing on streets and squares, in taverns and private homes, and outside of churches, though, despite their ubiquitous nature, they were often pressed to the margins of a city’s social structure. This paradox reflects the complex way in which musical entertainers fit into medieval society. Some were itinerant outcasts, such as a gittern player who was hanged in Paris in 1392 for numerous thefts throughout northern France, while others were wealthy, established civic officials, such as a member of the wind band in Montpellier in 1384 who acquired multiple properties valued at over 300 ll.1 Because of this diversity among urban musicians, a discussion of their socio-economic status requires recognition of sub-groups. In addition, the emblematic use of musicians by city governments during the end of the Middle Ages resulted in an increase in status for some musicians, requiring careful consideration of evolving images during this period. Perhaps the most complex and significant challenge for determining the social status of medieval urban musicians is the often biased and judgmental nature of the evidence, especially religious sources, which seeks to vilify and denigrate their function in society. The purpose of this chapter is not to summarize or reinterpret evidence from which scholars have formulated the popular image of the medieval minstrel, but rather to contextualize and balance that image with evidence from archival records of French cities. Civic records, like the frequently cited religious and literary sources, however, are also problematic when determining socio-economic status of minstrels. The tendency to treat marginalized members of society with bias, such as characterizing their professional activities as criminal and deviant, is evident in civic records as well. Distortion of this music world also results from civic records inherently yielding more insight into musicians who were permanent members of urban society and less into those who were passing through. Furthermore, it is not until the fourteenth century that city records offering 1

218

Bronislaw Geremek, The Margins of Society in Late Medieval Paris, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge University Press, 1987), 164. See the property listing for Peire Bonet in Table 6.3.

The musician as itinerant outcast

details on economic status of the urban musician, such as tax records and property listings, are extant in significant quantities, therefore making it difficult to determine any change in status of the musician from the thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries, an important period during which musicians became attached to the city government. Despite these challenges, a complex and multifarious image of the medieval urban minstrel emerges from these records. Terminology surrounding the medieval urban musician shifts during the late Middle Ages. “Jongleur,” or the much less common female form of “jongleressa,” was the most common term to identify these performers up through the mid-thirteenth century. These performers were not specialists, but rather they played multiple instruments and sang, as well as recited stories, acted and mimed. While “jongleur” continues to be used through the end of the Middle Ages, the term “minstrel” (ménétrier or menestrel) appears in the mid-thirteenth century and by 100 years later becomes the most common term for the urban musician in France. The first appearance of the word “minstrel” in city records tends to be in reference to musicians who served the city council in specific civic ritual and festivities, reflecting its original form, “minister,” meaning somebody who serves another.2 Lawrence Gushee suggests that “the change in nomenclature (in the early fourteenth century) reflected a change in function, from the jack-of-alltrades entertainer to the specialist in playing a single instrument.”3

The musician as itinerant outcast The most prevalent image of the medieval entertainer/musician in France, which has emerged in scholarship over the past two centuries based primarily on literary and religious sources, has been the itinerant social outcast without basic rights of citizenship who barely pieced together a paltry existence. The early comprehensive studies of both Edmond Faral and Edmund Chambers projected this image of the jongleur as a disruptive and profane entertainer associated with immorality of inns and taverns, 2

3

For a discussion of terminology surrounding the medieval entertainer, see John Baldwin, “The Image of the Jongleur in Northern France,” Speculum 72 (1997): 636; Luc CharlesDominique, “Du jongleur au ménétrier: évolution du statut social des instrumentistes médiévaux,” in Instruments à cordes du Moyen Âge: actes du colloque de Royaumont, 1994 (Grâne: Créaphis, 1999), 33; Raleigh Morgan, Jr., “Old French Jogleor and Kindred Terms: Studies in Mediaeval Romance Lexicology,” Romance Philology 7 (1953–4): 279–325. Lawrence Gushee, “Minstrel,” in Grove Music Online, 2007–11.

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“A minister of Satan” and “an honor to the city”

whose perpetual traveling and vagrancy associated him with criminals and bandits on the road.4 Recent studies have reinforced this image, such as Luc Charles-Dominique’s book on minstrels in pre-modern France, in which he wrote that the jongleur was resented “as a person taken with drink, accustomed to the taverns, in love with games of chance, idle, a devotee of pleasures, with dubious company.”5 He concludes, “In the medieval social hierarchy, the jongleurs form a caste situated at the very bottom of the scale.”6 According to Geremek, in his study on the social margins of Paris, this reputation of the jongleurs continued through the end of the Middle Ages. He writes, “The regulations of the Church and the writings of theologians and moralists treated jongleurs with a severity which never flagged; they were spreaders of scandal and of shameful pleasures.”7 The jongleur was frequently on the receiving end of hostile diatribes by theologians, who felt that he disfigured “the sacred image of God” with his vulgar and disgraceful activities.8 Theologians were adamant that these performers were not to receive the Eucharist, enter holy orders, or pursue legal action in courts. Well past the Middle Ages, this image of the lowly entertainer prevailed, as Howard Brown in his book on French secular theater noted that the status of the jongleur in France reached its lowest point by the sixteenth century.9 By privileging the biased perspectives of literary and religious sources, a consistently critical and distorted perspective of the medieval entertaining musician has endured.10 Archival records of French cities from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries offer abundant support for this popularized image of the trouble-making 4

5

6

7 9 10

Faral, Les Jongleurs en France; Edmund K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903). Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 40, “comme un personnage épris de boisson, habitué des tavernes, amoureux des jeux de hasard, oisif, amateur de plaisirs, aux fréquentations douteuses.” Ibid., 41, “Dans la hiérarchie sociale médiévale, les jongleurs forment une caste situeé au plus bas de léchelle.” 8 Geremek, Margins of Society, 160. Baldwin, “Image of the Jongleur,” 647. Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 36. Scholarship concerning musical entertainers in geographic areas other than France tended to emphasize the same social image. John Southworth wrote in his book The English Medieval Minstrel, “It is not just that the status of the minstrel was low; for very many of his contemporaries, he was altogether beyond the pale of social acceptance. In this respect, he was worse off than a serf; if the serf occupied the lowest place in the medieval hierarchy, the minstrel had no place at all.” (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1989), 4–5. The extensive literature concerning the itinerant minstrel, or spielleute, in Germany emphasizes the marginal quality of his existence. See Wolfgang Hartung, Die Spielleute: Eine Randgruppe in der Gesellschaft des Mittelalters, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, no. 72 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982); Walter Salmen, Der fahrende Musiker im europäischen Mittelalter (Kassel: J. P. Hinnenthal-Verlag, 1960).

The musician as itinerant outcast

musical entertainer. Prior to the thirteenth century, jongleurs appear to have operated independently and without control in urban settings, but then city ordinances appeared, which shed light on the process by which jongleurs were integrated and accepted into urban life. In the thirteenth century musicians appear to have frequently sought work at private homes and parties. The activities and behaviors of jongleurs at these events were perceived as being problematic, undisciplined, if not unwelcome and undesirable, elements of urban society. The restrictions upon jongleurs at private parties all date from the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, a time in which they were not yet organized into guilds or a required fixture in civic ritual. In many French cities, ordinances established conditions under which jongleurs were permitted to enter into private homes, evidently being perceived as opportunistic and sidling their way into parties with no invitations. In 1205, the city of Toulouse disallowed male or female jongleurs from entering a home unless they were with the master or mistress of the house or the person to be married. When foreign jongleurs came to the city of Toulouse, the same condition applied to them after eight days, with the implication that foreign jongleurs could not play at a private party until they had been in town for over a week, likely in an attempt to reduce competition and problems resulting from their presence in the city.11 At the same time in Amiens, no jongleur could enter a private home without an invitation and in Strasbourg, “If a jongleur or jongleressa established himself at a table at the home of a townsman without having been invited there, the townsman, if he tolerated this, was punished with a penalty of 10 s. and the sergeants and judges ought to take the clothes from the jongleur.”12 This last stipulation alludes to the common practice of compensating jongleurs with clothing, and thus reflecting their association with beggars, for whom a traditional form of charity was clothing to stay warm. In addition, a piece of clothing was often taken away from jongleurs as a form of punishment, 11

12

Roger Limouzin-Lamothe, La Commune de Toulouse et les sources de son histoire, 1120–1249 (Toulouse: Privat, 1931), 360, “Item consules Tolose urbis et suburbii, cum communi consilio eiusdem urbis et suburbii, fecerunt stabilimentum tale, quod ioculatores vel ioculatrices non intrent in domibus hominum vel feminarum Tolose nisi ad novias, nisi cum domino domus vel cum domina domus que sine marito erit. Et si ioculator extraneus vel ioculatrix venerit in hac villa Tolose de viii die in antea, sit in eadem conditione.” Nicquet, La Corporation des ménétriers, 6, “que nulz desdits ménestriers ne viendroit en la maison des bourgeois, s’il n’estoit mandé, autrement n’auroit rien” (1238); Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 54, “si un jongleur ou une jongleresse s’installait à table chez un bourgeois sans y avoir été invité, le bourgeois, s’il tolérait ceci, était puni d’une amende de dix sous et les sergents et juges devaient prendre les habits du jongleur” (1200).

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perhaps like a jacket, which could have served as an identifying marker of their profession.13 City ordinances throughout France in the thirteenth century established protocol around jongleurs’ involvement in weddings, confirming that they were a common and integral feature of these festivities. Limits were placed upon the number of jongleurs that could perform at a wedding, as evidently a larger ensemble resulted in larger and more unruly celebrations. In Strasbourg, the number of musicians allowed at a wedding was set at four, while in Calais no more than two jongleurs could perform at wedding dinners.14 City ordinances in the mid-thirteenth century in Montpellier were unusually repressive in their attempts to prohibit or control the presence of musicians at festivities surrounding weddings. An ordinance in 1227, besides prohibiting “jocglars” and “jocglaressas” from performing at weddings either day or night, stated that they were not allowed “to go into a home that has a sleeping woman,” certainly reflecting the belief that these musicians, and those under their influence, were prone to lecherous behavior. Trumpeters were allowed to perform at weddings, perhaps because of a more accepted social role or a unique and necessary function, such as performing in a procession.15 When these same concerns reappeared in ordinances twenty-five years later, however, trumpeters were now included in the constraints.16 At this time, an extensive prohibition was also set against performing charivari at night, a loud and often musical sneer against newlyweds, under various anticipated conditions, as if the city had experienced difficulty curtailing these behaviors in the past. Reflecting similarities in social status and function, prostitutes were treated in a comparable way by cities in the thirteenth century. As with minstrels, prostitutes prior to this point were left to function on their own in the private sphere prior to the thirteenth century, but then policies were established to integrate them into urban life, specifically institutionalizing the public supervision of the profession. In 1251 in Montpellier, almost the exact year that minstrels were banned from weddings in the city, prostitutes were banned from taverns, and in 1285 red-light districts were established within the city.17 Reflecting an overlap in professional skills, in the nearby 13 14 15

16 17

Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 36. Bernhard, Notice sur la confrérie, 5; Pas, “Les Ménestrels,” 177. Le Petit Thalamus, 143, “Encaras establem que neguns jocglars ni neguna jocglaressa non auze anar a novias de jorns ni de nuegs, ni auze anar en mayzon que aia dona iazen; mais trompas puescon anar a las novias.” See Chapter 4 for a discussion of these ordinances. Leah Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society: The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc (University of Chicago Press, 1985), 24–5.

The musician as itinerant outcast

town of Bagnols, prostitutes were banned from singing or chanting with the purpose of attracting business. Much later in the Middle Ages, parallels can still be noted, such as in Beauvais in 1377 and again in 1464, where the fee for minstrels to provide services in town was set at 12 d.; at the same time a prostitute’s fee was set at 4 d.18 Despite an increase in the general campaign against vagrancy in the fourteenth century under King John the Good, city ordinances curtailing the professional activities of jongleurs became less common during the late Middle Ages. This increased intolerance was due to the shortage of workers and resulting high wages following the Black Death, and anybody perceived as unproductive was considered part of the problem.19 Among the more limited ordinances pertaining to urban musicians at this time were bans on music at night to prevent disturbances. Assuming a connection between musicians and criminal acts, in 1372 the prefecture in Paris forbade minstrels from performing in taverns after the curfew, as “under the shadow of many minstrels going to play and to sound their horns at night, many robberies have been conducted in Paris, along with many other offenses and evil acts.”20 Presumably for the same types of reasons, all minstrels, with the exception of fiddle players, were forbidden, without special permission from the provost, from performing in the streets of Paris in 1422.21 In Marseilles, an ordinance dating from 1341 prohibits musicians from “singing with or without instruments” at night in the city under “the penalty of 50 s. and of losing a coat and instrument,” two items central to their pursuit of the profession.22 Perhaps justifying the city council’s formation of such policies, street musicians were often involved in fights and altercations while on the job in French cities, which certainly must have damaged the reputation of their profession. A letter of Francesco di Marco Datini, an Italian merchant who spent a significant amount of time in Avignon during the late fourteenth century, describes trouble surrounding a street performance, though not directly the fault of the musicians. In correspondence dating from August 18 20

21

22

Charvet, Recherches sur les anciens théâtres, 558. 19 Geremek, Margins of Society, 31. Bibliothèque de la préfecture de police, 43, coll. Lamoignon, vol. II, f. 508, “sous umbre de ce que plusieurs menestriers vont jouer et corner de nuit, plusieurs roberies one esté faites à Paris, et huys rompus avec plusieurs autres deliz et malefices,” cited by Geremek, Margins of Society, 162. Bibliothèque de la préfecture de police, 33, Livre noir vieil du Châtelet, f. 42. Cited by Geremek, Margins of Society, 162. AMMa, FF 165, f. 2, “non audeat de nocte per villam superiorem seu ante diem cantando cum instrumentis vel sine instrumentis sub pena L solidorum pro qualibet persona et vice qualibet et amissionis raube et instrumentorum.”

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20, 1383, Francesco recounts the following unfortunate event involving minstrels performing on the streets of Avignon: On Sunday night, which fell on August 9, some minstrels were playing their instruments, as had been requested of them by some silversmiths among them the master of Castagnino, when Jean du Portail, our neighbor silversmith, came armed out of his house, with his clerk, to ask that the minstrels not play. Now it happened that he said some insults in such a way that he was injured, as was his clerk. He received such a wound in his body that in the space of twenty-four hours he died; he was buried on August 11. This affair resulted in little honor for the minstrels and his mother, on account of certain words which had been uttered the night he was injured.23

In Amiens in 1466 a father made a formal request for a reduction in a penalty for his sons, as he claimed their behavior was provoked by street musicians. “His two sons went to play after supper, as young people have a custom to do, and they met many colleagues playing many instruments,” who picked on his sons without any provocation.24 Also at this time in Amiens a pipe and tabor player, while performing at the celebration of Saint Leu, became involved in a scuffle serious enough to result in formal punishment.25 Many altercations involving musicians were not explicitly tied to professional activities, but certainly could have damaged the profession’s reputation regardless, such as a minstrel in Amiens who was sentenced to over seven weeks in prison in 1407 for having struck and hurt another minstrel.26 23

24

25

26

Francesco di Marco Datini, cited and translated into French by Robert Brun, “Annales avignonaises de 1382 à 1410: extraites des Archives de Datini,” Mémoires de l’Institut historique de Provence 12 (1935): 43, “dans la nuit de Dimanche, qui tombait le 9 août, certains ménétriers étaient en train de jouer de leurs instruments, ainsi que le leur avait commandé certains argentiers, parmi lesquels le maître de Castagnino, lorsque Jean du Portail, notre voisin l’argentier, sortit armé de sa maison, avec son commis, pour demander que les ménétriers ne jouassent point. Or il se trouva qu’il dit des injures de telle sorte qu’il fut blessé, ainsi que son commis. Il reçut une telle blessure dans le corps qu’en l’espace de 24 heures il mourut; on l’a enterré le 11 août. Il résulte de cette affaire peu d’honneur ni pour les ménétriers ni pour sa mere, à cause de certaines paroles qui ont été prononcées le soir où il fut blessé.” Throughout his life, Francesco meticulously saved his personal letters and business documents, which provide insight to many aspects of medieval life in southern France. Durand, Inventaire sommaire . . . Ville d’Amiens, vol. I, 192, “les deux fils dudit suppliant se fussent nagaires alez jouer aprez souper, comme jons gens ont coustume de faire, et ainsi qu’ils aloient, avoient rencontré pluiseurs compaignons jouans de pluiseurs instrumens.” Ibid., 182–3, “à cause de la main injurieuse que on lui imposoit avoir mise l’un de IIII ou V compaignons qui estoient venus rompre et enfondrer ung tambourin dont luy déposant et ses voisins se jouoient à la feste St Leu derrain passé.” Ibid., 4, “Diminution d’amende à Jean de Beaurrain, ménétrier, à laquelle il avait été condamnée ‘pour avoir féru et navré à sanc et à plaie Jehan Bourdin, menestrel’, attendu qu’il est ‘de petite chevance’ et qu’il a déjà fait sept semaines et plus de prison pour ledit cas.”

