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Urban minstrels in late medieval southern France: opportunities, status and professional relationships*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire
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Extract

By piecing together fragments of diverse archival evidence, it is possible to document a large minstrel population in urban settings in late medieval southern France that was able to support itself through a multiplicity of freelance activities and complex working relationships. Information concerning the urban minstrel in medieval Europe is usually drawn from city accounts and contracts providing details concerning the duties, function and wages of civic musicians. In order to create a multi-dimensional image of the urban minstrel, however, a wide variety of archival sources needs to be explored. Such sources – accounts of confraternities, university statutes, city statutes, tax records, property listings, private notarial contracts, among others – have offered glimpses into aspects of the minstrel community that have tended to remain elusive. This essay first establishes the nature of freelance activities, which were central to the urban minstrel's livelihood. Second, the socio-economic status of minstrels will be investigated, to determine how successful musicians were at supporting themselves in the medieval urban environment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 19 , October 2000 , pp. 201 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000

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References

1 A few exceptional studies for southern France exist: Barthélemy, L., Notice historique sur l'industrie des ménétriers (Marseilles, 1886)Google Scholar; Pansier, P., ‘Les Débuts du théâtre à Avignon à la fin du XVe siècle’, Annales d'Avignon et du Comtat-Venaissin, 6 (1919), pp. 5–52Google Scholar. While Andrew Tomasello's study concentrates on music of the papal chapels, it does include a section on music in the urban setting of Avignon; see Music and Ritual at Papal Avignon,1309–1403 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1983). A recent work that provides an interesting sociological study of minstrels in France is Charles-Dominique, L., Les Ménétriers français sous l'ancien régime (Toulouse, 1994)Google Scholar.

2 For details on civic patronage in southern France see Peters, G., ‘Civic Subsidy and Musicians in Southern France during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: A Comparison of Montpellier, Toulouse and Avignon’, in Kisby, F. (ed.), Music and Musicians in Renaissance Cities, c.1350–c.1650 (Cambridge, forthcoming)Google Scholar and Peters, , ‘Secular Urban Musical Culture in Provence and Languedoc During the Late Middle Ages’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994)Google Scholar.

3 AMT, HH 66, fols. 433–438v and ADH, E 1318.

4 Pansier, P., ‘Les Confréries à Avignon au XIVe siècle’, Annales d'Avignon, 20 (1934), pp.5–48, at p. 5Google Scholar.

5 ADV, Archives hospitalières d'Avignon, Majour, E-4 and E-5. Large portions of both registers are very difficult to read due to deterioration of both the paper and the ink.

6 ADV, Arch, hospitalières d'Avignon, Majour, E-4, fol. 375v: ‘Item die xxviii iunii Bertrando Bernard ministerio pro se et suis sociis ministeriis pro arris soluctione festi proxime futuri quo tempore debent xii ministrerii et debent habere integros omnes xvi florinos cum dimidio/ et bene servire more solito/ in dicto festo et ante ut est consuetum de quibus habuit ipse Bertrandus pro arris duos florinos cum dimidio…’ (‘June 28, to Bertrando Bernard, minstrel, for himself and his fellow minstrels for down payment for the next festival, at which time they owe 12 minstrels and owe to all 16½ fl. and to serve well in the usual manner, in the said festival and before as is the custom, of which Bertrand himself had for a down payment 2½ fl.’).

7 Ibid.: ‘Item dicto Bertrando die xiii mensis Augusti pro parte sui salarii fl. i s. xii. Item dicto Bertrando die xvi mensis Augusti pro integra solutione sui salarii de festo proximo fl. xii s. xii’.

8 ADV, Archives hospitalières d'Avignon, E-5, fol. 84.

9 Ibid. E-4, fol. 465.

10 Ibid. E-5, fol. 139v: ‘als bons menestriers que an compaunhat nostra dona ala prosession i fl’.

11 Ibid., fol. 160, 1419; fol. 530, 1446; fol. 684v, 1454.

12 ADB, Archives hospitalières de Marseilles, 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’.

13 Ibid., p. 42, 1351 and p. 96, 1353.

14 Ibid. II H/E 1, fol. 125; II H/E 2, unfoliated.

15 ADV, Archives hospitalières d'Avignon, Fusterie, E-10, fol. 209.

16 AMMo, BB 8, fol. 10.

17 Ibid. BB 10, fol. 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’).

18 Conseil général des facultés de Montpellier, Cartulaire de l'Université de Montpellier (Montpellier, 1890), p. 318Google Scholar. ‘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 horses and simply, without trumpets’).

19 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’.

