Surname
Saint-Gilles (de)
Given Name
Jean
Date of death
1501
Role
Composer (no known polyphonic works preserved)
Musician
Active period
1477 - 1501
Workplace
Rennes
Rouen
Institution
Cathédrale de Rouen
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Rennes
Biography
(comm. V. Tabbagh) Il est nommé le 4 novembre 1490 à la place que tenait avant lui un autre tenoriste, Geoffroy Le Barbier, au collège des Clémentins, et installé eu choeur le 6 novembre suivant : G 2144 fol. 185r et v.
• Ténoriste de la cathédrale de Rouen, (Wegman 2009)
Confirmation that Jean de Saint Gille most probably originated from this area and was raised in that city can be deduced from a document kept in the Archives départementales de l’Orne at Alençon. This register of tonsures and ordinations in the diocese of Sées (under which Falaise fell) lists Jean de Saint de Gille first amongst the persons ordained by the bishop to the minor order of « acolyte » at Sées Cathedral on 1 March 1477 (n.st.), and confirms that he came from the parish of Saint-Gervais in Falaise .
The next known document about Jean de Saint Gille turns up in Brittany, in the city of Rennes. The chapter acts of Rennes Cathedral reveal that he had entered the church’s service as a singer around the beginning of November 1479 (App. 2, Doc. 1). There are two further documents concerning him in the course of the year 1480, both having to do with special payments that required the chapter’s approval (App. 2, Docs. 2 and 3). In none of these documents is there any indication that Jean was as yet an ordained priest, but four years later he must have attained that dignity : on 3 June 1484, in the context of yet another special payment, he is styled dominus Johannes de Sancto Egidio (App. 2, Doc. 4). We may reasonably conclude from this that the composer was born some time in the late 1450s, and was thus a direct contemporary of Obrecht, Agricola, Barbireau, and probably Josquin.
• Ténoriste de la cathédrale de Rouen, (Wegman 2009)
Confirmation that Jean de Saint Gille most probably originated from this area and was raised in that city can be deduced from a document kept in the Archives départementales de l’Orne at Alençon. This register of tonsures and ordinations in the diocese of Sées (under which Falaise fell) lists Jean de Saint de Gille first amongst the persons ordained by the bishop to the minor order of « acolyte » at Sées Cathedral on 1 March 1477 (n.st.), and confirms that he came from the parish of Saint-Gervais in Falaise .
The next known document about Jean de Saint Gille turns up in Brittany, in the city of Rennes. The chapter acts of Rennes Cathedral reveal that he had entered the church’s service as a singer around the beginning of November 1479 (App. 2, Doc. 1). There are two further documents concerning him in the course of the year 1480, both having to do with special payments that required the chapter’s approval (App. 2, Docs. 2 and 3). In none of these documents is there any indication that Jean was as yet an ordained priest, but four years later he must have attained that dignity : on 3 June 1484, in the context of yet another special payment, he is styled dominus Johannes de Sancto Egidio (App. 2, Doc. 4). We may reasonably conclude from this that the composer was born some time in the late 1450s, and was thus a direct contemporary of Obrecht, Agricola, Barbireau, and probably Josquin.
Bibliography
Wegman 2009