Jean Du Moulin

fl. 1518-1563†

Map

Displaying 5 events

Biography

Though a very common name, musicologists have collected only two sets of occurrences of it connected to 16th-c. musical contexts : 1. Ownership of the Copenhagen Chansonnier; 2. Attributions of one Imitation mass and three motets printed in Lyons and Paris between 1532 and 1542.
1. Ownership of the Copenhagen Chansonnier (Cop, c. 1470)
Three ownership inscriptions on f. 46, by 3 different 16th c. hands, read : "Ex libris Johannis du Moulin / Dono domini Decani – parisiensis hue / hunc a Joanne du moulin iterato dono suscipere / digneris – ex dono domini du moulin / olivario le Crec abbate de Joyaco". These inscriptions clearly indicate that "the dean of Paris, Hue" (Guillaume Hue*) gave the book to a "dominus Johannes Du Moulin" (thus a priest), who gave it to Olivier Le Crec*. Whereas Hue and Le Crec are unequivocally identified figures (the former died in 1522, the latter in 1582), Jean du Moulin, who must have owned the manuscript from the 1520s to the 1550s is more obscure. Litterature on the manuscript, going back to the earliest catalogues of the Royal Library of Copenhagen, keep refering to a master of choirboys of the Cathedral of Sens, as this mid 19th-c. catalogue entry refering to Walther's early 18th c. music encyclopedia and Gerber's 1812 dictionary : "Ce Jean du Moulin était maître des enfants de choeur à l'église de Sens (puerorum Senoniensis ecclesiae rector); il arrangeait les compositions d'autres musiciens pour trois voix, et les faisait imprimer chez Pierre Attaignant à Paris (voy. Gerber Neues Lexicon der Tonkünstler, Vol. III p. 472. Walther Musicalisches Lexicon, p. 425)." (Abrahams 1844, p. 149). Given the active presence of Olivier Le Crec in the city and cathedral church of Sens, this is a most attractive identification, even more when combined with the identification with a choirboy named Jean Du Moulin mentionned by the capitular acts of Notre-Dame de Paris on 3.4.1518 (Wright 1989, p. 36, after F-AN, LL 133, p. 402). This younger cleric could have received the manuscript as a gift from Guillaume Hue in Paris c. 1518, before pursuing a musical career in Sens, where he gave it to Olivier Le Crec. The only remaining difficulty is the lack of archival reference for Du Moulin's activity in Sens. Designations such as "puerorum Senoniensis [or Senonensis] ecclesiae rector" are likely to be encountered in prints of religious music of the time, but none has been identified yet. No musicological investigation in the archival series of the cathedral chapter of Sens (kept at the Archives départementales de l'Yonne in Auxerre, F-AD89) has been published. The only published hard evidence of a master of the choirboys of Sens in those years is a 1549 deliberation of the canons of the church of Troyes which indicates that "Jean Desmolins", master of the choirboys of the cathedral of Sens, refused the offer of the canons to hire him (Lesure 1999, p. 278, after Prévost 1906, p. 241). But Knud Jeppesen presented further information on Du Moulin's activities in Sens in the introduction of his facsimile of the chansonnier, for which he wrote that he relied on Eugène Chartraire, a well known and most reliable historian of the cathedral of Sens, with whom he must have corresponded in the 1920s (see Chartraire in Data.BnF). He presented (unfortunately without archival references) Chartraire's summary of Du Moulin's career in Sens : Du Moulin was first master of the choírboys, then canon, from 1545 onwards, and ultimately held the dignity of cantor (chantre) of the cathedral of Sens from 5.1.1554 until his death on 3.4.1563 (Jeppesen 1927, p. xxviii). Even though the Inventaire sommaire of the ecclesiastical series kept at the F-AD89 (Quantins 1873) does not mention Du Moulin – nor Le Crec, by the way –, investigations in the rich series of the cathedral chapter of Sens should allow to confirm Jeppesen and Chatraire's summary.
2. Printed religious music in Paris and Lyons, 1532-1542
Four religious music anthologies printed by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris and Jacques Moderne in Lyons include four compositions whose attributions could refer to this Jean Du Moulin (Index published by Zappala 2005, p. 20: "Du Molin, Jean (Du Moulin J.): 1532/11, 1534/2, 1539/5, 1542/5"; entries in RISMB/1, Lesure 1980, p. 108, 109, 123, 126). The motet In domino confido (2 p. Oculi eius) is attributed to "I. du Molin" in Moderne's Second book of Motetti del fiore for 4 voices (1532/11, attr. both in the table and above the music, digitized exemplar). Moderne printed two other motets in Lyons, one in 1539: Pater peccaui (2 p. Domine non sum), clearly attributed to "Io. du Moulin"  1539/5, and one in 1542: Adonay domine (2 p. Qui regis Israel), with the problematic attribution "Ia. Du Molin" which should refer to a Jacques Du Molin (Pogue 19, p. 132, 150, 170, and the index, p. 336, which lists these three references under "Ja. Du Molin"). In Paris, Attaingnant attributed to "Du Moulin" (index and above the music), the Missa Jam non dicam vos servos, modeled on a motet by Richafort*, which he printed in his 1534 Missarum musicalium ad quatuor voces pares liber secundus (1534/2, Heartz 51, attr. both in the table and above the music, digitized exemplar). It is impossible to demonstrate that these four attributions refers to one and a same person (nor that Moderne's 1539 attribution to "Ia. du Moulin" is a mistake) but since it is not contradicted by any other information, it can be assumed they do.
Conclusion
There is no serious reasons to doubt that all these occurrences of the name "Jean Du Moulin" or the like in musical contexts do not refer to one and a same person born between 1500 and 1510, educated in Notre-Dame de Paris c. 1518, where he might have enjoyed the gift of a 15th c. manuscript from the dean of the chapter Guillaume Hue*, and active as an adult musician at the cathedral of Sens, where he composed music printed both in Paris and Lyons, and where he left his 15th c. manuscript to a colleague of the chapter with a personal interest in music, the dean Olivier Le Crec*.