20 Le Petit Thalamus de Montpellier, ed. Pégat, F., Thomas, E. and Dezmases, (Montpellier, 1840), p. 147Google Scholar: ‘Encaras establem que jotglar, ni jotglars, ni jotglaressas, ni trompas non anon a novias de jorns ni de nuegs, ni que lur done hom per occayzon del novi o de la novia vestirs ni autra cauza…’.

21 Bernheimer, R., Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology (1952; repr. New York, 1970), p. 166CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Le Petit Thalamus, p. 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.’

23 Davis, N. Z., ‘The Reasons of Misrule: Youth Groups and Charivaris in Sixteenth-Century France’, Past and Present, 50 (1971), pp. 41–75, at p. 52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baumel, J., Histoire d'une seigneurie du Midi de la France, ii (Montpellier, 1969–1971), p. 395Google Scholar.

24 Bernheimer, , Wild Men, p. 66Google Scholar.

25 AMMa, FF 165, fol. 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’.

26 Ibid. BB 28, fol. 79.

27 AMMo, Inventory 6, No. 248 (CC 580), fol. 148r–v.

28 ADV, 3 E 5/717, fols. 303−4.

29 Brocardus ‘owned as many as eight hotels from 1336 until 1354 when he acquired an inn with a tavern’; Tomasello, , Music and Ritual, p. 30Google Scholar.

30 ‘Le plus souvent, dans la littérature médiévale, le bain est un passe-temps agréable, même voluptueux, que l'on offre à son hôte, à un ami, un divertissement pris volontiers en compagnie’; Larmat, J., ‘Les Bains dans la littérature française du moyen âge’, in Les Soins de beauté: Moyen Age–début des temps modernes. Actes du IIIe Collogue international, Grasse (26–28 avril 1985), ed. Menjot, D. (Nice, 1987), pp. 195–210, at p. 204Google Scholar.

31 An example of a painting of a bathhouse scene with a musician from Germany and dating from 1470 is provided in Bowles, E., Musikleben im 15. Jahrhundert (Musikgeschichte in Bildern, III/8; Leipzig, 1977), pp. 150–1Google Scholar.

32 Charles-Dominique, , Les Ménétriers français, p. 64Google Scholar.

33 Petit Thalamus, pp. 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’.

34 AMO, CC 360, fol. 30 and CC 363, fols. 38v–39.

35 Rose, Abbé, Études historiques et religieuses sur le XIVe siècle, ou Tableau de l'Église d'Apt sous la Cour Papale d'Avignon (Avignon, 1842), p. 638Google Scholar.

36 AMMo, Inventory 9, No. 712 (CC 712), fol. 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 2 September for five trumpeters who were hired for the vigil of the miracles for the lack of minstrels who had gone to Mr de Clermont’).

37 ADV, 3 E 8/714, fols. 135v–136r. A transcription and discussion of the document appears in Pansier, ‘Les Débuts du théâtre’, pp. 40–2. Also see Peters, , ‘Urban Musical Culture in Late Medieval Southern France: Evidence from Private Notarial Contracts’, Early Music, 25 (1997), pp. 403–10, at pp. 408–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 ADB, Dépôt annexe d'Aix-en-Provence, 302 E 282, unfoliated.

39 AMMo, BB 36, fol 55v: ‘recolligere aliquos fayditos nec tubicinatiores docere seu ibi trompam facere’ (‘not to entertain others, not to teach other trumpeters, not to make a trumpet while there’).

40 AMMo, BB 36, fol. 55v; ADH, II E 95/446, fol. 12v; AMMo, Inventory 6, No. 269 (CC 597), fol. 164v. The construction of string instruments seems to have required a greater degree of specialisation than that of wind instrucments, as makers of string instruments, particularly harps, have been identified in these cities during this period.

41 Southworth, J., The English Medieval Minstrel (Woodbridge, 1989), pp. 4–5Google Scholar.

42 The following offer some of the most extensive and valuable discussions on the social position of professional musicians within medieval society: Salmen, W., Der fahrende Musiker im europäioschen Mittelalter (Kassel, 1960)Google Scholar; Zak, S., Musik als “Ehr und Zier” im mittelalterlichen Reich (Neuss, 1979)Google Scholar; Schwab, H., ‘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. Salmen, W., 1; New York, 1983), pp. 31–59Google Scholar; Strohm, R., Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford, 1985)Google Scholar; Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers français.

43 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. de Dainville, M. Oudot, Archives de Montpellier: inventaires et documents, viii (Montpellier, 1943), p. 12Google Scholar.

