Chapter Two - Arbeau’s Life and Times

Summary

Vénérable et discrète maistre Jean Tabourot. Thoinot Arbeau was born Jehan Tabourot on March 17, 1520 in Dijon, to Pierre Tabourot and Valentine Henriette Dubois. Jehan's Burgundian family included noted writers and architects. Although he evinced some talent as an architect himself, his education in Dijon and Poitiers resulted in a law degree and a career in the church. He belonged to the Order of St. Anthony, also known as the Confrérie de Saint-Didier.

Once ordained, Tabourot functioned as a Champagne-region canon, in what is now the departement of Haute Marne, serving the dioceses of Langres and Dijon, two cities 66 kilometers (41 miles) apart (see Plate 2). The canonry in the sixteenth century was the administrative wing of the Catholic church, with each canon reporting to a specific bishop and taking on any necessary tasks. Tabourot's duties therefore varied throughout his career.

First assigned to Langres, the site of his ordination in 1542, he became a canon at the cathedral there in 1547. His uncle Jean Pignard already served the cathedral as composer and Master of Music, suggesting that Tabourot may have had musical training. As a canon with legal training, Tabourot was called upon to protect cathedral interests. Apparently highly respected, he was identified in records as vénérable et discrète maistre. In 1562, Tabourot became director of the refectory and, as the refectory functioned as the room for communal meals, he probably supervised accounts, an interpretation suggested by his next job. Transferred to the parish of Bar-sur-Aube in 1565, he worked there as parish treasurer. By 1567, at the age of 47, he had been named inspector of diocesan schools, after which he returned to Langres, promoted to the post of vicar general. This latter post, one of the highest in a diocese, gave him jurisdiction to act in the name of the bishop. Since a French word for vicar general is official, Arbeau's “Branle de l’Official” could well illustrate self-deprecating humor. The text of Tabourot's epitaph with its play on his title further buttresses this notion:

Hic nulli officiens positus fuit officialis

Qui gratum multis praestitit officium.