Fiala David

Information

  • Roles

    Choirboy
    Composer
    Dedicatee/Owner
    Master of choirboys
    Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon)
    Member of a church (musician)

  • Gender

    Male

Events

(YYYY-MM-DD)

5 in database

Musical position

Choirboy
1518
Paris (France)


Institution: Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris (France)

Bibliography: Wright, 1989

Comments: Except for the name and satisfactory chronological matching, no evidence allows to ensure that this choirboy (who might be born between 1500 and 1510) indeed is the musician of the same name active in Sens and/or the composer of music printed in the middle of century.

Musical source

Composer
1532/1542
Lyon (France)


Comments: One Mass and three motets printed by Attaingnant and Moderne between 1532 and 1542 with attributions to "Du Moulin", "I. Du Molin", "Io. du Moulin" and "Ia. du Molin".

Musical position

Member of a church (musician)
before 1545
Sens (France)


Institution: Saint-Étienne de Sens, Sens (France)

Bibliography: Jeppesen, 1927

Comments: He was first master of the choirboys before being a canon from 1545 onwards (Jeppesen 1927, p. xviii). He was probably still the master of the choirboys of Sens mentionned as "Jean Desmolins" in Troyes in 1549 (Prévost 1906 and Lesure 1999).

Religious position

Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon)
1545/1563
Sens (France)


Institution: Saint-Étienne de Sens, Sens (France)

Bibliography: Jeppesen, 1927

Death

1563-04-03
Sens (France)


Institution: Saint-Étienne de Sens, Sens (France)

Bibliography: Jeppesen, 1927

Associated sources

1 in database

Variant names

desmolins ; Du Molin ; molendino

Familial connections

No familial connection.

Bibliography

[Abrahams, 1844]

Abrahams, N. C. L., 1844, Description des manuscrits francais du moyen-age de la bibliotheque royale de Copehague.

[Alden 2011]

Alden, J., 2011, Songs, Scribes, and Society: The History and Reception of the Loire Valley Chansonniers, Oxford, New York.

[Gerber, 1812]

Gerber, E. L., 1812, Neues historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler: welches Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken musikalischer Schriftsteller, berühmter Komponisten, Sänger, Meister auf Instrumenten, kunstvoller Dilettanten, Musikverleger, auch Orgel- und Instrumentenmacher, älterer und neuerer Zeit, aus allen Nationen enthält, Leipzig.

[Heartz, 1969]

Heartz, D., 1969, Pierre Attaingnant: royal printer of music, a historical study and bibliographical catalogue, Berkeley, Los Angeles http://www.sudoc.fr/045395985.

[Jeppesen, 1927]

Jeppesen, K., 1927, Der Kopenhagener Chansonnier, das Manuskript Thott 291Œ8 der Königlichen Bibliothek Kopenhagen eingeleitet und herausgegeben von Dr. Knud Jeppesen,... Die Gedichte philologisch revidiert und mit einem Glossar versehen von Dr. Viggo Bröndal..., Kopenhagen, Danemark.

[Lesure, 1980]

Lesure, F. (éd.), 1980, Recueils imprimés XVIe - XVIIe siècles, Répertoire international des sources musicales, München-DuisbourgB 1, Liste chronologique :

[Pogue, 1969]

Pogue, S. F., 1969, Jacques Moderne: Lyons music printer of the sixteenth century, Genève, Suisse.

[Prévost, 1905]

Prévost, A., 1905, Histoire de la maîtrise de la cathédrale de Troyes, Mémoires de la Société d’agriculture, sciences et arts du département de l’Aube, 69, p. 213‑371.

[Quantin 1873]

Quantin, M. (éd.), 1873, Inventaire sommaire des archives départementales de l’Yonne antérieures à 1790 : série G, Auxerre.

[Walther, 2001]

Walther, J. G., 2001, Musicalisches Lexicon oder Musicalische Bibliothec: Studienausgabe im Neusatz des Textes und der Noten.

[Wright, 1989]

Wright, C., 1989, Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500-1550, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb36955363q/PUBLIC (consulté le 4 juin 2015).

[Zappalà, 2005]

Zappalà, P., 2005, RISM B/I (Recueils imprimés XVI-XVII siècles), Philomusica on-line, 7, http://riviste.paviauniversitypress.it/index.php/phi/article/view/RISM-IndexB1 (consulté le 18 mai 2024).

Contributors

Fiala David - Project manager ; Biography author


Data collectors

Fiala David

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Fiala David, Jean Du Moulin, in RicercarDataLab [http://preprod-ricercar.cesr.univ-tours.fr/people/1358/] (accessed 07 March 2025).

Last modification: Feb. 4, 2025, 9:43 a.m.