The musician as itinerant outcast

The instrumentalists involved in these violent exchanges were from various backgrounds and had different skill levels. A pipe and tabor player charged with taking part in a fight in Rouen in the 1430s might have been a novice, as he was criticized for playing “false” music at a festival, while a trumpeter who was penalized the substantial sum of 60 ll. for seriously beating a prostitute in Amiens in the mid-fifteenth century was probably well trained, as he had been hired by not only the city, but the king as well.27 Because of the skepticism by which street musicians and their surrounding activities were viewed by the church, they were commonly debarred during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries from performing on religious property in France. For example, on June 24, 1364, the Bishop of Marseilles issued an ordinance stating that “each and every one of the citizens of Marseilles, men and women were not to dance or to sing songs or to make secular games and spectacles within the walls of the monastery of Saint Saveur.”28 Any citizen in violation was to be denounced by the church and excommunicated. In 1518 in Rouen two traveling musicians played in the church against the wishes of the parish priest resulting in penalties placed upon seven parishioners.29 Similarly, it was deemed inappropriate for minstrels to perform at grave political times, because the frivolity of these events was deemed as disrespectful to the situation. For example, in 1381, the city council of Marseilles issued a deliberation concerning the appropriate behavior of citizens in the light of the misfortunes of Queen Jeanne of Sicily, who was being held prisoner by Charles of Durazzo, her rival in Provence, and who would finally be assassinated in 1382. The deliberation states that temporarily women were not to wear jewels, nobody was to celebrate day or night, and that minstrels (menestrers) and entertainers (jogularors) could not play their instruments.30 All dances and public festivities were banned in Toulouse in 1358 until King John II was released from his captivity by the English, including instrumental and vocal performances by minstrels.31 27

28

29

30

Ibid., 211, “De Jehan de le Vingne, trompette, qui amenda de lx l. ce que, de main garnye, il a batu et navré à sang courant et playe ouverte en le teste une nommé Simonette, fille de joye.” ADB, 5 G 91, no folio, “omnes et singulos viros et mulieres cives Massilie ne infra cepta monasterii Sancti Salvatoris praesumant tripudiare aut cantilenas cantare vel iocos seu ludos facere seculars.” Beaurepaire, Inventaire sommaire . . . Seine-Inférieure, 93. Poets were also treated in a similarly suspicious manner by the church in 1484, when it refused a request from the Confraternity of Notre Dame du Jardin to open its chapel for one hour in the afternoon to the writers of ballads and poems who even claimed to honor the Virgin Mary, as the church thought that such a ceremony would give way to disorder and debates. AMMa, BB 28, f. 79. 31 Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers, 48.

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The negative image of medieval minstrels in literary and religious sources was partly tied to their itinerant way of life, as unfamiliar faces on the street without a place to stay could easily prompt suspicion. According to city records from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many musicians continued to travel frequently, even if they had a permanent home and did not engage in an itinerant way of life. John Southworth notes, “Throughout the whole period, their mobility is an unchanging feature of their lives that can hardly be exaggerated.”32 More so than for many craftsmen, minstrels required the support of more patrons than existed in a single city, and cities often required more musicians on occasion than it could support year round, much like today. For special occasions, whether a holiday or a royal entry, musicians congregated in cities throughout France in search of performing opportunities. The common practice of minstrels traveling from city to city in pursuit of work is evident in a common concern of guilds to control foreign minstrels in the city. An example of these minstrels’ nomadic ways, four minstrels from Seune, who formed a partnership, came to the city of Dijon in the 1480s, as was the custom, with the hope of performing at night, from Saint Nicholas Day until Christmas, a period of almost three weeks. To their disappointment they were obliged to return home, as the city was furnished with enough musicians.33 Reminiscent of descriptions of jongleurs from earlier centuries, the city of Amiens in the fifteenth century tried to prevent people with vagrant lifestyles from loitering in the city and playing musical instruments, suspicious of what might develop. Young people visiting the city “singing and hooting with drums, musical instruments or otherwise” could be fined 20 s. and given possible imprisonment.34 In the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Alsace, in the far eastern border of France, a confraternity served “musicians and itinerant men,” once again associating musicians with itinerancy.35 In Alsace, the livelihood of minstrels still prompted serious condemnation, and they were excluded from basic ritual of the Christian church. It was not until the mid-fifteenth century that the musicians of the confraternity in this region obtained permission to take communion one time a year on the condition that they abstain from practicing their 32 33

34

35

Southworth, English Medieval Minstrel, 2. AMD, M 80, f. 99, “a quatre compaignons menestriers nommez grapillotz qui estoient venuz de servire en ceste ville leur presanter de jouer de nuyt . . . feste saint nicolas.” Durand, Inventaire sommaire . . . Ville d’Amiens, vol. I, 11, “Item que aucuns jones gens, de quelque estat qu’ilz soient . . . ne voisent par le vill, cantant, huant . . . de bedons, ne instruments ou autrement, à paine de xx s. d’amende et de pugnition de prison.” Bernhard, Notice sur la confrérie, 17–19.

The musician as respected member of the city

profession fifteen days before and after their devotion. Support for the popular image of the minstrel as an itinerant troublemaker can be drawn from the archives of French cities, not only in the thirteenth century, but also in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, well after minstrels had been integrated into the cities as civic officials.

The musician as respected member of the city The image of a musician whose activities caused problems and frequently needed restricting is only one perspective of the medieval musical entertainer, which is a perspective noted by some scholars as having been exaggerated. For example, Walter Salmen, in his work concerning the German musical entertainer, emphasized that diverse social classes were represented in this body of musicians and that these differences resulted from various factors, including the performer’s skill level, status of employer, and musical instrument. He writes, “The frequently-read comment that the medieval musician was penniless simply cannot be justified,” though he stresses that his work is only preliminary, as “the state of research in this field has not yet provided sufficient data for any sort of exhaustive analysis.”36 The “incongruous paradox” of jongleurs being an important part of the evening entertainment at courts and yet being forbidden from entering into the gates of a city has been pointed out by Sabine Zak, who also noted how the negative, however Romantic and idealized, image of these entertainers has been overemphasized.37 Based on the extensive archival evidence of this study, the image of the urban musician as itinerant outcast is marginal. The predominant image from the city records of France is that of a musician who was a permanent resident of the city, owned property, was often part of a confraternity or guild, and served civic obligations. While the prevailing image of musical entertainers during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries involved an itinerant way of life, some were clearly permanent members of urban society. In 36

37

Walter Salmen, “The Social Status of the Musician in the Middle Ages,” in The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, Sociology of Music, ed. Walter Salmen, no. 1 (New York: Pendragon Press, 1983), 24 and 4. Sabine Zak, Musik als “Ehr und Zier” im mittelalterlichen Reich: Studien zur Musik im höfischen Leben: Recht und Zeremoniell (Neuss: Pfäffgen, 1979). Other studies that consider the diversity within this body of musicians include: Polk, German Instrumental Music; Heinrich Schwab, “The Social Status of the Town Musician,” in The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, Sociology of Music, ed. Walter Salmen, no. 1 (New York: Pendragon Press, 1983), 31–59; and Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges.

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Montpellier minstrels appear in legal records from the twelfth century, renting and owning homes and serving as witnesses.38 According to records from twelfth-century Beauvais, at least two jongleurs owned homes, and in thirteenth-century Rouen, a cithara, a harp and two fiddle players, as well as three jongleurs, were sufficiently incorporated into the urban fabric to appear in obituaries and other church records.39 Renting homes, however, did not always contribute to jongleurs being perceived as respectable members of society, as in 1183 the Bishop of Troyes complained that landlords of homes located in the cloister regularly rented to jongleurs, as well as tavernkeepers, prostitutes, and entrepreneurs who organized gambling games.40 Clearly, not all jongleurs during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were itinerant or destitute. The formation of confraternities specifically for jongleurs as early as the twelfth century reflects stability and organization among this group of musicians, and in turn, these institutions must have had a positive influence upon the socio-economic status of its members, as well as musicians in general. The official records, procedures, and ceremonies of early confraternities all lent credibility to the organizations and their members, such as the one attached to the large abbey in Fécamp formed in the early twelfth century and the Confrérie des Jongleurs et des Bourgeois in Arras formed in 1225. Recognizing the influence of the confraternity of Arras, Carol Symes writes, “These jongleurs are no longer social pariahs, promoting ‘lechery and folly,’ but a caste of wonderworkers, whose piety benefits those with ‘faith and belief.’”41 While a widespread system of confraternities for jongleurs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has not been located, their existence at all reflects on the social status of the profession. Jongleurs and other entertainers already in the twelfth century were established members of these urban settings with enough presence and sense of professional identity to form a trade-based confraternity.42 38

39 40 42

In a record of rent assessments, dated only to the twelfth century, a “iocos” paid rent of 3 s. melgorian for his home; less than twenty percent of the taxpayers in this list paid as much as or more than this musician for rent. In a document from 1151 reference is made to the home of a “Jordanis joculatoris.” In 1201 a “Ricardetus joculator” served as a witness for a legal transaction, a common practice for citizens by the thirteenth century. Liber Instrumentorum Memorialum: Cartulaire des Guilhems de Montpellier, ed. C. Chabaneau and A. Germain (Montpellier: La Société archéologique de Montpellier, 1884–6), 422, 289, 630. Leblond, Les Associations de musiciens, 9–10; Beaurepaire, “Notice sur les ménétriers,” 170. Boutiot, Histoire de la ville de Troyes, 261. 41 Symes, “The Lordship of Jongleurs,” 239. In 1357, the minstrels in Lille had an elaborate candle made for their profession to be used in processions and civic ritual, suggesting the organization of a confraternity. Lefebvre, Les Ménestrels, 123. Minstrels were also often members of other confraternities that drew membership from various professions, such as in Avignon and Marseilles.

The musician as respected member of the city

A more direct factor in the securement of status for the urban musician is the formation of guilds or at least the adoption of practices associated with guilds. As discussed in Chapter 5, guilds appeared in at least five major cities in France during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: Paris (1321), Montpellier (1353), Amiens (1461), Rouen (1484), and Toulouse (1492). Reflecting the impact membership in a guild had for a minstrel, those not included in the guilds appear to have had less status. The guild statutes in Toulouse, dating from the end of the fifteenth century, reveal that guild membership was a mark of good character. It reads, “Because a single sheep infects the flock, we state that the bailiff will not receive as a member of the confraternity anybody who does not appear good and honest.”43 Likewise, the beginning of the Paris statutes of 1321 states that only musicians who are members of the guild may perform in the city, as currently unskilled musicians, who were not part of the guild, were damaging the reputation of the profession. This distinction between minstrels is also evident when the confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour or the Cathedral of Rouen stipulates that only “good” minstrels were to be employed. Within guilds the socio-economic status of musicians would have greatly varied, as these organizations acknowledged the importance of meeting the financial need of some of its members, like assuming the debt of an impoverished member. In the fourteenth century, minstrels also began to assume duties assigned and distributed by profession. From the early thirteenth century in Montpellier, representatives were designated annually from each of the organized professions in town to guard the ramparts of the city, and by at least the mid-fourteenth century, minstrels were among the professions in town who assumed this civic obligation. At this time minstrels appear among the lists of individual representatives which have been extant since the early thirteenth century, and the minstrels’ appearance coincides with the earliest evidence for the regular employment of minstrels by the city council of Montpellier. In 1353, four individuals representing the menestriers served in this capacity, and the minstrel profession continued to fulfill this civic obligation throughout the second half of the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries.44 The city’s expectation that minstrels would serve this substantial duty is based upon acceptance of the profession, and the minstrels’ ability to meet this expectation reveals professional organization and stability. 43

44

ADH, E 1318, “Item, et parce qu’une seule brebis infecte tout le troupeau, nous statuerons et ordonnerons qu’il soit permis aux bayles de la confrérie de recevoir comme membre de la confrérie n’importe qui, pourvu qu’il soit de vie bonne et honnete.” AMMo, “Regestre des senhors,” 1353–92 and 1412–21; GG 1–16, 1416–96. Two separate categories, one for “menestriers” and one for “trompayres,” appear in the early fifteenth century

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In Montpellier, the minstrels as a profession also participated in an annual charitable custom on Ascension Day throughout the fifteenth century. The city council and the organized professions in town distributed bread they had contributed to individuals in need. The amount of bread donated by a profession sheds insight into its size and social prominence; and while much less than the city council’s 1,000 loaves and the notaries’ 200 loaves, the musicians’ contribution of 71 loaves in 1416 is close to the tailors’ 100 and the dyers’ 80, and significantly more than the hat makers’ 20 and the crossbowmen’s 20.45 Except for a significant decrease in all contributions from 1416 to 1444 probably due to the depression of Montpellier’s economy during this time, the number of loaves donated by the musicians throughout the century remains fairly constant. Not all types of minstrels, however, appear to have participated in this organized charitable practice. While throughout much of the century, contribution lists only distinguish participating musicians as “minstrels” or “trumpeters,” from 1486 to 1491 the lists are unusually explicit in identifying those who were “minstrels of the consulate” and “the other minstrels who are trumpeters and pipe and tabor players.” During at least the end of the fifteenth century, this social contribution appears to have been primarily fulfilled by civic-employed musicians, without any participation by soft instrumentalists. This highly visible practice could have reflected and reinforced a social distinction among urban musicians, those associated with civic government and those operating only in the freelance setting. (See Table 6.1 for the number of loaves donated by musicians throughout the fifteenth century, as well as the manner in which the musicians were identified.)

Economic status of musicians The economic conditions can be determined for a substantial number of urban musicians during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries through tax records, property listings, and incomes. This is particularly true for musicians

45

through 1472. A distinction between “menestriers,” “trompayres,” and “taborins” appears from 1477 to 1491, and an additional category for “hault menestreirs” appears from 1495 to 1496. This obligation does not appear to have been limited to civic-employed musicians, as throughout this period musicians who never appear on the city’s payroll serve as guards. AMMo, GG 1–16. In these series of lists with the size of the donations, the musicians consistently appear first among the professions, with the donation of the city council appearing second. This seems to reflect the order during the ceremony, in which the musicians would have taken their standard position immediately in front of the council.

