Mellet, Simon (…-Sep. 1481)

Planchart : Symon Mellet or Meslet: was a small vicar from 18 April 1442 to 23 June 1456 [LAN, 4G 7442, 8r; 4G 7454, 5v] with only two short absences from 06 to 14 February 1455 and for sixteen days “ad Sanctum Nicolaum” starting of 24 September 1455 [LAN, 4G 7453, 7r; 4G 7454, 5v]. His reception as a small vicar is the earliest mention of Mellet in Cambrai. A petition by Cardinal Nicolas of Forli on 10 October 1436 mentions that Mellet had been in his service at least since 24 April 1431 [ASV, RS 329, 183r-184v], which indicates that Mellet had been in the Roman curia since then. By 31 October 1439 Mellet had a number of small benefices in Laon, including a chaplaincy in the cathedral [ASV, RS 363, 194v], and by 09 November 1440 Mellet, described as an unmarried clerk of Cambrai not in holy orders, had become a notary [ASV, RS 369, 20v]. A second petition also dated 09 November 1440 mentions that Mellet had been outside the curia for about nine months [ASV, RS 369, 66r]. Presumably he had gone to Laon to deal with his benefices there. The implication of a later petition and the rest of Mellet’s career is that something went wrong in Laon during his visit there and he might have made some powerful enemies. The petition, dated 14 July 1441, is to the Penitentiary rather that to the Chancery, and asks that Mellet be allowed to find a catholic bishop who will agree to confer orders upon him [ASV, SP 2 bis, 245v]. The process allowed Mellet to bypass his local bishop in seeking orders and it was faster and more secret than the same process would have been through a normal supplication to the chancery, and it is telling that upon his final return north Mellet went to Cambrai and not to Laon where he already had some benefices. The earliest mention of Mellet at Cambrai is in fact his reception as a small vicar. At Cambrai Mellet became member of the grand community of chaplains in 1454-55 [LAN, 4G 6921, 11r] and appears in the lists until 1460-61 [LAN, 4G 6929, 22v]. On 15 June 1461 Mellet exchanged his chaplaincies in Cambrai and Laon and the parish church of Welu for a grand vicariate at Cambrai with Robert le Canoine [CBM 1060, 113r]. He died on 17 September 1481 [CBM 1061, 132v]. Mellet was a prodigious music scribe and the accounts of the fabric record his activity in considerable detail [See Liane Curtis, “Music Manuscripts,” 227-256].
Fallows1982, notice p.252: copiste sous la supervision de Du Fay de 1446 à 1476. Petit vicaire de 1446 au moins et grand vicaire à partir de 1473 au moins.