44 AMMo, Inv. 6, No. 240 (CC568), fols. 15 and 55v–56; No. 244 (CC 573), fol. 84; No. 248 (CC580), fol. 148r–v; No. 249 (CC 579), fols. 105r-v, 133 and 163; No. 250 (CC 577), fol. 80; No. 252 (CC 581), fols. 66–7; No. 257 (CC 586), fols. 81v–82; No. 262 (CC591), fols. 86v, 105 and 139; No. 280, fol. 46r–v.

45 Two recent socio-economic studies of late medieval Montpellier are based on the compoix and provide a context in which to interpret the wealth of the musicians: Marin-Rambier, A-C., ‘Montpellier à la fin du moyen âge d'après les compoix (1380–1450)’, École nationale des chartes, Positions des thèses (1980), pp. 119–28Google Scholar and M. Prieur, ‘Le Quartier Sainte-Anne à Montpellier au XVème siècle à travers les compoix’ (Mémoire de maîtrise d'histoire: Université Paul Valery, 1983).

46 AMMo, Inv. 11, No. 4, fols. 46, 95v, 96, 97v and 98; No. 5, fols. 4, 5 and 8; Inv. 9, No.852, fols. 76 and 107. ADH, II E 95/404, fols. 40–1; II E 95/440, fols. 16v, 17, 18v, 19v.

47 The map has been drawn from Guiraud, L., Recherches topographiques sur Montpellier au moyen âge: formation de la ville, ses enceintes successives, ses rues, ses monuments, etc. (Montpellier, 1895)Google Scholar; also published in Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Montpellier, 2nd ser., 1 (1899), pp. 89–335Google Scholar.

48 Gouron, A., La Réglementation des métiers en Languedoc au moyen âge (Paris, 1958), pp. 69 and 115Google Scholar.

49 AMMo, BB 36, fol. 7.

50 AMT, CC 2333, No. 7, ‘sercar tres companhos menestriers a parrias per venir servir mes d senhos de capitol’.

51 Vatican Archives, Registra Avenionensia 204, fols. 428–507, ‘Liber Divisionis Cortesianorum et Civium Romane curie et civitatis Avinionis’, 1378.

52 Tomasello, , Music and Ritual, pp. 24 and 166Google Scholar.

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54 Wright, C., Music at the Court of Burgundy, 1364–1419: A Documentary Histoy (Henryville, Pa., 1979), p. 49Google Scholar. Bradley, R., ‘Musical Life and Culture at Savoy, 1420–1450’ (Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 1992), p. 356Google Scholar.

55 Lockwood, L., Music in Renaissance Ferrara, 1400–1505 (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), p. 17Google Scholar.

56 D'Accone, F. A., The Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Chicago, 1997), p. 522CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 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. In 1467 the city of Siena again hired a minstrel, trombonist Petro Tristano de Valenza, from a southern French city, Valence. D'Accone, , The Civic Muse, p. 792Google Scholar.

58 AMMo, Inv. 6, ‘Regestre des senhors consoulz et curials de la villa de Montpelier’; GG 1–16, ‘Livres des consuls des métiers’.

59 AMMo, GG 1–16, ‘Livres des consuls des métiers’, 1416−96.

60 ADH, II E 95/436, fol. 36r–v, 1411; II E 95/414, fols. 63v–65, 1420.

61 ADH II E 95/414, fols. 56v–57v, 1420.

62 ‘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…’; de Charrin, L., Les Testatments de la région de Montpellier au moyen âge (Ambilly, 1961), p. 125Google Scholar.

63 ADH, II E 95/415, fol. 94.

64 AMT, HH 66, fols. 433–438v and ADH, E 1318.For a detailed discussion of this set of statutes, see Charles-Dominique, Les Ménétriers français. For a discussion on the formation of minstrel guilds, particularly in Paris, see Slocum, K. B., ‘Confrérie, Bruderschaft and Guild: The Formation of Musicians' Fraternal Organisations in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Europe’, Early Music History, 14 (1995), pp. 257–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 According to Epstein, Steven, ‘the death of a member brought forth one of the most pervasive guild customs – the obligation to attend the funeral’. Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe (Chapel Hill, NC., 1991), p. 165Google Scholar.

66 ADB, 351 E/86, fols. 41r–42r.

67 For further discussion of the following notarial contracts see Peters, ‘Urban Musical Culture’.

68 ADB, Dépôt annexe d'Aix-en-Provence, 306 E 277, unfoliated.

69 See above, n. 38.

70 ADB, 351 E/194, fol. 109r-v.

71 ADH, E 1318: ‘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…’.

72 AMT, HH 66, fol. 435r-v: ‘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.’

73 Polk, K., German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages: Players, Patrons and Performance Practice (Cambridge, 1992), p. 165Google Scholar.