Cotton, John (or Johannis Cpttonis; also Joannes Musica, Johannes films Dei, and Johannes of Afflighem)
Cotton, John (or Johannis Cpttonis; also Joannes Musica, Johannes films Dei, and Johannes of Afflighem)
Cotton, John (or Johannis Cpttonis; also Joannes Musica, Johannes films Dei, and Johannes of Afflighem), music theorist who
flourished in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. He wrote the treatise Epistola ad Fulgentium (printed by Gerbert in Scriptores, vol. II), a valuable work on music describing the modal system of the time and a phase of the development of organum. Six MS copies are pre-served: one each in Leipzig, Paris, Antwerp, and the Vatican Library, and two in Vienna. Various theories have been advanced concerning its authorship. In the copies at Antwerp and Paris, the author is referred to as Cotton or Cottonius, while two others give the author’s name as Joannes Musica. In an anonymous work, De script, eccles., quoted by Gerbert, there is a reference to a certain Joannes, an erudite English musician; the dedication of this vol., “Domino et patri sua venerabili Anglorum antistiti Fulgentio,” adds further strength to the contention that the author of the Epistola was English. However, J. Smits van Waesberghe identifies him with the Flemish theorist Johannes of Afflighem, author of the treatise De Musica cum tonario (reprinted Rome, 1950). Other sources suggest that Cotton was also one Johannes filius Dei.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire