Surname
Lheritier
Given Name
Jean
Variant Name
Johannes
L’Heritier
L’Héritier
Lhéritier
Lheretier
Lhiretier
Lirithier
Heritier
Role
Composer
Employee of a court chapel (musician)
Musician
Singer
Active period
1506 - 1552
Workplace
Thérouanne
Biography
Voir Dictionnaire
Lhéritier [Lheretier, Lhiretier, Lirithier], Jean [Johannes]
(b c1480; d after 1551). French composer. According to notarial documents drawn up in Avignon in the 1540s, ‘Johannes Lhéritier’ was a ‘clericus morinensis diocesis’, a native of the former diocese of Thérouanne (in the present-day Pas-de-Calais). A contemporary, Giovanthomaso Cimello, called him a disciple of Josquin Des Prez. If Lhéritier did have direct contact with Josquin, it must have been in France, perhaps during Josquin's brief association with musicians of the royal French court in the early 1500s.
The archives of the Estense court show that a ‘Metregian leretier’ arrived in Ferrara towards the end of 1506 and remained there until 5 June 1508 when Duke Alfonso I gave him leave to return to France. This was probably his first trip to Italy; in the years following the only known archival evidence of his activity comes from Italian centres.
‘Johannes Heritier’ figures in a payment roll drawn up at the papal court of Leo X and dated 1 May 1514 (but with additions made until as late as 17 September 1516); however, he is not identified as either cantor or musicus as are half a dozen of the many other names included. From 28 July 1521 until 8 August 1522 he served as capellanus and maestro di cappella at the French national church in Rome, S Luigi dei Francesi, where he signed his name in the account books as ‘Jo. Lhiretier’. His presence in the city during this period would help to account for the inclusion of motets attributed to Lhéritier in manuscripts of Roman provenance, not only those compiled while he may have been in the region (such as the Medici Codex of 1518, I-Fl B.L.666, with one, and Rvat C.S.26, copied during the papacy of Leo X, with three) but also those copied considerably later (such as the Palazzo Massimo collection of 1532–4, Rmassimo VI.C.6.23–4, with five, and the Cappella Giulia manuscript of 1536, Rvat C.G.XII.4, with seven).
Lhéritier may have left Rome already in either 1522 or 1523, but he cannot be traced again until 20 May 1525, when he was working as a singer in the chapel of Federico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. An exchange of letters involving Federico, his ambassador to Rome, Francesco Gonzaga, and his mother, Isabella d'Este, implies that by then the composer had already been at the Gonzaga court for some time. A fairly lengthy connection of some sort first with Ferrarese and then with Mantuan musical circles is also suggested by the inclusion of five of Lhéritier's motets in the print published in Ferrara by Johannes de Buglhat and his associates (RISM 15385). According to the same correspondence, however, Lhéritier left Gonzaga service before 3 July 1525 for that of the Bishop of Verona, Gian Matteo Giberti.
The Gonzaga correspondence also refers to a benefice that had evidently been given to Lhéritier by the Cardinal of Auch, François de Clermont. This is the earliest reference to what must have been a prolonged association between patron and composer; a series of notarial documents, the first dated 28 April 1540, refers to five separate benefices awarded to Lhéritier by the cardinal, who was the papal legate at Avignon, and a procuratorium drafted there three days after Clermont's death on 2 March 1541 describes the composer as ‘sue capelle magister’. The latest of these documents indicates that Lhéritier was still alive in 1552, but gives no clue concerning where and how he was then employed. Scotto's publication of the Moteti de la fama under Lhéritier's name in 1555 may point to a period of residence in Venetian territories. This hypothesis is also supported by Pietro Gaetano's treatise Oratio de origine et dignitate musices (written between 1566 and 1574). Gaetano, a singer at S Marco, affirmed that Lhéritier had been his praeceptor but provided no information about the date and place of his studies.
