Rubino, Rubino (…-…)

Reynolds 1995, p.35-38: Like Herbare, the singer Rubino must have resided in Rome when Nicholas became pope, otherwise he could not have been hired so quickly. Present from April 1447 through at least February 1448, there are two payments to him for expenses related to two boys in his care (docs. 1447a and c). For that reason alone he is likely to be a northerner, although not, as previously suggested, Robinet de la Magdalaine (also Robert Pele), from 1450 to at least 1474 a singer at the Burgundian court. The putative connection between Robinet and Rubino stems from a mid-sixteenth century account of Robinet's life in the Catalogue des provosts du monastère de Warren ... diocèse de Saint-Omer , and the mistaken impression from Haberl that Rubino sang at St. Peter's for May and June 1447 only.[7] But since Rubino remained at St. Peter's longer, he could not have left Rome in 1447 as Robinet did in order to return to his studies in Caen. From there Robinet went on to appear in Brussels for Easter in 1448.[8] It is unclear whether Rubino is the singer Robinetto paid in 1449-50.[9] Although there are few surviving payments for 1449, the basilica chapter collected a rent from magister Michaele, "relative of Robinetto our singer."[10] Unlike Rubino, Robinetto received no payments for boys in his care, and he was also a beneficiary of the basilica; moreover, the names are never confused—the singer in 1447-48 is never identified with the diminutive "-etto," while that present in 1449-50 is never named without it. The last payment to mention Robinetto in November 1450 was a division of money owed to ten chapter members that had recently died in the plague.[11] Robinetto was only one of several victims of a particularly virulent attack of the plague that disrupted the Jubilee celebrations during the summer and fall months. Seven papal singers quit their positions between March and August, and at least three of them died.[12] Rubino sang with two tenors: Johannes Grone in 1447 and Hervé (June 1447 to at least February 1449), who arrived at St. Peter's in June, at the same time that Johannes Puyllois surfaced in Rome.[13] Joining them at least in 1448 was a singer described as a cleric from Troyes, Theodericus de Beaunes.[14] Hervé was evidently replaced by Andreas de Palermo, a beneficiary of the basilica, and the only certifiably Italian tenor at the basilica in the fifteenth century. Though Andreas is named only in August 1450, he may well have been one of the anonymous singers present the whole Jubilee Year. Lists of beneficiaries paid at Easter and St. Mark's in 1450 include payments to Andreas de Palermo. But starting in August similar lists identify him as "Andreas tenorista " and "Andreas cantore ." In 1452 he is apparently still present, there named "Andreas Guglielmi."

[7] Regarding Robinet, see pp. 280-89 of the edition of the Catalogue des prévosts du monastère de Watten ... diocèse de Saint-Omer by Aimé Leroy. Leroy proposes (p. 262) that the manuscript catalogue was based on an older manuscript at the monastery of Watten. The connection with the St. Peter's Rubino appears in Marix, p. 202-4. Marix depends on André Pirro, "Robinet de la Magdalaine," 15-18.
[8] Furthermore, the supposed date of Robinet's trip to Rome is incorrect. According to the Catalogue des prévosts , Bishop Johannes Castiglione, Robinet, and three other singers left Normandy for Rome on 31 August 1446 in order to greet Pope Nicholas V. But Nicholas did not become pope until the following March. They would not have left in 1446 to pledge obedience to Eugenius IV since England had consistently supported Eugenius from the beginning of his pontificate. Instead, Castiglione and his entourage left in August 1447, after Rubino had been hired at St. Peter's. King Henry VI informed the University of Caen on 21 June 1447 that he would forward their requests to Rome with Castiglione, who was soon leaving; see Henri Prentout, "Esquisse d'une histoire de l'université de Caen," 48.
[9] The last references to Rubino appear in a fragment of an undated Exitus register now bound as fols. 87-91 of Censualia 15 (1492). He and Aruc (i.e., Hervé) are paid 8 carlini each for January and then again for February. This amount is the same, and also recorded in carlini rather than ducats, as singers were paid in 1447-48. This register may be a second copy from that year.
[10] He paid 12 ducats auri in 1449 and 1450 for a house with the sign of St. George in the parish of Santa Maria Virgariis; Censualia 5, int. 5 (1448), fol. 44v; and Censualia 6, int. 1 (1450), fol. 45v.
[11] Doc. 1450e. The use of the diminutive "-etto" could signify a physical distinction of age or size between two singers with the same name, as may have been the case in 1461, when Guillaume des Mares sang alongside Guillelmino.
[12] Starr, "Music and Music Patronage," 165, n. 187. This plague forced Nicholas to flee in the summer and fall; Ludwig Pastor, The History of the Popes, from the Close of the Middle Ages , 2:84-88. For a list of papal abbreviators that died from it in 1449-50, see Hermann Diener, "Ein Formularbuch aus der Kanzlei der Päpste Eugen IV und Nicholas V," 390-92.
[13] Grone, never listed in pay records, appears for the last time in a benefice letter from 30 Sept. 1447 (Reg. suppl. 420, fol. 8v). "Hervé" was a name common in Brittany and Normandy. It could apparently also be rendered in French as "Hugues" or "Huguet," as with Hervé, bishop of St. Brieuc (1432-36), also known as Huguet de Boiscrobin. In St. Peter's records Hervé also is called Aruc. The linguistic translation of "her-" into "ar-" in "Aruc" and "Hervé" also occurred for the papal singer Richardus Herbare, listed in some St. Peter's records as "Arbore" (e.g., in the Exitus for 1450, fol. 10v).
[14] Reg. suppl. 431, fol. 2851 (5 Nov. 1448).