Economic status of musicians

Table 6.1: Number of loaves of bread donated to charity by musicians in Montpellier Date

Categories of musicians

Number of loaves

1416

Menestriers Les trompayres Menestriers and trompayres Lo haultz menestriers Trompayres Menestriers et trompetas Los autz menestriers Trompetas et taborins Los menestriers Menestriers Menestriers Menestriers Menestriers Menestriers del consolat Los autres menestriers qui sont trompetes et taborins Menestriers del consolat Les autres menestriers qui sont trompetes et taborins Menestriers del consolat Los autres menestriers qui sont trompetes et taborins Menestriers del consolat Les autres menestriers qui sont trompetes et taborins Menestriers et trompetes Aultz menestriers Los trompetas Los aux menestries Los taborins

40 31 40 16 20 20 12 20 32 32 34 25 25 12 24 12 25 12 20 12 25 25 12 20 12 24

1444 1460 1472 1477 1479 1481 1482 1484 1485 1486 1489 1490 1491 1495 1496

in Montpellier, where records are unusually well preserved, though comparisons will be drawn for musicians throughout France whenever possible. Extensive tax records and compoix, or property listings compiled for tax purposes, from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Montpellier have allowed the economic status to be determined for approximately 20 percent of the 125 musicians who have been identified in Montpellier between 1350 and 1450.46 While acknowledging that it is likely that some of the poorest 46

Unlike in German cities, civic musicians do not appear to have been exempt from paying taxes, even though certain members of the municipal personnel were exempt. The only evidence that has been located for this practice dates from significantly later; an official “aulboys” of the city in 1574 was exempt from paying taxes specifically because of his employment. Maurice Oudot de Dainville, Archives de Montpellier: inventaires et documents, vol. 8 (Montpellier: Imprimerie L’Abeille, 1943), 12.

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Table 6.2: Taxable wealth and tax bracket for musicians in tax records of 138247 Musician

Taxable wealth (livres)

Tax bracket (%)

Duran Tacau Miqualet P. Floret Posset Carpin Tibaut Robert Hugon la Crida Mondo Martin Malaret Johan Mota

10 15 20 20 20 50 60 103 235 300 370

22 25 34 34 34 58 62 73 84 87 90

musicians in town are not included in these financial records, they offer an image of a minstrel population in the lower middle class who owned substantial property. As has been noted within all of the professions of Montpellier at this time, great economic diversity existed within this population. Based on tax records from 1382, for example, significant variation existed among eleven musicians, ranging from tax brackets just above the twentieth percentile to the ninetieth percentile in areas of town that were inhabited by people with lower and middle incomes. While approximately one-half of these musicians were in the bottom one-third tax bracket in these quarters of Montpellier, three of these musicians were in the top one-fifth tax bracket. (See Table 6.2 for the taxable wealth of these eleven musicians in tax records from 1382, along with their tax bracket, that is the percentage of taxpayers whose wealth was at or below that level.) A similarly diverse image emerges from the compoix, which consist of “manifests,” made by individuals under oath, with the real estate enumerated piece by piece and the personal estate estimated in a lump sum. New compoix were made every ten to fifteen years with changes in property ownership during this period recorded in the margins. Manifests of twelve musicians have been located in compoix dating from 1384 to 1449.48 47 48

AMMo, Inv. 11, No. 4, f. 46, f. 95v, f. 96, f. 97v, f. 98; No. 5, f. 4, f. 5, f. 8, f. 104, f. 107; No. 6, f. 107. AMMo, Inv. 6, No. 240 (CC 568), f. 15 and ff. 55v–56; No. 244 (CC 573), f. 84; No. 248 (CC 580), ff. 148–148v; No. 249 (CC 579), ff. 105–105v, 133 and 163; No. 250 (CC 577), f. 80; No. 252 (CC 581), ff. 66–67; No. 257 (CC 586), ff. 81v–82; No. 262 (CC 591), f. 86v, 105 and 139; No. 280 (CC 608), ff. 46–46v.

Economic status of musicians

(See Table 6.3 for the total property value for select musicians according to the compoix.) The manifests of these musicians present a consistent economic picture with the earlier tax records; considerable variation in economic status continued to exist between musicians, though generally they were part of the lower and middle economic classes. One-half of the musicians could be classified as poor – that is they owned property valued at less than 50 ll. t. – though only two of the musicians owned only the minimal amount of property required for paying taxes. One-third of the musicians appear to have had quite comfortable lifestyles, though none could be classified as rich – that is they owned property valued at over 500 ll. t. One of the wealthier musicians, a trumpeter who served as a civic minstrel in the mid-fourteenth century, even had a city block, or irla, named in his honor, the “Irla de Peire Bonet trompaire,” a privilege generally reserved for one of the wealthiest individuals of the block. Indeed, in 1384, his property value of 327 ll. t. was the highest in the irla, with most of the other manifests in this quarter of town totaling under 100 l. t. This particular irla continued to bear Peire Bonet’s name in the compoix from 1417 and 1431, which must have been long after Peire’s death. The majority of musicians in Montpellier tended to be in the same economic bracket as laborers, servants, small artisans, and minor civic employees, while the wealthier musicians were among grocers, merchants of barley, butchers, fishmongers, retailers, and notaries. The relatives of musicians were often members of modest artisan professions, such as civic minstrels who had children who were butchers, brothers who were farmers, and in-laws who were fishermen and weavers. The annual wages of civicemployed musicians have been less valuable than tax records in determining the economic status of musicians, as these wages were only a portion of their total income. In positions with extensive obligations, the annual wages were comparable to those of modest artisans, such as cobblers, candle makers, butchers, millers, and weavers, reinforcing the image from tax records.49 The wealthiest musicians in Montpellier tended to be those regularly employed by the city. The wages that a musician received from the city, however, do not account for the economic disparity between civic and noncivic musicians, as these wages, except for those of the tower-trumpeters, constituted only a small portion of a total annual income. The economic

49

A few examples were the public crier in Marseilles (36 fl.), the tower-trumpeters in Montpellier (20 ll. t.) and Avignon (30 fl.), and the city trumpeter in Aix (36 fl.).

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Table 6.3: Property of select musicians from Montpellier according to compoix Musician

Date

Property

Value (livres and sous)

Peire Bonet

1384

Simon Requier

1435

Durand de la Vinha

1435

home home home home field and vineyard (3 ca.) vineyard (5 cart.) vineyard (1 ca.) vineyard (1 ca.) vineyard (2 ca.) vineyard (5 cart.) vineyard vineyard vineyard field (9 cart.) field field (1 ca.) fallow field enclosure boat (“vaissel”) 2 fireplaces (“ares”) ? TOTAL new bathhouse old bathhouse vineyard (2 ca.) vineyard (5 cart.) vineyard (5 cart.) vineyard (1 ca.) personal estate TOTAL home small farm or cottage young vineyard (10 cart.) young vineyard (3 cart.) vineyard (2 ca.) old vineyard (1 ca.) field (2 ca.) fallow field (1 ca.) orchard orchard personal estate Total

8 10 12 30 34 12 16 12 12 12 8 20 13 20 20 8 4 2 12 10 52 327 200 100 6 4.5 4.5 3 25 342.10 65 6 7.10 2.5 6 3 6 3 10 6 40 154.15

Note: ca.=cartayrada=394 square meters; cart.=carton=102 square meters. Source: AMMo, Inv. 6, No. 240 (CC 568), f. 55v–56; No. 248 (CC 580), ff. 148–148v; No. 252 (CC 581), ff. 66–67.

Economic status of musicians

disparity between civic and non-civic musicians can most likely be explained either by the exposure and status of a civic position creating a greater number of professional opportunities for a musician or by the city hiring the most highly skilled musicians, who would have naturally acquired more jobs. A civic position did not guarantee a musician a higher economic status, however, as some of the civic employees were among the poorest musicians in town. In Montpellier, trumpeters served unique functions, but neither tax records nor the compoix indicate that they experienced a more privileged economic status than other types of instrumentalists during this period. The diverse economic realities for musicians in Montpellier were due not only to their incomes from musical activities, but also to their involvement in other professions. The vast majority of musicians in Montpellier, as well as in many other French cities, owned rural pieces of property and evidently did some farming to supplement their income, and a number of musicians also owned property that they rented to tenants. Musicians with other professional involvements in Montpellier include a prominent council minstrel who owned a stall for selling fish in the commercial center of town and a tower-trumpeter/ public crier in Montpellier who owned two bathhouses. The well-preserved tax records of Dijon present minstrels who were among the destitute, at times raising an ambiguous distinction between beggars and street musicians. Music has always been a common way for people who are begging to attract attention, as well as a service or skill that could require little investment. Indeed, many people today perceive musicians performing on the street for money with their case open as beggars. The tax records of late medieval Dijon include a number of musicians who were offered tax breaks in the second half of the fifteenth century due to poverty, including several pipe and tabor players, a harpist, organist, and an organ maker. In Dijon in the mid-fifteenth century support for musicians appears to have decreased; in 1444 a man by the name of “Taborin” made very little with “his pipe and tabor” as “no one makes festivals any more,” and in 1453 an organ maker had “a profession of little value, because for the past four to five years there hasn’t been a need.”50 At the end of the century

50

Louis de Gouvenain and Philippe Vallée, Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Dijon. Séries I, J, K, L., vol. III (Dijon: F. Carré, 1892), 180, L643, “Du Taborin, ne gagnant un seul denier ‘fors de sa fleute et de son taborin’ lesquels luy sont de présent de très petite valeur actendu que l’on ne fait plus nulles festes”; 181, L468, “Jehannin du Meix, facteur d’orgues, ‘qui est, dit-il, mestier de petite valeur, car de quatre à cinq ans ne trouve pas ung besoingne.’”

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in Dijon, the financial constraints of two pipe and tabor players are noted in tax records; one could not support his wife and three children through music, which was his only source of income, and the other could make a living only “with great pain” by supplementing his music with sewing.51 The pipe and tabor was also a tenuous source of income for a minstrel from the region of Savoy who was offered charity, specifically a coat, in Rouen in 1454, reinforcing the image of the itinerant and destitute performer common during earlier centuries.52 Musicians in Montpellier owned property typical of other residents in the city. The urban property owned by musicians consisted primarily of homes, with over 75 percent of the musicians in the compoix owning at least one home. Other urban property owned by musicians included two bathhouses, appropriately located on the “Street of Baths” (Rue des Bains), and a commercial table for the purpose of selling fish. Rural land constituted a major portion of the wealth of citizens of Montpellier; all but one of the musicians owned land for cultivation outside the city walls, with vineyards and fields being the most common, though other types include olive groves, orchards, and gardens. In a recent article on property investment in Montpellier in the first half of the fourteenth century, Kathryn Reyerson writes, “Indeed, in the period under study all classes of self-respecting urban inhabitants of southern France placed considerable importance in the possession of his or her own vineyard and wine cellar.”53 Land transactions in notarial records provide further documentation of multiple minstrels throughout southern France owning homes and various types of rural property, including a minstrel in Marseilles in the late fourteenth century who owned a home and rural property and offered a home and 40 fl. for his daughter’s dowry; another in Avignon during the fourteenth century, identified as a “player of musical instruments” (tactor instrumentorum musicorum), who owned many pieces of property, including an inn with a tavern; and another in Avignon during the next century who owned a bathhouse valued at 60 fl.

51

52

53

Ibid., 188, L671, “Denisot ‘le tabourin’ qui, bien que s’occupant encore d’un peu de couture, gagnait néanmoins sa vie à grand peine.’” Charles de Robillard de Beaurepaire, Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790: Ville de Rouen, Série A (Rouen: Imprimerie Julien Lecerf, 1887), 58, A8, “donné en charité à Jeh. Bourgois, povre homme estranger, du pays de Savoye, usant du tabourin, le drap d’une robe avec le façon, 47 s. 6 d.” Kathryn Reyerson, “Land, Houses and Real Estate Investment in Montpellier: A Study of the Notarial Property Transactions 1293–1348,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History (1984): 48.

Mobility of musicians

Mobility of musicians Urban minstrels throughout France appear to have typically been stable, even life-long members of their communities with parents and other relatives who tended to be modest artisans from the area. While it has been well established that the late medieval instrumental world was international in character, and specifically that by the beginning of the fifteenth century instrumentalists from the Low Countries and particularly Germany were prominent elsewhere in Europe, in many French cities only a small number of musicians from outside the immediate urban area has been identified, and this small group tended to originate from within the region. Frequently for special occasions, musicians outside the city, but within the region, were sought out by city governments. In 1453, for example, the city council of Toulouse sent a representative “to secure three companhos menestriers” in Pamiers (Pamias in Occitan), a town a little over forty miles to the south of Toulouse on the Ariège River.54 Exceptionally, a minstrel from the far northern city of Tournai was drawn to Montpellier in 1403 through promise of tax exemption.55 The greatest exchange of minstrels between cities in a region appears to be among northern French cities, reflecting their long history of commercial exchange. Minstrels who have been confirmed as being non-native to Amiens, for example, were from nearby Rouen, Brethel, and Abbeville, while the names of others suggest association with the nearby towns of Beaurain, Tournai, and Corbie, as well as the more distant Malines and Chauvigny. The city that appears to have had the largest number of foreign minstrels was the extremely cosmopolitan Avignon in south-central France. Over 25 percent of the minstrels identified in Avignon have been documented as foreigners, particularly from Italy, but also Germany and northern France. In 1378, when Pope Gregory XI ordered the Liber Divisionis to determine the legal status of inhabitants of Avignon, three of the five minstrels on this list identified themselves as courtiers, rather than as citizens, meaning that they immigrated to Avignon specifically on account of the papal court.56 Italian and German minstrels have been identified among the members of the confraternity of Notre-Dame la Majour, including a Guiqardo Franco di 54

55 56

AMT, CC 2333, No. 7, “sercar tres companhos menestriers a parrias per venir server mes senhors de capitol.” AMMo, BB 36, f. 7. Vatican Archives, Registra Avenionensia 204, ff. 428–507, “Liber Divisionis Cortesianorum et Civium Romane curie et civitatis Avinionis,” 1378.

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Parenca, a Guillo de Rens (Reims), and an Angelin de Francfort. Other foreign musicians in Avignon in the second half of the fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century records include the Brocardus de Campanino de Pavia tactor instrumentorum musicorum from northern Italy mentioned earlier, a Johannes de Bray from northern France, a Siuerino de Alamania from Germany, and a Mosse de Lisbonne from Portugal. Contributing to an international instrumental scene in late medieval Avignon were the frequent visits of nobility with minstrels in their entourage, some of whom were the most sought-after instrumentalists in Europe and came from German lands. Papal accounts from the fourteenth century include payments to the minstrels of the Dukes of Normandy, Bourbon, Burgundy, Brunswick, and Anjou, as well as those of Prince of Achaia, the Duke of Brunswick, and the Count of Geneva, among others. Other examples include a Pontius de Francafort de Alamania, who accompanied the Viscount of Turenne to Avignon in 1371, and three German minstrels (ioculatores), who received a special gift from Clement VII in 1383.57 From this international musical setting, skilled instrumentalists emerged who found employment in courts throughout Europe. At the court of Aragon in the early 1390s, among the numerous minstrels from northern Europe was “Johanni Avinyo.”58 In the early fifteenth century, another minstrel from Avignon was highly sought after and appears to have worked in a number of the major European courts. A “Jean d’Avignon” appears among the royal French minstrels in 1416, a “Johannes de Avignione” is paid by the Duke of Savoy in June of 1424, and in July of that year a “Giovanni d’Avignon,” identified as a “piffaro,” appears at the court of Ferrara.59 When Giovanni was brought to Ferrara, in addition to his salary he was offered a house and court stable privileges and “word was passed that he was to be well treated because he had been sought in France for two years.”60 In 1437, a “Giovanni d’Avignon piffaro” again appears in the records of Ferrara, though his activity for the thirteen intervening years is unknown, if indeed it is the same man. More evidence for Avignon’s vital instrumental culture has been cited by Frank D’Accone in his book on Siena. In June of 1446 a “maestro Garino of 57 58

59

60

Tomasello, Music and Ritual, 24 and 166. Higinio Anglès, “Cantors und Ministrers in den Diensten der Könige von Katalonien-Aragonien im 14. Jahrhundert,” in Bericht über den Musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress in Basel (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1925), 64. Wright, Music at the Court of Brugundy, 49; Robert Bradley, “Musical Life and Culture at Savoy, 1420–1450” (Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1992), 356. Lockwood, Music in Renaissance Ferrara, 17.

Musicians’ residences

Avignon” received an invitation from the city of Siena which read, “Having learned of your talents and of your mastery of wind instruments, and desirous of having you in our service, we have, together with our colleagues, nominated you and two other pifferi and a trombone, whom you will choose, for a lifetime [appointment in our Palace].”61 Garino accepted the invitation and brought with him to Siena two pifferi, Germano and Ferrino de Francia, and a trombonist, Giovanni de Alamannia. Less than a year later, only two of the four musicians remained in Siena: Garino and Germano had overstayed a two-month leave to go to France and were fired. While the other three have not been identified in the city records of Avignon, it is possible that the leader of the wind band, “Garino,” was a “Garinus Bornehti” who appears in city records of Avignon from 1449 through 1458. Perhaps after a brief stay in Siena, Garinus returned to Avignon, where he and “his associates” were frequently hired by the city for local celebrations, attesting to the high quality of instrumental music in this city.62

Musicians’ residences Of the approximately 125 musicians who have been identified in records from 1350 to 1450 in Montpellier, the residences of about one-third have been located through the use of tax records and compoix. An accurate image of the distribution of musicians throughout Montpellier over this 100-year period is possible, as all areas of town are fairly evenly represented in these financial records. During the late fourteenth century in Montpellier, at least twelve musicians lived in the adjoining quarters of Saint Anne and Saint Paul, clustered on the street near the city wall or near the Rue Saint Guilhem, a main street of town separating these two quarters.63 (See Map 4 for irlas with musicians in the quarters of Saint Anne and Saint Paul.) In contrast to the concentration in these quarters, the residences of only a few musicians have been noted at this time distributed throughout the rest of the city: one in the quarter of Saint Croix, and four outside of the city walls. In the first half of the fifteenth century, the residences of musicians seem to have been more evenly 61 62

63

D’Accone, The Civic Music, 522. For example, for the procession of Rogations in 1449, payment was made to “Petro Peyroni et Garino Borheti mimis tam pro se et pro sociis suis . . . in associando processione generali Rogationum . . . cum suis chalamelis sive instrumentis festivando et fistulando,” AMA, CC 363, Mandat 192. AMMo, Inv. 11, No. 4, ff. 46, 95v, 96, 97v and 98; No. 5, f. 4, f. 5 and f. 8; Joffre 852, f. 76 and f. 107. ADH, II E 95/404, ff. 40–41; II E 95/440, f. 16v, f. 17, f. 18v, f. 19v.

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“A minister of Satan” and “an honor to the city”

distributed throughout the city, though the highest percentage of musicians continued to live in the quarters of Saint Paul and, particularly, Saint Anne. Seven musicians have been identified in Saint Anne, who, as in the preceding century, tended to live in relative close proximity to one another and in irlas bordering the city wall or the Rue Saint Guilhem. Trumpeters do not appear to have congregated among the other musicians, as they constituted twelve of the sixteen musicians who have been identified in areas other than Saint Anne and Saint Paul between 1350 and 1450. The location of the residences of these musicians places them in the middle of the economic spread in Montpellier. Saint Paul and Saint Anne were respectively third and fourth in overall wealth among the seven quarters of town. Referring to Saint Anne, Prieur writes that it is “a quarter where the less fortunate are in the majority and where the poor constitute half of the declarants; the very poor are in the minority as the rich are as well.”64 Within the quarters of Saint Paul and Saint Anne, the musicians generally lived in the center or back of the quarter, which were areas economically in the middle or slightly below the middle. They were not located in the wealthiest irlas, which bordered commercial streets and principal streets of access into the quarter and tended to be located towards the center of town. The three most common professions represented in these areas of the town were those of the butchers, the laborers, and the minstrels themselves, with other frequently represented professions being those of other artisan trades: the tailors, bakers, cobblers, and fishmongers. The professions of medicine, law, and municipal and royal administration were the most sparsely represented. The musicians of Montpellier were not unique in their tendency to live in one area of town near their colleagues. By the end of the twelfth century in Montpellier, as in other important cities in Languedoc, members of a profession tended to congregate in particular streets and quarters, and areas in Montpellier had become associated with specific professions.65 The tendency for musicians to live in this one area of town might have been related to professional opportunities. First, this congregation of musicians would have provided a central location for a person who wished to hire a musician. In addition, various sources of employment might have 64

65

Marie-Hélène Prieur, “Sociologie d’un quartier de Montpellier au XVe siècle: le quartier SainteAnne,” Études sur l’Hérault 2–3 (1986–7): 46, “Le quartier est donc un quartier où les moins fortunés sont majoritaires et où les pauvres constituent la moitié des déclarants; les très pauvres (nichils) sont minoritaires comme les riches d’ailleurs.” André Gouron. La Réglementation des métiers en Languedoc au Moyen Âge, Études d’histoire économique, politique et sociale, vol. 22 (Paris: Librairie Minard, 1958), 69 and 115.

Musicians’ residences

Map 4. Irlas with musicians in the quarters of Saint Anne and Saint Paul. The base map has been drawn from Guiraud, Recherches topographiques.

also been available in this area for musicians, including a high concentration of hotels located near the two main entrances into Saint Paul and Saint Anne, houses of prostitution situated outside the walls of Saint Paul, and numerous bathhouses along the Rue des Bains. Finally, this area was relatively close to the consulate, the meeting place of the city council, and

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“A minister of Satan” and “an honor to the city”

the central church of Notre Dame-des-Tables, where the civic wind band and tower-trumpeters were frequently required to perform. The residences of numerous minstrels in Lyons, approximately fifteen in the late fourteenth century, have been determined through tax records. Almost all of the minstrels who are listed in tax records from multiple years remained at a single residence, often for over twenty years. The residences of minstrels were distributed in neighborhoods throughout the city of Lyons, though more highly concentrated in the central portion of the city. A large portion of this population was living on streets where twothirds of the residents were poor. Not surprisingly, a trumpeter by the name of Sarpolet, who was a member of the town watch, lived near the tall tower of Fourvière, where he carried out his duties. In some of these French cities, the names of streets were associated with musicians, though it has not been established whether musicians necessarily lived there in higher concentration. In Paris, the Rue aus Jongleurs served as a location for citizens to search out a minstrel to hire. This street was in the same vicinity as the bathhouses, again suggesting a relationship between these professions, as seen in Montpellier. The homes of minstrels are dispersed throughout Paris, though they have been identified in large numbers on the Rue aus Jongleurs, a street which borders an area of concentrated poverty. Other suggestive streets include the Rue des Ménétriers in Troyes in the mid-sixteenth century, located in the central part of the old city, the Carreria Trombator in Marseilles, the Rue aux Jongleurs in Beauvais in the fifteenth century, and “the house of the minstrels” in Amiens towards the end of the fifteenth century.

The musician as individual The medieval minstrel has generally remained an anonymous figure in music history, with only a vague image emerging from city ordinances admonishing his behavior or city contracts stipulating his terms of employment. As Keith Polk writes, “Many individual pieces of evidence have survived concerning late medieval wind players, but these offer only fragmentary images of the men themselves. Most of the surviving documents are payment accounts, and these usually consist of simple statements of amounts disbursed. Important events in the lives of musicians – births and weddings, for example – are not mentioned.”66 A multi-dimensional image 66

Polk, German Instrumental Music, 76.

The musician as individual

of the minstrel in French cities during the late Middle Ages, however, has emerged, one who was responsible, respectable, a permanent resident of the city, who frequently owned significant amounts of property, raised a family, and fulfilled standard civic obligations. Over thirty documents have been identified concerning the professional and personal life of Petrus de Mala, who was active in Montpellier from 1419 to 1450 playing the shawm in the civic wind band for at least twenty years and frequently fulfilling professional civic obligations. Petrus had familial ties to the area, as in his will money is allocated to maintain the altars of his parents. He was married to the daughter of a local weaver, Alasacia, who also made arrangements in her will to maintain the altar of her parents.67 They had a son, Franciscus, who died young, and Alasacia had a son from a previous marriage who was a Dominican friar in the city. Petrus and Alasacia were successful economically, as they fell in a tax bracket for above-average wealth in the city and lived in the richest quarter of town, one in which very few minstrels lived. He owned numerous pieces of property totaling the substantial sum of 210 ll. t., including a commercial table for the purpose of selling fish, a home, an orchard, an olive grove, two vineyards, and three fields.68 In their wills, Petrus and his wife each allocated 50 ll. t. for the salvation of their souls. They formed close relationships with the families of other minstrels. Another council minstrel and his wife figured prominently in the will of Alasacia; she executed the will in their home, bequeathed them money, planned to be buried at their funeral site, and designated him executor of the will. Petrus gave a vineyard to one colleague and purchased a home from the wife of another, two transactions that could demonstrate a concern and sense of responsibility for his colleagues.69 Martin Andree (fl. 1429–39) appears to have been a successful and prominent freelance musician and teacher in Marseilles specializing in wind instruments who at least at times formed exclusive partnership arrangements with colleagues.70 No evidence indicates that Martin worked for the city, though this remains a possibility due to the sparse civic payment records at this time in Marseilles. Martin was identified as a “magister” in multiple documents, indicating that he was a well-established and respected minstrel who had worked his way through the hierarchy of the profession.71 The significant

67 68 70 71

ADH, II E 95/414, ff. 56v–57; II E 95/415, ff. 95v–96. AMMo, Inv. 6, No. 249 (CC 579), ff. 105–105v. 69 ADH, II E 95/415, f. 94. ADB, 351 E/194, f. 109. ADB, 351 E/239, f. 230; 355 E/136, f. 112, f. 178v, “magistre martinus andree corneiator et pulsator instrumentorum dictorum mimarum sive cornamusis.”

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“A minister of Satan” and “an honor to the city”

amount of property purchased by Martin within a small period of time, much of which was located near the Jewish well and temple in town, including two homes, a vineyard, and part of a burnt home, suggests that he helped support himself through real estate investments. Martin’s prominence in the musical community, as suggested by his legal partnership and reputation as a teacher, is paralleled in the general community with his wealth, as well as his role as witness to multiple legal contracts.72 In part due to the ubiquitous role of minstrels in the medieval city, conflicting images prevailed. Throughout this period, images of minstrels as a negative and corrupting force in society can be located. Music making of urban musicians, and especially the activities surrounding it, was often cited as problematic and was discouraged or prohibited. Music prompted dancing and other types of social behaviors that authorities, both religious and secular, found unacceptable. Some musicians were pushed to the margins of society and deemed unwanted and undesirable by some, but other musicians, regardless of the century, were permanent and integral members of the community. Roles varied greatly, as did perspectives. While the socio-economic status of professional urban musicians as a whole improved during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, some musical activities were desired and sought after by some, while at the same time deemed inappropriate by others. This has been the reality for some musical activities and entertainers throughout history. The social status of the minstrel profession as a whole improved during the fourteenth century, with more musicians becoming stable and permanent members of society. By the second half of the fourteenth century, various types of documents, including tax records, property listings, wills, and property transactions, provide substantial information concerning the socio-economic status of professional secular musicians. At least the musicians who appear in these records were an accepted and integral part of urban society, who tended to fall in the lower and middle socioeconomic classes, along with members of other artisan professions. Throughout the second half of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, these musicians met various civic and social responsibilities, not only as individuals, but also as members of an organized profession. The improvement in the status of musicians during the fourteenth century coincides with and appears to have been related to, the increase in civic patronage of 72

ADB, 351 E/192, no folio; 351 E/239, ff. 230–230v; 351 E/240, ff. 49v–50; 351 E/241, ff. 108v–109v.

The musician as individual

musicians. As minstrels became an important symbol of power in the fourteenth century, frequently being identified as an “honor” to the city, wearing expensive livery with coat of arms, and performing in front of the city council or the city’s honored relics, the social status of the profession of minstrels as a whole improved.

245

Appendix: musical instruments in the archival records of the study1

Bombard See shawm.

Chaplechou (chaplechou, chappe chault) The obscure chaplechou appears only twice in this study, both times during banquets in Avignon during Carnival in the late fifteenth century, during which it is included among a group of soft instruments. In 1475, the instrument was included among “the minstrels of string” (als menestriers de cord) who played the harp, lute, and rebec, and in 1481 it was combined with a tabor, organ, and douçaine. It is a metal percussive instrument, either like a cymbal or a bell, whose name apparently derives from the French word chapler, meaning to strike roughly or hit.2

Coradois While references to the “coradois,” literally translating as a “horn with finger holes,” appear from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries in France, they remain ambiguous. In this study the “coradois” only appears in the context of the civic wind ensemble in the 1390s in Amiens, where a single “minstrel of the coradois” is consistently paired with two “minstrels of the trumpet” in civic processions. Earlier in 1387 the city had hired one “cornet” and two trumpets, raising the possibility that the terms “cornet” and “coradois” were being used interchangeably, and later, in 1410, a trumpet was paired with a “cornet sarrasinois,” perhaps providing another variant term. The term “coradois” might refer to an expanded horn with enough holes to use both hands, which appears frequently in medieval imagery, and is often identified as a “cornet,” or it might also refer to a shawm, an

1

2

246

See index for all references to specific instruments throughout the book. Variant spellings for each instrument are provided, and when the identification of an instrument is ambiguous, original terminology is maintained. For a recent valuable reference book on medieval musical instruments see Duffin, ed., A Performer’s Guide. Sibyl Marcuse, Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1964), 89; Curt Sachs, Real-lexikon des Musikinstrumente (1913; reprint, London: Dover Publications, 1964), 77.

Appendix

instrument not identified in a consistent manner in fourteenth-century French civic records.3 (See cornet sarrasinois and cornet.)

Cornet sarrasinois An isolated use of the term “cornet sarrasinois” in this study is in Amiens in 1410, when a trumpet was paired with a “cornet sarrasinois” in civic festivities. Reflecting the obscurity surrounding horns in the Middle Ages, Herbert Myers defines it as a “short, straight, metal trumpet,” though Anthony Baines states that the “cor sarrasinois” probably meant a shawm, not a horn of some kind.4 (See coradois and cornet.)

Cornet While the related verb, “cornare,” is ubiquitous in descriptions of activities of minstrels in civic ensembles, the term “cornet” is much less common. Examples include the employment of one “cornet” and two trumpets in Amiens in 1387 and “cornetis et cornamusis” in Nîmes and Avignon in the late fourteenth century for processions. This instrument, which consisted of an animal horn fitted with finger holes, might have been a forerunner of the popular Renaissance instrument (cornett), but Myers writes, “we may not assume automatically that such instruments yet possessed all the musical qualities of the developed Renaissance cornett.” By the late fifteenth century, the cornett was commonly made from wood, or occasionally ivory, covered with leather, fitted with a mouthpiece, and built in various sizes and shapes. It had a conical bore, six finger holes and a thumb hole, and was capable of an extended range. The cornett begins to appear among other loud instruments in the fourteenth century, but as Baines writes, “the cornett . . . hovered somewhat in the background until towards the end of the fifteenth century.”5 (See the related coradois and cornet sarrasinois.)

Cornamusa (cornamuza) The term “cornamusa” is prevalent in city records of southern France during the fourteenth century. The city councils of Montpellier, Avignon, and Nîmes, and confraternities in Marseilles and Montpellier all hired “cornamusa” players to perform in processions during the second half of the fourteenth century. While a player of the “cornamusa” does not appear on the payroll of Toulouse, they do appear in the tax records in the fourteenth century. In fact, “cornamusa” is the most

3 4 5

Herbert Myers, “Reeds and Brass,” 395. Baines, Brass Instruments, 8; Myers, “Reeds and Brass,” 395. Anthony Baines, Woodwind Instruments and Their History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1957), 259.

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common term for a wind instrument other than trumpet in the records of southern French cities during the fourteenth century. Despite its prevalence in the south, the term “cornamusa” is rare in city records outside of southern France, and during the fifteenth century the term practically disappears. “Cornamusa” is typically identified with the bagpipe during the late Middle Ages in France, Spain, and Italy. While questions surround the “cornamusa” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, scholars are generally confident in their identification of this term as meaning bagpipe during this earlier period. Barra Boydell writes, “It is only in the Renaissance that ‘cornamusa’ had these meanings other than bagpipes. In the Middle Ages the name occurs quite often in literary and other sources, particularly from France; in these ‘cornamusa’ (etc.) can be accepted as referring to bagpipes.”6 The correlation of the term “cornmusa” strictly with the bagpipe in southern French cities, however, is problematic. If all references are equated with the bagpipe, then the bagpipe was the predominant instrument, with the exception of the trumpet, in urban ceremonial music in fourteenth-century southern France and an unusual ensemble practice existed in the region, that of the combination of bagpipes, trumpets, and nakers. Furthermore, a term clearly associated with shawms does not appear in these records until later, even though the shawm was already a popular instrument at this time in cities and courts throughout Europe, including the nearby court of Aragon and the city of Barcelona. An alternate explanation is that the term “cornamusa” not only referred to the bagpipe but also to other reed instruments, including the shawm. Keith Polk presents the possibility that the term “cornamusa” might have also referred to the shawm in context of the civic “pifferi” of Florence in 1386, which consisted of players of the “cornamusa,” “bombarde,” and “cornecti.” In an article on civic patronage in Florence, Polk has interpreted these instruments as being “probably shawm, bombard, and some kind of brass instrument, most likely an early version of the trombone,” and in an article from the following year, he interprets the “cornamusa” as being “either a treble shawm or perhaps a bagpipe.”7 The bagpipe is a unique instrument due to its capability of playing continuous music, as it has a bag made from an animal skin held under the left arm and inflated through the mouthpipe. Chanters with both conical and cylindrical bores existed in the Middle Ages with seven holes in front, plus a thumb-hole, providing a range of a diatonic octave. During the Middle Ages, the bagpipe was most commonly equipped with a single drone usually two octaves below the chanter’s key note, though bagpipes with two drones appear in the thirteenth-century Spanish manuscript containing the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Perhaps reflecting the popularity of the

6

7

Barra Boydell, The Crumhorn and Other Renaissance Windcap Instruments: A Contribution to Renaissance Organology (Buren: Frits Knuf, 1982), 291. Keith Polk, “Civic Patronage and Instrumental Ensembles in Renaissance Florence,” Augsburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft 3 (1986): 67; “Instrumental Music in the Urban Centres of Renaissance Germany,” Early Music History 7 (1987): 172.

Appendix

bagpipe in southern France, a painting originally on a ceiling of a building in Montpellier, which appears to date from the late fourteenth century, depicts a bagpipe with only a single drone.8

Douçaine (doussaine, dossena) The only two references to the douçaine in this study date from southern France from the second half of the fifteenth century. In 1469, a relative of a council minstrel of Montpellier sold three “doussaines” for 30 s., three times the price of the shawms he sold at the same time. In 1481, a “dossena” was included in an ensemble of soft instruments at a banquet in Avignon. Variants on the term “douçaine” were in widespread use, beginning in the fourteenth century in reference to a quiet double-reed instrument. Its construction, however, has been difficult for scholars to determine, as no definite illustrations or specimens exist of the douçaine. As Baines writes, “The douçaine-dolzaina class of instruments proves almost perversely mysterious.”9 In a rare description of the instrument, Tinctoris distinguishes it from a shawm, noting its softness in sound and fingerhole organization like a recorder, seven holes in front and a thumb hole. Apparently referring to its limited range, he notes, “Since not every kind of piece can be played on it, it is considered to be imperfect.”10 Its quiet sound and limited range suggests a narrow cylindrical bore which did not allow overblowing. Already in the second half of the fourteenth century, it was constructed in different sizes, as Guillaume de Machaut’s La Prise d’Alexandrie mentions the “doussaines” and the “demidoussaines,” and by the early fifteenth century, it was built in consorts of four.

Fiddle (viele, vieille, vielle) The fiddle was a bowed string instrument, with a separate neck, and no standard shape or size, though it was often oval-shaped. Most instruments appeared to have a bridge, though it is not clear whether it was flat or curved, fitted with four or five strings, with one being a drone. It was held in a variety of ways, from under the neck to against the chest to resting on the lap. Like its related bowed instrument the rebec, the fiddle has only been identified a few times in these French records, though it reached its height of popularity in 1300. The charter for the confraternity of Fécamp from the early thirteenth century provides a figurative list of instruments which its members performed, 8

9 10

The painting is part of the collection of the Société Archéologique de Montpellier, and a reproduction of the painting appears in Bernard Sournia and Jean-Louis Vayssettes, Montpellier: la demeure médiéval (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1991), 173. Baines, Woodwind Instruments, 257. Anthony Baines, “Fifteenth-Century Instruments in Tinctoris’s De Inventione et Usu Musicae,” Galpin Society Journal 3 (1950): 20.

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Appendix including a fiddle. Reflecting its versatile role in both sacred as well as secular music, it was customary in Beauvais on holidays throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for a singer/story-teller to accompany himself on the fiddle, probably providing preludes and interludes when performing chansons de geste in the cloister. Fiddle players were a ubiquitous and essential element of the freelance music scene in late medieval Paris, as all minstrels, with the exception of fiddlers, were forbidden from performing without a permit.

Flute ( flahut, flaut, flote, pifanssa) Most frequently the references to the flute in French city records are to the pipe performed with a tabor. (See pipe and tabor.) At times it is unclear whether the reference is to a pipe and tabor or the transverse flute. For example, three minstrels and a “flauto” performed at Christmas in Albi in the fifteenth century, or a “flautaire” was often hired for festivities in Narbonne. The transverse flute was basically cylindrical with six or more holes, with a hole for an embouchure, and was the size of a soprano recorder.

Gittern (citare, citara, cithara, ghistern, gistern, guitarn) The gittern was related to the lute in form and playing technique, with a rounded back and a pear-shaped body, but smaller and with a shorter neck. It was popular throughout Europe in the fourteenth century, but was surpassed by the lute in the fifteenth century. It was popular not only among minstrels, but also among amateur musicians, and particularly for informal music making. Unlike many other soft instruments, multiple references to the gittern have been identified in French city records, and they indicate a versatile use of the instrument within the city. In an expected setting for a soft plucked instrument, gittern players, along with tabor players, performed at a banquet for city officials in Cambrai in 1495. Gitterns were also commonly used in the Middle Ages for dances, which is consistent with a student at the university in Avignon in 1449 receiving lessons to learn dance music on either the harp or the gittern. The gittern also appears in the more unlikely settings of large processions and festivities, such as in Lille in 1361, when a gittern player was hired to perform in front of the images of the Virgin Mary in a procession. Oftentimes gittern players appear together, such as when the city of Orléans in 1391 hired a gittern player “and three other gittern players of his sort” and in 1470 hired seven gittern players to honor the dauphin, or when the city of Lille in 1480 hired three gittern players.

Harp (arpa, arpe, harpe, herpe) The harp, a triangular plucked instrument, underwent considerable experimentation in construction during the late Middle Ages, appearing with various forms,

Appendix

sizes, and number of strings, which were typically made of gut, though also at times metal. Guillaume de Machaut refers to a harp with twenty-five strings in his poem “Dit de la harpe,” though they were usually smaller. As the harp was one of the most widespread instruments in the Middle Ages, it is not surprising that it appears frequently in the records of French cities. Harp makers have been identified in French cities during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including in Avignon, Dijon, and Montpellier. It appears to have been the favored instrument among freelance professional musicians in French cities, such as the harp player in Amiens who was fined for exceeding the guild-sanctioned limit of weddings in a single day, the harp player in Avignon who performed among a group of soft instrumentalists at a banquet during Carnival, and three harp players in Orléans who were hired by the city to perform in the general festivities for the birth of the future Charles VIII. The harp was also an instrument played by novice and amateur musicians, such as the university student in Avignon or the wool merchant in Calais who sought lessons to learn how to play a set of songs and dances on the harp. It is also an instrument that has been identified at the center of various altercations on the streets of the cities, such as one in Amiens in 1454 which resulted in all of the harpist’s strings being cut.

Horn (cor, corn) Oftentimes the watchmen placed upon bell-towers in French cities played a simple horn, such as in Tours, Dijon, Albi, and Nîmes. The cost of the instrument was often minimal, reflecting its simplicity of construction from either an animal horn or metal. It was distinct from the trumpet through its conical bore, and those that could produce more than one pitch were curved or coiled in shape.

Hurdy-gurdy (chiffonye, chifognie, simphognie) Like other soft instruments, the hurdy-gurdy appears rarely in the records of French cities even though it was a widespread instrument during the late Middle Ages. The charter for the confraternity of Fécamp in the early thirteenth century provides a figurative list of instruments its members performed, revealing nothing more than that the hurdy-gurdy was an instrument in use by these musicians. In an apprenticeship agreement dating from 1394 in Rouen, a master minstrel is described as a “singer and reciter of beautiful speaking of the mouth and also the hurdy-gurdy.” This minstrel was part of a long tradition of musicians/story-tellers who accompanied themselves on bowed string instruments. According to the contract, this master promises to give his apprentice a hurdy-gurdy worth 15 s. While it was a bowed string instrument, like the fiddle, the medieval hurdy-gurdy had a wooden wheel, coated with resin and operated by a crank, which served as a bow that could produce a sustained sound. The strings were not stopped by the fingers, but rather by tangents that were attached to a keyboard.

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Lute (laut, lauza, leu, leuz, leut, leute, luz) The lute is a plucked string instrument whose distinctive features are a vaulted body made of individual ribs, a flat belly with an ornate sound hole, a distinct neck, a pegbox perpendicular to the neck, and strings arranged in paired courses, with the exception of the top one. In the early fifteenth century a fifth string was added to the lute, and by the late fifteenth century, Tinctoris indicates that it sometimes had “six principal strings,” adding that “to provide a stronger sound, an additional string may be conjoined to any string and tuned to the octave.”11 While the lute had been plucked with a plectrum earlier in the Middle Ages, according to Tinctoris, the lute was also being struck in the late fifteenth century with the fingers, reflecting the lute’s growing performance of polyphony. Like other soft instruments, the lute rarely appears in the records of French cities, in spite of its being a widespread popular instrument at this time. Lute players either rarely played at civic events, or when they were part of these events they were identified generally as “minstrels.” In addition, it seems likely that the lute was heard in private settings, not public settings, about which city records yield little insight. Reflecting the lute’s common use in soft ensembles, a lute appeared at banquets in Saint-Omer in 1419 with a gittern and fiddle, in Avignon in 1475 with a tamborin, organ, and douçaine, and in Lyons in 1498 with a drum, rebec, and organs. An unusual appearance of the lute in 1498 in Lyons was for a royal reception for the king, in which a lute player and his three companions performed on a stage on a bridge by the Rhône River, a performance situation typically assumed by loud wind players. While up to the mid-fifteenth century the instrument was associated primarily with professionals, it began to be popular among amateurs. This is reflected in a contract from 1474, in which a merchant in Calais arranged private music lessons specifically to learn a number of dances on the harp and the lute; one of the skills he specifically paid for was knowledge of how to tune the lute. Reflecting its popularity, lute players appear in various tax records, including foreign musicians in Lyons, such as Loys de Luxembourg, “joueur de lauza,” and one specifically identified as being German.

Nakers (nachar, nacar, naquar) The nakers, a pair of small kettledrums commonly strapped to the player’s waist, were introduced by Moors into Spain in the eighth century. As the head of the drum was struck with a stick and contrasting sounds were possible with the two drums, potential existed for more elaborate patterns than with other percussion instruments, such as the tabor. Chronicles and literary sources indicate that nakers were common in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in processions, tournaments, and military settings, though references to nakers in these French city records are rare 11

Ibid., 22.

Appendix

and limited to fourteenth-century southern France. Reflecting a common instrumental combination, nakers and trumpets accompanied dances that were part of a reception in Marseilles in 1320 for the Kings and Queens of Sicily and Majorca. Nakers were also included in a wind band of trumpets and reed instruments (cornamusas) representing the city of Montpellier and a confraternity in Marseilles in the mid-fourteenth century.

Organ (organ, orgue, orgues, orguene) The organs that were prominent among French urban minstrels were the small portative organs which, as the name implies, could be carried by the player. The bellows in the back of the organ were operated by the player’s left hand, while the right hand played the keyboard. In the thirteenth century the organ had a range of not more than an octave, though by the end of the Middle Ages it had a chromatic scale of over two octaves. Reflecting the specialized skills required for its construction, a few organ makers were identified in the fifteenth century. The difficulty of supporting oneself only as an organ maker is suggested by one in Avignon who also operated as a silversmith (argentier), and one in Dijon in 1453 who was financially destitute and described as having a profession “of little value.” Organists were often included among soft instrumental ensembles performing at banquets for nobility and civic officials, though at times they performed by themselves, for example an organ player from Abbeville who played alone at the town hall in Amiens in front of the city officials.

Pipe and tabor (tabor, tabourin, tambourin, tabourin cum fistula, tympanum cum fistula) The pipe and tabor were played by a single musician simultaneously, creating a oneman band. Some records are explicit in identifying both elements of this one-man ensemble; other records, however, refer only to the “taborin,” or less often to the “fistula.” On occasion these instruments were probably played separately, but at least in the latter half of the fifteenth century it appears that this duo was frequently referred to as simply the “taborin.” In 1474, for example, the city of Avignon hired two musicians identified solely as “taborinis,” even though the document later indicates that they played “fistulis et taborins.” The pipe, which was held in the left hand, was long, very thin, and cylindrical, with two holes in the front and a thumb hole. Because of the thin bore, the fundamentals were weak and were not used, but the second through the fifth harmonics were easily achieved through over-blowing, making a complete diatonic scale possible. These pipes were combined with tabors, which varied in size and shape, though they were cylindrical, had two drum heads, and at least the head that was hit was fitted with a snare. In southern France during the fifteenth century a long cylindrical tabor, known as a tambourin, became particularly popular. The

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tabor was slung from the left arm, from either the wrist or shoulder, and hit with a stick. The pipe and tabor has been located in city records throughout France, though it was particularly popular in southern France during the late Middle Ages, where it continues to be a popular folkloric symbol. With a few exceptions, references to the pipe and tabor appear during the second half of the fifteenth century in various performance contexts and instrumental combinations. In numerous cities, such as Lyons, Tours, and Orléans, pipe and tabor players were called upon to provide dance music. For example, two pipe and tabor players and one rebec player entertained nobility at a banquet in Lyons by performing dances, specifically the bergeres, bergidios, and morisque, and one was paid extra for rehearsing the dancers. The pipe and tabor was also a common element in civic processions in Avignon, Marseilles, and Nîmes. In addition, the instrument was used by public criers, such as in the second half of the fourteenth century in Marseilles, where a prominent public crier was known as “Pierre Alaman alias Tambourin.” The pipe and tabor was not only versatile in performance settings, but also in instrumental combinations. Single pipe and tabor players were hired for events, but so were groups of two to four. They appeared among loud instruments, as well as soft instruments, as in the fourteenthcentury poem “Les Echecs amoureux,” which reads, “But when less noise is required one plays tabor-pipes, flutes and douçaines, which are soft and sweet, and other such soft instruments.”12 The versatility of the pipe and tabor and its possibilities as a one-man band must have contributed to its unusual popularity in southern France. Pipe and tabor players, along with trumpeters and the “loud minstrels” of the council, were prominent enough in Montpellier during the last quarter of the fifteenth century to offer a separate contribution to charity on Ascension Day, and in 1496, a year in which contributions of musicians were itemized, the donation of the pipe and tabor players was the largest of the three groups of musicians. A legal case appearing before the court of the seneschal in Lyons in 1517 also suggests that pipe and tabor players formed a distinct class among minstrels, as “the sworn masters of the art of the pipe and tabor players and minstrels of the city” sought tighter regulation of their profession. Reflecting the popularity of the instrument, numerous pipe and tabor players appear in tax records of medieval French cities.

Psaltery (psalterion) In the later Middle Ages, the psaltery was a plucked string instrument made of a wooden box of various shapes with sound holes and strings, attached to wooden pegs, running parallel to the soundboard. While it apparently was widely used in medieval France, within this study it only appears in a long list of instruments from a thirteenth-century charter from the Abbey of Fécamp. Like other soft instruments, 12

Baines, Woodwind Instruments, 234.

Appendix

the psaltery must have been used in contexts and by musicians that were not documented in city records.

Rebec (rabec, rebec, robec) The rebec was a bowed string instrument with a small pear-shaped body which tapered into a short neck and was held either vertically in the lap or next to the shoulder. The rebec was built with variation in design, size, number of strings, and tuning, though the rebec commonly had three strings. While a popular and versatile instrument throughout Europe, the rebec only rarely appears in archival records of French cities. The rebec players who appear among tax records most likely operated in private settings, as they do not generally appear in city accounts and contracts. Exceptions from the late fifteenth century include rebec players in an ensemble with a lute, organ, and drum playing for the Count of Flanders in Lyons, with two pipe and tabor players performing a set of various dances in Lyons, and with a harp, lute and chaplechou playing at a banquet for city officials in Avignon.

Shawm (calamilla, chalamela, chalamyna, chalimale, challemye, charamella, charamina, charmayre, chemaule, hault bois) The shawm was, along with the trumpet, the most prominent musical instrument in civic-subsidized music in French cities. It was the principal instrument in wind bands representing medieval institutions, including courts, cities, and confraternities. The sound of the shawm was commonly heard throughout the city from bell-towers to outdoor processions to religious rituals. Emerging from the Arab world in the thirteenth century, the shawm became popular throughout Europe by the midfourteenth century. The double-reed woodwind with a conical bore, seven finger holes and a two-octave, chromatic range was a sophisticated instrument capable of rapid figuration and various articulations. Two sizes of shawms were commonly in use during the late Middle Ages, the most common treble and a tenor a fifth lower, known as a bombard, which was fitted with a key to facilitate the covering of the seventh hole. An instrument known as a “charamina” was also in use in Montpellier in the mid-fifteenth century whose diminutive ending implies a higher range than the standard treble shawm.13 Despite its prominence in civic ritual in the fifteenth century, an unambiguous reference to the shawm does not exist in French city records in the fourteenth century. Often the civic-employed musicians, other than trumpeters, are referred to only as minstrels until the fifteenth century. For example, in Toulouse, it is not until 1443 that members of the wind band are finally identified as “charaminayres,” not simply as “minstrels.” In many cities, the indication that these minstrels formed a 13

Marcuse cites a “charmelhina,” which was a Portuguese shawm a fifth higher than the regular shawm. Musical Instruments, 90.

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Appendix wind band is the use of the verb “cornare.” In Dijon, for example, minstrels were consistently hired by the city “for having made and played on wind instruments the doranlot” (pour avoir fait and corne le doranlot). In northern cities, like Saint-Omer and Lille, the civic musicians are referred to as waits and minstrels, and the first specific reference to shawms dates from into the fifteenth century. In some of the major cities in the south of France, like Montpellier, Nîmes, and Marseilles, the common term for wind players hired by the city and confraternities is “cornamusa,” a term more commonly used for bagpipes, though at times interpreted as meaning a shawm. Other terms in the records in the late fourteenth century for wind instruments, possibly shawms, are “cornetis,” “coradois,” and “cornet sarrasinois.” The term “hault bois,” and variations on it, begin to appear in the last years of the fifteenth century in French records. The cost and quality of shawms used by civic musicians throughout France varied significantly. In 1429, a civic minstrel in Montpellier sold a shawm and a bombard made in Bruges, a well-known center for instrument making, to a superior wood worker, most likely to be used as a model for making instruments. Not surprisingly, these instruments were purchased by the woodworker for almost 9 ll. t., a sizeable sum of money, many times the cost of the typical shawm in the city. In 1469 in Montpellier a collection of shawms was sold by a relative of a civic minstrel, three shawms together for only for 10 s. and two charaminas for 5 s. In Saint-Omer in 1431 the city purchased new instruments for the official wind band, which were specifically described as being “good,” with approximately 35 s. allocated for each shawm.

Timballa and timbol (tamborello) The “timballa” and “timbol” were kettledrums of different sizes. It was standard for these kettledrums to be paired with trumpets, as at banquets in Avignon in the fifteenth century, for which the city hired various ensembles, including one of “trompetas, timbols, et timballas.” At the University of Toulouse students receiving a license were allowed to employ two pairs of trumpeters and a “tamborello.”

Trumpet (cleron, namphil, trompa, trompeta, trompilh) The trumpet is the most common instrument in the records of the medieval French city, and, indeed, in some smaller cities it is often the only instrument evident in the records. While this certainly does not mean that it was the most common instrument in these cities, it was more pervasive in civic ritual than any other instrument. The position of trumpeter invariably appears earlier than that of any other musical instrument; it was most consistently subsidized by cities throughout this period; it appeared in every city in this study; and in large French cities trumpeters were hired in multiple positions. Trumpeters were also consistently distinguished from other instrumentalists in city records, whether through the customary identification of “trumpeters and other minstrels,” more expensive livery, separate donations to

Appendix

charity, or distinct rules surrounding participation at musical events, such as weddings. The trumpet up until the late fourteenth century was constructed with a straight tube of a fixed length, limiting it to the first few notes of the harmonic series. Trumpets with shorter tubes had a higher pitch-level and a more limited range, while those with longer tubes had a more extended range and were desirable, if more unwieldy. This problem was solved in the late fourteenth century when trumpet makers acquired the technology to bend the tubes without distorting them, first in an “S-shape,” and by the fifteenth century the tube folded back upon itself similar to the modern trumpet.14 With the lengthening and bending of the tube in the fifteenth century, these trumpets might have been capable of reaching the eighth harmonic and beyond. Throughout the fifteenth century, the folded trumpet became more common while the straight trumpet, typically around five feet in length, fell into greater disuse. Scholars have long conjectured that some trumpets were constructed with a slide mechanism beginning in the late fourteenth century. This slide made it possible to change the length of the tube, and therefore the fundamental, making it no longer limited to the harmonic series. Based on iconographical evidence, scholars suggested that trumpeters among shawm players in a wind band pressed the instrument against their lips more earnestly than those in trumpet ensembles playing fanfares. Scholars also noted a distinction in terminology, such as Burgundian records that refer to both “trompettes de ménestrel” as well as “trompettes de guerre.” This conjecture has remained controversial, as no unequivocal evidence for the slide-trumpet has been identified until 1490.15 Herbert Myers still concludes, “tenuous as it is, it still seems the best explanation for the known facts.”16 The types of trumpets used in French cities during the late Middle Ages have been impossible to determine through archival records. The two most common terms for trumpets in these records are “trompa” and its diminutive form the “trompeta” or “trompette.” The use of both terms in the same receipts suggests, at least at times, the use of two different types of instruments. While the “trompa” was used in processions, often the “trompeta” was used by criers, tower-trumpeters, and military officers, situations in which the function of the instrument was to capture people’s attention and to provide signals or warnings and in which the higher range of a smaller instrument, even if limited in range, would have been effective. Other terms in use, especially in reference to the instruments of criers and towertrumpeters, were “trompilh,” “namphil,” and “cleron.” 14

15

16

Patrick Tröster, “What Kind of Trumpet Did the Ménestrel de Trompette Play in Late Gothic Alta Bands?” Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography 32 (2007): 84–92. Peter Downey, “The Renaissance Slide-Trumpet: Fact or Fiction?,” Early Music 12 (1984): 26–33. Myers, “Reeds and Brass,” 391. See also Keith Polk, “The Trombone, the Slide-Trumpet and the Ensemble Tradition of the Early Renaissance,” Early Music 17 (1989): 389–96; Ross Duffin, “The trompette des menestrels in the 15th-Century alta capella,” Early Music 17 (1989): 397–402.

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While it is usually impossible to determine from the records the construction of the trumpets, the value of these instruments varied significantly, often within a single city. In Tours, for instance, the instruments used by the watch on the tower ranged from inexpensive instruments, such as clarions (clerons) valued at only 25 s., a brass trumpet (trompe d’arain) valued at 20 s., and an even simpler instrument identified as a horn (cor) valued at a mere 6 s., as well as a trumpet (trompille) for 4 ll. 10 s., almost four times that of the earlier instruments and comparable to the watchman’s wages for one month. Expensive silver trumpets were bought at times to lend prestige to the city, such as the “trompas del argent” in Toulouse, which required substantial repairs in 1420 costing 8 ll. The most expensive trumpet was a silver S-shaped trumpet in the city of Dijon, costing 54 francs 4 gros. Any indication of the existence of a slide-trumpet in these French cities is tenuous at best. The most suggestive evidence is from Saint-Omer in 1477, when a new trumpet was purchased for the sizeable sum of 6 ll. specifically for a trumpeter described as being “an expert on his style of trumpet playing,” which was perhaps the style of playing a slide-trumpet.

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Inventories Aix-en-Provence Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville d’Aix-enProvence. By Maurice Raimbault. Marseilles: Archives départementales, 1948.

Albi Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville d’Albi. By M. Emile Jolibois. Paris: Paul Dupont, 1869.

Amiens Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville d’Amiens. 3 vols. By Georges Durand. Amiens: Piteux, 1891.

Arras Inventaire des archives communales d’Arras antérieures à 1790. Arras: Commission départementale d’histoire et d’archéologie du Pas-de-Calais, 2002.

Avignon Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790 de la ville d’Avignon, Grandes Archives. By Félix Achard and Léopold Duhamel. Avignon: Archives départementales, 1863–1953. Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790 de la ville d’Avignon. Série AA. By Léopold Duhamel. Avignon: Imprimerie Paul Bernard, 1906.

Beauvais Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790 de la ville de Beauvais. By Renaud Rose. Beauvais: Imprimerie centrale administrative, 1887.

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Cambrai Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Cambrai. By Édouard Goutier and André Lesort. Cambrai: F. Deligne, 1907.

Châlons-sur-Marne Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Châlonssur-Marne. By Paul Pélicier. Châlons: Imprimerie-librairie de l’Union républicaine, 1903.

Dijon Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Dijon. Séries I, J, K, L. 3 vols. By Louis de Gouvenain and Philippe Vallée. Dijon: F. Carré, 1892.

Douai Inventaire analytique des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Douai. Lille: Imprimerie L. Danel, 1876–8.

Lyons Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Lyon. 2 vols. By Fortuné Rolle. Paris: Paul Dupont, 1875.

Marseilles Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Marseille. 2 vols. By Philippe Mabilly. Marseilles: Imprimerie Moullot fils ainé, 1907–9. Inventaire-sommaire des archives hospitalières antérieures à 1790. Hospices de Marseille. By F. André. Marseilles: Typographie et Lithographie Cayer, 1872.

Montpellier Inventaire de Joffre, Archives du greffe de la Maison consulaire, armoires A–D. Vols. 6–9. By Maurice Oudot de Dainville. Montpellier: Imprimerie L’Abeille, 1934–49.

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Nîmes Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Nîmes. By M. Bessot de Lamothe. Vol. I. Mende: Imprimerie et librairie Ignon-Petit, 1877. Vol. II. Avignon: Imprimerie et librairie de Seguin frères, 1879.

Orange Inventaire-sommaire des archives municipales antérieures à 1790. Ville d’Orange. Séries AA–CC. By Léopold Duhamel. Orange: Imprimerie Martin-Peyre, 1917.

Orléans Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville d’Orléans. By Paul Veyrier du Muraud. Orléans: 1907.

Rouen Inventaire-sommaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Rouen. Série A. By Charles de Robillard de Beaurepaire. Rouen: Imprimerie Julien Lecerf, 1887. Inventaire-sommaire des archives départementales antèrieures à 1790: SeineInférieure. Archives ecclésiastiques. Série G. By Charles de Robillard de Beaurepaire. Paris: Paul Dupont, 1868–1912.

Toulouse Inventaire des archives communales antérieures à 1790. Ville de Toulouse. Série AA, Numéros 1–60. By E. Roschach. Toulouse: Imprimerie et librairie Edouard Privat, 1981.

Troyes Répertoire sommaire des documents antérieures à 1800 conservé dans les archives communales. Troyes: Imprimerie et lithographie P. Nouel, 1911.

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Index

Abbeville, 253 Agincourt, Battle of, 147 Aix-en-Provence, 72, 165, 177, 203, 208, 211 Albi, 55–8 Albigensian Crusade, 56 Allmand, Christopher, 8 Amiens guild, 192–3, 194, 196, 198, 202 minstrel population, 237 patronage, 156–62 prohibition against minstrels, 221, 226 punishment of musicians, 224 Anne of Bretagne, 120 apprenticeships, 116, 183, 201, 203, 204–10 Apt, 72–3 Aragon, 11, 238 Arnade, Peter, 138 Arras, 152, 191, 228 Auxonne, 107 Avignon, 59–66 civic events, 61–4 foreign minstrels, 237–9 Francesco di Marco Datini, 223 lessons, 184–5 music related to papacy, 60–1 Notre-Dame la Majour, 166–9 tower-musicians, 64–5 Baines, Anthony, 247, 249 banquets Amiens, 161 Avignon, 63 Bordeaux, 170 Cambrai, 250 Lille, 135, 137 Lyons, 123, 203 Montpellier, 22, 178 Narbonne, 41 bathhouses, 182–3, 236, 241, 242 Baumel, Jean, 11 Beaune, Colette, 125 Beaurain, 237 Beauvais, 126

Fief de la Jonglerie, 171–5 minstrel schools, 215–16 patronage, 154–6 street of minstrels, 242 belfry in Amiens, 157 bell Montpellier, 25, 33, 103 Saint-Omer, 143 Benedictines, 27, 140 Bergen op Zoom, 131 Bernard de Castanet, 56 Béziers, 41, 42, 72 Biget, Jean-Louis, 56 Bishop of Maguelone, 10 Boone, Marc, 8, 129 Bordeaux, 47, 55, 170 Borgia, Cesare, 123 Boulogne-sur-Mer, 147 Boydell, Barra, 248 Brethel, 237 Brown, Howard, 220 Bruges, 15, 141, 187, 216 Busnois, Antoine, 84 Calais, 147, 185, 222 Cambrai, 69, 126, 127, 133, 250 Canon of Maguelone, 24 Cardevacque, Adolphe de, 152 Carmelites, 20, 25 Castelnau, 28 Catharism, 55 Catherine de Medici, 123 celebrations Advent, 106, 113–16 All Saints’ Day, 58, 160 Ascension Day, 25, 44, 159, 161, 171, 193 Assumption Day, 45, 167, 175 Candlemas, 175 Carnival, 62, 63, 202 Christmas, 19, 20, 21, 45, 57, 92, 93, 160, 172, 202 Conception of the Virgin Mary, 45

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Index

celebrations (cont.) Corpus Christi, 45, 58, 62, 72, 73, 93, 138, 142, 146 crossbowmen, 20, 144–5 Day of Charity, 20, 21, 25, 39, 231 Doranlot, 113 Easter, 21, 150, 172 Epinette, 132, 133–6, 152, 181 Epiphany, 144 Feast of Saint Anne, 175 Feast of Saint Blaise, 20, 21 Feast of Saint Denis, 20, 21 Feast of Saint Germain, 13, 20, 25 Feast of Saint Gille, 21 Feast of Saint James, 20 Feast of Saint Leu, 224 Feast of Saint Louis of Anjou, 27, 71 Feast of Saint Martin, 58 Feast of Saint Nicholas, 116, 181, 226 Feast of Saint Paul, 42 Feast of Saint Remy, 13, 152 Feast of Saint Yvo, 20 Feast of Santa Lucia, 52 Festival of Lille, 129 franquefeste, 146 Grand Procession of Lille, 136 Lent, 155, 178, 214, 215 Miracles of the Virgin Mary, 20, 21, 22–3 New Year’s, 152 Pentecost, 20, 172 Rogation Days, 20, 62, 170, 175 Saint Blaise, 20 Châlons-en-Champagne, 103–4 Chambers, Edmund, 219 Chambéry, 123 chanson de geste, 173 charitable giving, 229–31 charivari, 179–80, 222 Charles VII, 122 Charles-Dominique, Luc, 220 Charrin, Louis de, 199 Châteauneuf, 63 Chauvigny, 237 Chevalier, Bernard, 77 Chieri, 212 city council, 9, 77 Albi, 55–6 Amiens, 156 Avignon, 59–60, 62–3 Beauvais, 155 Châlons-en-Champagne, 104 Dijon, 116–17

Lille, 128 Lyons, 118 Marseilles, 66–7 Montpellier, 10–12 Narbonne, 43 Nîmes, 46 Reims, 103 Saint-Omer, 140–1 Toulouse, 48–9 Troyes, 101 Cléry, 87 clock, 33 coat of arms, 8, 79, 161 livery Amiens, 159 Dijon, 110, 111 Lille, 137 Lyons, 121 Marseilles, 69 Montpellier, 18, 24, 37 Troyes, 98 confraternities, 136, 165–71 Confrérie des Jongleurs et des Bourgeois d’Arras, 191, 228 Hôpital Saint Jacques-des-epées, 169 Notre-Dame d’Août, 170 Notre-Dame la Majour, 166–9, 237 Saint-Romain, 166, 170 consulate, 8 Albi, 57 Avignon, 63 Lille, 129 Lyons, 118 Marseilles, 69 Montpellier, 10, 19, 21, 22, 182 Narbonne, 42 Toulouse, 48, 50, 51, 52 Corbie, 237 Count Charles I of Anjou, 59 Count of Armanhac, 55 Count of Artois, 140 Count of Champagne, 94 Count of Charolais, 107, 148 Count of Clermont, 22, 50, 52, 148 Count of Fauqenberge, 216 Count of Flanders, 124, 138, 140, 255 Count of Foix, 28, 41, 55 Count of Forcalquier, 59 Count of Savoy, 61 Count of Toulouse, 46 Countess of Provence, 59 Crane, Frederick, 184

Index

D’Accone, Frank, 238 dances, 42, 43, 69, 88, 182 aubedance, 184 basse danse, 184 bergeres, 124, 184, 254 bergidios, 254 branle, 63 laubedance, 184 lessons for, 184, 185 moresque, 63, 84, 124, 254 pas de Breban, 184 prohibition against, 225 Derens, Jean-Arnault, 164 Dijon apprenticeship contracts, 208 Burgundian court, 108 city trumpet, 111 documents, 106 history, 106 minstrels for Advent, 115 minstrels in tax records, 235 Dobbins, Frank, 118 documents, 2–4 ceremonial Montpellier, 12, 19, 21, 22, 24, 27 Toulouse, 49 chronicles, 2, 8 Montpellier, 12, 13, 27, 29 of Charles VII, 84 of Jean Froissart, 181 of Sainte-Denys, 122 city account books Albi, 56 Amiens, 157 Apt, 72 Avignon, 62 Beauvais, 155 Bordeaux, 55 Châlons-en-Champagne, 103 Dijon, 106 Lyons, 118 Marseilles, 69 Montpellier, 12 Narbonne, 40 Nîmes, 44 Orléans, 80 Reims, 102 Saint-Omer, 141 Toulouse, 49 Tours, 80 Troyes, 95 city contracts, 2 Marseilles, 69

Montpellier, 17, 29, 30, 33, 34 Toulouse, 49 city statutes Avignon, 64, 65 Marseilles, 68 Montpellier, 12, 29 Toulouse, 51 communal charter, 8, 83, 103, 104, 116, 128, 140, 162 deliberations of the city council, 2 Albi, 58 Amiens, 157, 161 Apt, 72 Bordeaux, 55 Lyons, 118, 121, 122 Marseilles, 67, 69 Orléans, 80 Reims, 102 Tours, 80 guild statutes, 193–202 Amiens, 205 Paris, 205 Toulouse, 165, 166, 205, 211 notarial contracts, 3, 4, 46, 67, 154, 175, 177, 184, 206, 212, 214 ordinances, 51, 67, 153, 203, 225 apprentices, 205 nighttime, 223 private homes, 221 weddings, 177, 178, 179, 222 tax records (musicians in), 119, 188, 219, 230–6, 239, 242 university statutes Caen, 177 Montpellier, 177 Toulouse, 176 will, 3, 68, 198, 204, 243, 244 Dominican Convent (Dijon), 116 Douai, 137, 152 Duchess Anne of Brittany, 85 Duchess of Anjou, 21, 28 Duke of Anjou, 61 Duke of Berry, 120 Duke of Bourbon, 52, 61, 85 Duke of Burgundy, 128, 138, 148 Charles the Bold, 105 John the Fearless, 91, 107, 108, 148 Philip the Bold, 105, 107 Philip the Good, 106, 107, 128, 133, 140 Duke of Normandy, 61 Duke of Orange, 28 Duke of Savoy, 238

279

280

Index

Duke/Duchess of Orléans, 86, 87, 88, 91, 92 Dunkirk, 145, 150, 217 economic status of minstrels, 230–6 comparison of professions, 233 diversity, 233–5 property, 232–4, 236 residences Lyons, 242 Montpellier, 239–42 tax records, 230–2, 235–6 Eloy d’Amerval, 92 Emery, Richard, 43 en couble, 196–7 episcopal palace (Albi), 56, 57, 58 Fabre, Ghislaine, 21 Faral, Edmond, 219 Fécamp, 191–2 female musicians, 4, 136, 194, 195, 219, 221, 225 Ferrara, 238 fief de la jonglerie, 171–4 foreign minstrels, 18 Fourvières (bell-tower of), 119, 120, 124 Geremek, Bronislaw, 220 Germany, 7, 18, 35, 237 Ghent, 137, 141, 154 Given, James, 56 goldsmiths, 110, 159, 186 guilds cities with guilds, 192–3 foreign minstrels, 202 makeup, 194–5 professional concerns, 199–204 size, 195 statutes, 193 welfare, 197–8 Guillem family, 10, 24 Gushee, Lawrence, 219 Henry II, 123 histriones, 61, 176 Holy Roman Emperor, 61 inauguration of city council, 150 Albi, 56 Amiens, 161 Saint-Omer, 144 instrument makers, 15, 188 itinerancy, 226

Janville, 87 Jauffroy, 184 Jean-Arnault Derens, 28 Joan of Arc, 79, 91–2, 102 joculator, 44, 62, 176, 191 Johannes de Grocheo, 173 jongleressa, 219, 221 journeyman, 209, 210–11 Joyeux spoyr, 184 judicial autonomy, 8, 9 Albi, 56 Amiens, 163 Beauvais, 155 Dijon, 116 Lille, 128 Montpellier, 10 Narbonne, 43 Reims, 103 Saint-Omer, 140 Toulouse, 48 Tours, 83 Troyes, 101 King and Queen of France celebrations for, 28, 41, 86, 111, 120, 121 impact on city government, 11, 46, 49, 56, 79, 118, 156 King of France Charles VI, 78, 89, 121, 156, 181 Charles VII, 78, 79, 86, 95, 102, 181 Charles VIII, 78, 85, 89, 97, 123, 251 John II, 225 John the Good, 83, 138, 223 Louis XI, 78 Lyons, 123 Orléans, 89 Tours, 83, 84, 86 Troyes, 96, 101 Philippe IV, 94 King René of Anjou, 59, 72 King Robert of Anjou, 27 King/Queen of Navarre, 13, 20, 21, 28, 61 King/Queen of Sicily, 61, 69, 225, 253 Knight, Alan, 137 La bone volente, 184 Larmat, Jean, 182 Lattes, 11, 29, 38 Lavaur, 57 Le joly vertboys, 184 les Baux, 73 lessons, 183–6

Index

Lezignan, 42 Liber Divisionis, 237 Lille history, 127–8 music for royalty, 138–9 processions, 133–8 tower-musicians, 128–31 Lord of Caseneuve, 73 loud minstrels, 17, 88, 89, 114, 254 Louis d’Amboise (bishop), 58 Low Countries, 5, 7, 18, 35, 127, 187 Lucca, 214 Lyons history, 117–18 records, 118–19 residences, 242 royal receptions, 120–4 tower-musicians, 119–20 Majorca, King of, 10, 11, 69 Malines, 237 Margaret of Flanders, 136 Margaret of Scotland, 84 Marie de Clèves, 87, 88, 91 Marie d’Orléans, 88 Marseilles history, 66–7 public crier, 67–9 records, 67 royal receptions, 69–71 tower-musicians, 69 master minstrel, 116, 131, 182, 183, 188 matins, 19, 114, 198 Metz, 210 Middle East, 15, 159 military expeditions (with minstrels), 138 minstrel schools, 133, 139, 148, 150, 153, 155, 174, 202, 214–17 mobility of musicians, 237–9 Mondidier, 202 Mons. d’Antoine, 216 Mons. de Croy, 150, 216 Mons. de Neufville, 216 Montbrison, 54, 120–1, 123 Montpellier history, 10–11 other trumpeters, 37–9 records, 11–12 residences, 239–42 tower-musicians, 32–7 wind band, 96 civic processions, 19–27 livery, 18–19

makeup, 12–18 other responsibilities, 29 royal receptions, 28 wages, 29–30, 31–1 motet, 92 Muchembled, Robert, 178 Mundy, John, 47, 48 Murray, Stephen, 163 musical instruments bagpipes, 13, 84, 169, 212, 247–9 bombard, 15, 17, 187, 248, 255 chaplechou, 63, 246 charamina, 17, 255, 256 clarion, 81, 83, 84, 92, 95, 258 coradois, 159, 246–7 cornet, 45, 75, 123, 159, 246, 247 cornet sarrasinois, 159, 247 cymbals, 63. See chaplechou douçaine, 63, 249 drums, 45, 63, 124, 176 bedons, 226 nakers, 13, 15, 69, 140, 169, 171, 252–3 tamborello, 176 fiddle, 144, 172–4, 192, 223, 228, 249 flute, 41, 71, 250, 254 gittern 89–91, 134, 137, 144, 184–5, 218, 250 harp, 63, 90, 148, 179, 180, 184, 185, 188, 192, 200, 228, 235, 250–1 hault bois, 96, 255–6 horn, 50, 58, 64, 81, 108–9, 110, 120, 246–247, 251 hurdy-gurdy, 192, 206–7, 210, 251 lute, 63, 84, 89, 123, 124, 144, 148, 180, 185, 194, 246, 252 organ, 63, 84, 89, 90, 97, 107, 124, 182, 188, 192, 235, 253 pipe and tabor, 90, 102, 170, 203, 224, 230 civic employment, 17, 41, 42, 45, 62, 63, 64, 73, 123, 197 dances, 84, 88, 123 economic status, 235–6 public crier, 44, 68 psaltery, 84, 192, 254–5 rebec, 63, 124, 194, 255 sackbut, 154 shawm, 75, 187, 248, 255–6 Amiens, 159 Arras, 152 Avignon, 62 Dijon, 114 Lille, 139

281

282

Index

musical instruments (cont.) Lyons, 123 Montpellier, 17 Narbonne, 42 Saint-Omer, 142 Toulouse, 51 Troyes, 96 slide-trumpet, 17, 131, 142–3, 257, 258 trumpet, 256–8 Aix-en-Provence, 72 Albi, 57, 58 Amiens, 159 Apt, 73 Avignon, 62–3 Avignon – crier, 66 Avignon – tower-musicians, 65 Bordeaux, 55 brass, 81, 258 ensemble, 22, 38, 61, 63, 168, 169, 176 Lille, 131, 137 Lyons – crier, 121 Lyons – tower-musicians, 119 makers, 186–7 Marseilles – crier, 67 Marseilles – tower-musicians, 69 Montpellier – crier, 37–8 Montpellier – other trumpeters, 38–9 Montpellier – tower-musicians, 32–7 Montpellier – wind band, 13–15 namphilus, 35, 45 Narbonne–crier, 42–3 Nîmes, 45–6 Nîmes – crier, 44 Orange, 73 Orléans, 82–3 Saint-Omer – messenger, 146–8 Saint-Omer – warfare, 146–8 Saint-Omer – wind band, 142–3 silver, 49, 50, 55, 58, 110, 187 Toulouse, 49–50 Tours – crier, 82 Tours – tower-musicians, 80–2 Troyes – wind band, 96 trumpet – Dijon, 108–11 Myers, Herbert, 247, 257 Narbonne, 40–3, 46, 74, 164 Nevian, 41, 42 Nîmes, 43–7, 74, 75 Normandy, 109 Notre Dame (Dijon), 113, 116 Notre Dame (Rouen), 175

Notre Dame de Fargues (Albi), 57 Notre Dame des Doms (Avignon), 64 Notre Dame du Chastel (Montpellier), 20, 21, 25, 27 Notre Dame-des-Tables (Montpellier) civic ritual, 19, 21, 22, 25 tower-musicians, 34 Ockeghem, Johannes, 84 Orange, 73 Order of the Golden Fleece, 140 Orléans civic musicians, 82–3 history, 77–80 royal receptions, 87–94 Ott, John, 158 Pamiers, 53–4, 237 papal court (Avignon), 62, 66, 75, 167 papal legate, 62, 63 Papal Schism, 60 Paris, 1, 126, 136, 223, 242 guild, 192–202 partnership, 211–14 Pau, 42 Perkins, Leeman, 86 Petit Thalamus, 11 Philip of Savoy, 28 plays, 85–6, 93, 96–7, 104, 122, 144, 146, 166, 174 David and Goliath, 97 Judgment of King Solomon and King Clovis, 86 King Solomon and Queen of Sheba, 85 Passion, 86, 96 Saint Estienne, 93 The Seven Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins, 86, 93 Polk, Keith, 35, 64, 127, 205, 242, 248 Pope Clement VII, 60, 121, 238 Pope Gregory XI, 237 Pope Julius II, 63 Pope Urban V, 25, 27, 64, 69 Princess of France, 28 prostitutes, 173, 174, 182, 183, 203, 222, 225, 228, 241 Reims, 103 restrictions, 225 Reyerson, Kathryn, 10, 236 Rogozinski, Jan, 25 Rostit bollit, 184

Index

Rouen, 1, 126, 154, 166, 175, 182, 193, 225, 236 apprenticeships, 206–8 guild, 229 journeyman contract, 210 Saignon, 73 Saint Aignan (Orléans), 88, 89, 92 Saint Andrew (Bordeaux), 55 Saint Baudilus, 45 Saint Benoit (town), 87 Saint Bertin (Saint-Omer), 140 Saint Cecilia (Albi), 56 Saint Cleophas, 24 Saint Croix (Orléans), 88, 92 Saint Denis (Lille), 143 Saint Etienne (Châlons-en-Champagne), 104 Saint Etienne (Lille), 128, 135, 139 Saint Euverte (Orléans), 92 Saint Fermin (Montpellier), 20, 22, 24 Saint Fermin the Martyr, 161 Saint Foy (Montpellier), 27 Saint Gilles (Montpellier), 22 Saint Hilary (Orléans), 93 Saint Jehan (Dijon), 113 Saint Julien des Menetriers, 197 Saint Martin (Tours), 80–1, 82, 84, 85 Saint-Omer history, 139–41 minstrel schools, 150–1 musicians in military service, 146–8 musicians in royal service, 148 records, 141 wages of musicians, 149–50 waits civic celebrations, 144–6 general function, 143–4 wind band makeup, 141–3 Saint Paul (Narbonne), 42 Saint Paul (Orléans), 82 Saint Peter’s (Lille), 136 Saint Pierre (Châlons-en-Champagne), 104 Saint Pierre Empont (Orléans), 82 Saint Samson (Orléans), 91 Saint Saveur (Marseilles), 225 Saint Sernin (Toulouse), 51 Saint Victor (Marseilles), 69 Salmen, Walter, 227 Seune, 226 siege of Orléans, 82, 91 Siena, 238–9 silversmith, 186, 253

singers, 88, 173, 180, 194, 206 mass, 24, 52, 57, 93 Soissons, 215 Southworth, John, 226 Sperance, 184 Strasbourg, 221, 222 street of minstrels, 242 Strohm, Reinhard, 127 Symes, Carol, 228 tableau, 121, 136, 166 tax exemption (for a minstrel), 17 Toulouse civic trumpeters, 49–50 guild, 193, 194, 195, 196–7, 198 history, 47–9 records, 49 wages of musicians, 52–3 wind band, 51–2 Tournai, 17–18, 126, 127, 132, 136, 137, 151, 237 tournaments, 133, 136, 252 Tours civic musicians, 82 royal receptions, 83–7 Toussaint, 174. See celebrations: All Saints’ Day tower-musicians, 75 Aix-en-Provence, 72 Amiens, 159 Arras, 152 Avignon, 64–5 Beauvais, 156 Châlons-en-Champagne, 104 Dijon, 113 gaite, 119 gayca, 50, 64 guet, 82, 99, 102, 156 Lille, 128, 129–30 Lyons, 119–20 Marseilles, 69–70 Montpellier, 32–7 Orléans, 83 Reims, 102–3 Saint-Omer, 143 Toulouse, 50 Tours, 80–2 Troyes, 99–100 wettes, 128, 142, 143 Treaty of Arras, 42, 58 Troyes, 94, 181, 242 musicians’ compensation, 97 plays, 96

283

284

Index

Troyes, (cont.) records, 95 trumpeter, 97 watchman, 99 wind band, 96, 99, 100 true cross, 21, 25 universities, 176–7 of Caen, 177 of Montpellier, 11, 177 of Toulouse, 176 Valenciennes, 126, 127, 215

van der Straeten, Edmond, 127 Viens, 73 Vincent, Catherine, 166 Viscount of Trencavel, 46 Viscount of Turenne, 238 weddings, 165, 172, 177–80, 196, 222–3 royal, 83, 84, 107 Wright, Craig, 107 Ypres, 150, 216 Zak, Sabine, 227

Index of musicians

Aix-en-Provence Anthonius Gili, 211 Anthonius Romei, 208–10 Jo Crestan, 72 Monnetus Monneri, 72, 165, 208–10, 211 Amiens Afficquet, 160 Aignen de Chauvigni, 160 Baudet/Bauduin de Thois, 159, 160 Bourdin, 160 Colart de Rivieres, 160 Collinet, 160 Gille Cronier, 160 Huet Flandrin, 160 Jacquot Finot, 160 Jean de Beaurrain, 160, 224 Jean Brumel, Espaignart, 160 Jehan Boistel, 159, 160 Jehan du Bos Odenier, 160 Jehan Bourdin, 224 Jehan Boutard, 158, 160 Jehan Harouet, 160 Jehan Lesaige, 160 Jehan Mevel, 158, 160 Jehan de Tournay,151, 160 Jehan de le Vingne, 160, 225 Mikiel de Molin, 159, 160 Pierre Cailleu, 160 Pierre du Nuefgarding, 160 Robert Cuvellette, 162 Robert Motin, 160 Robin Cuvelet, 159, 160 Simon de la Vingne, 160 Thumas Cailleu, 159, 160 Willimot Harouet, 160 Avignon Angelin de Francfort, 238 Antonius, 184–5 Anthonius Menerbe, 62, 65 Bertrand Bernard, 167 Brocardus de Campanino, 182, 238 Ferrino de Francia, 239 Germano, 239

Giovanni de Alamannia, 239 Gorinus Borheti, 62, 63, 239 Guillo de Rens, 239 Guiqardo Franco di Parenca, 238 Johan Menerbe, 62, 65 Johanin Galey, 65 Johanne Aucher, 65 Johannes de Avignione, 238 Johannes de Bray, 238 Lazarus de Pugeto, 62 Mahuetus Michaelis, 62 Micheletus Vileti, 62 Mosse de Lisbon, 184–5, 238 Petrus Peyroni, 62 Poncius Blaconi, 182 Siuerino de Alamania, 238 Stephanus Molheti, 62, 65 Symonetus Menerbe, 65 Beauvais Jobart, 174 Calais George Cely, 185 Thomas Rede, 185 Dijon Arslom, 115 Denisot, 235 Estienne Volant, 182 Georges de la Paire, 111 Grant Guille, 109 Guillaume de Viez Melin, 115, 116 Guille Chassot, 108 Huguenin de la Chapelle, 208 Jacot Lécrivain, 208 Jacquot Bilote, 208 Jean Bilote, 208 Jean Rossignol, 116, 208 Jehan Furny, 108 Jehan la Lorram, 115 Jehan Meneruit, 115 Jehan le Menestrey, 115

285

286

Index of musicians

Dijon (cont.) Jehan le Norresser, 115 Jehan le Picotet, 114, 115 Jehanin du Meix, 235 Joffroy de Vauthigny, 108, 111 Perrenot Bergain, 111 Philippe Bergain, 111 Richart Vaquier, 108 Taborin, 235 Volant, 115, 116, 208 Lille Abreham Maillet, 130, 131, 132, 134, 190 Baudet, 134 Collart Lebel, 134 Franchois de Thierry, 134 Guilechon, 134 Hanotin, 134 Hennekin, 134 Jaguard Crier, 134 Jaquem Goder, 134 Jehan de Horlines, 132, 133, 134 Jehan le Hugh, 134 Jehan Lausiel, 132, 134, 151 Jehan Lestevene, 134 Jehan de Lome, 134 Jehan Willimars, 134 Jean le Thierry, 134 Johanin Ranetier, 134 Jorart Brezot, 132, 134 Josse Speillart, 131, 132, 134 Jovenere, 134 Lotard Cambier, 132, 134 Lotard Eighelin, 132, 134 Loyset de le Barre, 134 Mahieu Davenes, 132, 134 Micquel Draghet, 130, 134 Pierart Brezot, 134 Pierart Davenne, 134 Pierre Paris, 131, 134 Ronel, 134 Thomas Quevallet, 134 Thonin de Ren, 134 Tostre, 134 Wille le Barre, 134 Wille Brezot, 129, 134 Wille le Clerc, 134 Lyons Bartholomieu Bidon, 121 Jehan d’Ecosse, 203 Jehan du Pre, 119, 120, 121 Jehan Sarpolet, 119, 120, 242 Marcellin, 120

Mathieu de Lornage, 121 Molhet, 203 Petit-Jehan le Rebequet, 203 Marseilles Girardin Deprat, 68 Johannes Brossard, 68 Johannes Dayguina, 212–13 Johannetus Johannis, 68 Martin Andree, 190, 212–13, 243–4 Petrus Alaman Alias Tamborin, 68, 70, 204 Petrus Gay, 68 Peyre Jacme, 68 Montpellier Anthonius Quisac, 31 Astoric, 38 Bernardus Fabri, 31 Boisso, 31, 38 Cleophas Bosqui, 36 Coston Fabre, 35, 36 Dionisis Martin, 36 Dominicus de Avenis, 36 Duran Tacau, 232 Durandus de la Vinea, 17, 31, 187, 234 Floret, 31, 232 Glaudius Cayrat, 31 Glaudius Dedet, 31 Guille Palhassa, 36 Guillmus Alberqui, 31, 46 Hugon la Crida, 232 Hugoninus Melleri, 31, 32 Jacominus Mutonis, 31 Jame Dieu, 31 Jaquet Jordan, 31 Jaquetus Bobin, 31 Jaufredus Julian alias Verdellet, 17, 31, 187 Jaume Labejaque, 35, 36 Johan Ayle, 186 Johan Mahut, 36 Johan Remieu, 32, 36 Johannes Boerus, 36 Johannes Capelan alias Piseti, 31 Johannes Carpini, 31, 232 Johannes Molinerus, 36 Johannes Montels, 36 Johannes Pigetier, 31 Johannes Roch, 36 Johannes Sarralhon, 35, 36 John Melleri, 31, 32 Jon Mota alias Pancamicha, 31, 232 Joseptus Peseloux, 31 Marcial Fabri, 31, 186

Index of musicians

Marinus Perpetuis, 33, 36 Martin Masaret, 186, 232 Martinet, 31, 38 Miqualet, 232 Mondo, 31, 38, 232 Nicholaus la Charua, 31 P. Manti, 36 Peire Bonet, 31, 233, 234 Petrus Ayle (de Murato), 32, 33, 35, 36, 186 Petrus de Fonte, 38 Petrus de Mala, 31, 243 Petrus de Medie Camporum, 17, 31 Peyre Amelier, 31, 32 Posset, 232 Raymundus de Bussargues, 36 Raymundus Cabrier, 31 Raymundus Salamon, 32, 33, 36, 38 Robert, 232 Simonet Riqueri, 36, 38, 182, 234 Tibaut, 232 Narbonne Anthoni Bergonho, 42 Guissana, 42 Johan Amiel, 42 Johan Berles, 41 Votier, 42 Nîmes Guillmus Alberqui, 46 Petrus Sabbateri, 46 Orléans Andre Jaquet, 89 Blaise Petit, 90 Claude Taborin, 90 Estienne Adverdet, 90 Estienne Barbedor, 90 Etienne Chappeau, 90 Gilet du Mostier, 90 Guillaume des Noues, 90 Jacquet Boesseau, 90 Jacquet Prestic, 90 Jacquet Resjoy, 89 Jehan du Mostier, 90 Jehan Renart, 90 Loranan le Bascle, 90, 91 Mace Averdet, 88, 90 Pierre Adverdet, 90 Pierre Roier, 88, 90 Raulet, 89 Rotier, 88 Saturnin Boet, 90

Rouen Colin Griffouel, 210–11 Colin de la Roche, 207 Franchequin le Taillendier, 175 Guille Chevalier, 175 Jacquet le Caron, 175 Jehan Bourgois, 236 Jehan le Forestier, 206, 207, 210–11 Raoulin de Roche, 206 Simon de Pierrelee, 175 Thomas Godart, 206, 210–11 Saint-Omer Andrieu la Boc, 146, 149 Anthonin Huichier, 149 Coppin le Bacre, 149 Estienne le Conte, 146, 149 Gilles David, 149 Gilles de Hellmes, 149 Gillet de Troyes, 149 Guille de la Barrie, 149 Henre van Hartinghe, 149, 217 Jacques le Barre du Copperan, 149 Jehan le Barre, dit Hamselin, 142, 143, 149 Jehan Batherel, 142, 149, 150 Jehan de Croix, 147, 149 Jehan Poulain, 146, 147, 148, 149 Jehan Ravelin, 142 Jehan de Westandrene, 143, 146, 149 Jehandit Chouranit, 149 Josse Spillart, 143, 149, 150 Leuucque de Muelle, 149 Mahieu Haverloix, 142 Ostequm Deughieu, 149 Oudart Hanorbres, 149 Oudart Haverloix, 142 Pierre Coqui, 149, 150 Pierre Faynient 146, 148, 149 Pierre de Noefgardin dit Affiquet, 146, 149 Ppraen le Roy, 149 Raullequin Haverloix, 142 Thomas Franchois, 149 Woutre le Clerc dit Fainient, 149 Toulouse Andrieu Priand, 53 Anthoni Trompeta, 50 Bartholimieu, 57 Bernat de Casamaior (jone), 53 Bernat de Casamaior (vielh), 53 Bertolomeo Serda, 53

287

288

Index of musicians

Toulouse (cont.) Glaude de Rezies, 50 Guilhem Gautier, 53 Guilhem Johan, 50 Guilhem Robert, 50, 53 Guilhem de Tanis, 53 Jacob Desi, 50 Johan d’Albas, 50 Johan Andrieu, 50 Johan Capel, 50 Johan Gautier, 53 Johan Guayfius, 50 Johan de la Haya, 53 Johan del Portal, 50 Johan de Toyn, 50 Johan Vens, 53 Laurens Arnaud, 53 Loys de Bosi, 50 Marsel Arnaut, 53 Nicholas Chamelera, 53 Nicolau Semaliera, 53 Panisi Portal, 50 Peyre Audran, 53 Peyre Espinart, 53 Peyre Gautier, 53 Peyre de Ressies, 50 Peyre Semaliera, 53 Pons de Sanctas, 50

Raymon Arguier, 53 Raymond Auriac, 50 Raymondel Portal, 50 Tours Bernart Josselin, 83 Colas Salmon, 81 Guillaume du Pont, 82 Jean Fary, 84 Jehan de la Grainge, 82 Jehan Longuet, 82 Jehan Sanin, 81 Pierre Rossigneul, 84 Simon Fournier, 83 Troyes Estienne Cholot, 99, 100 Jacques de Hulst, 100 Jehan Aubry, 100 Jehan Cholot, 99 Jehan de Clelles, 97 Jehan Fallecte, 97, 100 Jehan Pongoise, 99, 100 Jehan Royer, 98, 99, 100 Jehan Vesue, 99, 100 Lorent Cholot, 97, 99, 100 Perrin Puitot, 100 Perrot Cholot, 97, 99, 100 Philebert Remillon, 99, 100 Pierre Clerambaut, 97, 100