Compositions attributed to Lhéritier survive in at least 66 manuscripts and 45 printed collections of the 16th century. The majority originated in Italy, but France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Austria, and even Poland and Bohemia are also represented.
…
Voir Dictionnaire
Lhéritier [Lheretier, Lhiretier, Lirithier], Jean [Johannes]
(b c1480; d after 1551). French composer. According to notarial documents drawn up in Avignon in the 1540s, ‘Johannes Lhéritier’ was a ‘clericus morinensis diocesis’, a native of the former diocese of Thérouanne (in the present-day Pas-de-Calais). A contemporary, Giovanthomaso Cimello, called him a disciple of Josquin Des Prez. If Lhéritier did have direct contact with Josquin, it must have been in France, perhaps during Josquin's brief association with musicians of the royal French court in the early 1500s.
The archives of the Estense court show that a ‘Metregian leretier’ arrived in Ferrara towards the end of 1506 and remained there until 5 June 1508 when Duke Alfonso I gave him leave to return to France. This was probably his first trip to Italy; in the years following the only known archival evidence of his activity comes from Italian centres.
‘Johannes Heritier’ figures in a payment roll drawn up at the papal court of Leo X and dated 1 May 1514 (but with additions made until as late as 17 September 1516); however, he is not identified as either cantor or musicus as are half a dozen of the many other names included. From 28 July 1521 until 8 August 1522 he served as capellanus and maestro di cappella at the French national church in Rome, S Luigi dei Francesi, where he signed his name in the account books as ‘Jo. Lhiretier’. His presence in the city during this period would help to account for the inclusion of motets attributed to Lhéritier in manuscripts of Roman provenance, not only those compiled while he may have been in the region (such as the Medici Codex of 1518, I-Fl B.L.666, with one, and Rvat C.S.26, copied during the papacy of Leo X, with three) but also those copied considerably later (such as the Palazzo Massimo collection of 1532–4, Rmassimo VI.C.6.23–4, with five, and the Cappella Giulia manuscript of 1536, Rvat C.G.XII.4, with seven).
Lhéritier may have left Rome already in either 1522 or 1523, but he cannot be traced again until 20 May 1525, when he was working as a singer in the chapel of Federico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. An exchange of letters involving Federico, his ambassador to Rome, Francesco Gonzaga, and his mother, Isabella d'Este, implies that by then the composer had already been at the Gonzaga court for some time. A fairly lengthy connection of some sort first with Ferrarese and then with Mantuan musical circles is also suggested by the inclusion of five of Lhéritier's motets in the print published in Ferrara by Johannes de Buglhat and his associates (RISM 15385). According to the same correspondence, however, Lhéritier left Gonzaga service before 3 July 1525 for that of the Bishop of Verona, Gian Matteo Giberti.
The Gonzaga correspondence also refers to a benefice that had evidently been given to Lhéritier by the Cardinal of Auch, François de Clermont. This is the earliest reference to what must have been a prolonged association between patron and composer; a series of notarial documents, the first dated 28 April 1540, refers to five separate benefices awarded to Lhéritier by the cardinal, who was the papal legate at Avignon, and a procuratorium drafted there three days after Clermont's death on 2 March 1541 describes the composer as ‘sue capelle magister’. The latest of these documents indicates that Lhéritier was still alive in 1552, but gives no clue concerning where and how he was then employed. Scotto's publication of the Moteti de la fama under Lhéritier's name in 1555 may point to a period of residence in Venetian territories. This hypothesis is also supported by Pietro Gaetano's treatise Oratio de origine et dignitate musices (written between 1566 and 1574). Gaetano, a singer at S Marco, affirmed that Lhéritier had been his praeceptor but provided no information about the date and place of his studies.
Compositions attributed to Lhéritier survive in at least 66 manuscripts and 45 printed collections of the 16th century. The majority originated in Italy, but France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Austria, and even Poland and Bohemia are also represented.
…
Voir Dictionnaire
Bibliography
Ambros 1862
Brenet 1910
Gachard 1882