Philippe de Vitry

(1291-1361)

   humanist, composer, musical theorist

   Born in Vitry, and known also as Philippus de Vit-riaco, Philippe de Vitry was a friend and adviser to the heir to the throne and held important posts at the courts of kings philip vi and jean II the good. He was bishop of Meaux (1351), and being most educated and cultured, had relationships with the intellectual elite of his time, notably with Petrarch, and can perhaps be considered one of the precursors of French humanism. The numerous treatises, transcribed from his lectures (Liber musicalium, Ars contrapuncti, and Ars nova musicae, ca. 1325) show the importance of his role in the development of a "new art," which, in substituting for the ars anti-qua, would revolutionize music at the end of the 14th century. He is known for a theory of notations and counterpoint, and his ideas foreshadow the melodic and rhythmic styles of the Renaissance. A musician and poet, Philippe de Vitry composed only a few works of his own. A dozen of his motets are known, and some parts of the Roman de Fauvel are attributed to him.