Leoninus (Magister Leoninus, Magister Leonini, Magister Leo, Magister Leonis)

Leoninus (Magister Leoninus, Magister Leonini, Magister Leo, Magister Leonis), celebrated French composer and poet; b. Paris, c. 1135; d. there, c. 1201. He most likely received his initial education at the Notre Dame Cathedral schools in Paris. He was active at the collegiate church of St. Benoit in Paris by the mid-1150s, eventually serving as a canon there for some 20 years. He was also a member of the clergy of Notre Dame by reason of his position at St. Benoit. He had earned the academic degree of master by 1179, probably in Paris. He later became a canon at Notre Dame, where he was a priest by 1192, and was also a member of the congregation of St. Victor by 1187. His great achievement was the creation of organa to augment the divine service; this has come down to us as the Magnus liber organi de graduali et antiphonario pro servino divino multiplicand. It is also possible that he prepared many of the revisions and variant versions of the organi, preceding the work of revision by Pérotin. The original form of the work is not extant, but there are 3 extant later versions dating from the 13^th and 14^th centuries: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, MS Pluteus 29.1, Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 628 Helmst., and Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Guelf. 1099 Heimst. As a poet, he wrote the extensive Hystorie sacre gestas ab origine mundi.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire