Vitry, Philippe de [Vitriaco, Vittriaco]

Margaret Bent, revised by Andrew Wathey

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.29535
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
This version: 26 December 2018
updated and revised

(b ?Champagne, 31 Oct 1291; d 9 June 1361). French composer, theorist, and bishop.

1. Life, position, reputation; literary works.

The early career of Philippe de Vitry remains obscure: he is often styled ‘magister’, but there is no
direct evidence either that he studied at the University of Paris (though some contact with its members
seems likely) or that he held the degree of magister artium (he is called ‘master of music’ in F-Pn lat.
7378A). Vitry is first documented in 1321, when he was presented to a canonry with the expectation of
a prebend at Cambrai; in the event no vacancy occurred and Vitry dropped his claim to this position
between 1327 and 1332. He may, however, already have been a canon of the collegiate church of Notre
Dame in Clermont-en-Beauvais, the family church of the counts of Clermont; he certainly held this
position by August 1322, probably acquiring it through the patronage of Louis de Bourbon, Count of
Clermont, with whom he was closely linked, as clerk, administrator, and diplomat, over the next 20
years. A connection with Louis de Bourbon may originate before 1320, providing perhaps the context
for any role that Vitry may have taken in the compilation of the interpolated Roman de Fauvel (Watney,
1995; Fauvel Studies, 1998).

Vitry served as Louis’s representative at the papal curia in Avignon in 1327, as a witness to several of
his charters, and as the principal clerical executor of his will in 1342 (Watney, 1995). After Louis was
created Duke of Bourbon in 1327, Vitry also acted as his representative in the French royal chancery,
holding the title of royal notaire by 1328. Until shortly before the duke’s death in 1342, however, Vitry
was not especially active in royal service and despite receiving a fee from the French king, Philippe VI,
he was concerned almost exclusively with the duke’s own business (though it is likely that he worked
mainly in Paris and enjoyed good access to the royal court). From 1340, however, he held senior
positions in the royal administration, as maître in the Requêtes du Palais (a specialized jurisdiction
within the Parlement of Paris), and from 1344 in the Requêtes de l’Hôtel (which tried legal cases within
the royal household). Vitry was present with the army led by Philippe VI’s eldest son, Jean, Duke of
Normandy, at the siege of Aiguillon from April to August 1346 and, shortly after Jean was crowned king
in 1350, acted as his representative at Avignon. With royal backing, Vitry was appointed Bishop of
Meaux on 3 January 1351, holding this post until his death. This was the last of numerous ecclesiastical
preferments that Vitry received, of which several were apparently the result of Bourbon patronage. In
addition to his first canonry at Clermont, which he held at least until he became Bishop of Meaux, his
most important appointments were to cathedral canonries at Verdun (by 1327) and Soissons (by 1332),
and to the archdeaconry of Brie in the diocese of Soissons (1333). He also held canonries in the
cathedrals of Beauvais and Paris, and in collegiate churches at Saint Omer, Saint Quentin, Amiens,
Vertus (St Jean), and Paris (St Merry); in addition, he was nominated, apparently without result, to
expectative benefices at Aire, Cambrai (St Géry), and Châlons-sur-Marne.

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The vigorous role in French politics played by Louis de Clermont made its mark on Vitry’s own career
and on his literary and musical output. Louis’s presence in the royal and princely circles in which the
interpolated Roman de Fauvel (F-Pn fr.146) was created may provide a route whereby motets by Vitry
were included in this collection. Similarly, the lifelong interest taken by Louis in the French kings’
crusading plans provides a context for Vitry’s motet O canenda/Rex quem/Rex regum, praising the
crusade leader Robert, King of Sicily and Jerusalem (d 1343). It more directly underlies Vitry’s most
substantial literary work, the 1148-line verse allegory Le chapel des trois fleurs de lis, written in 1335
and incorporating passages translated from Vegetius’s De re militari, in support of the crusade in
general, and more particularly of a cancelled expedition to Anatolia and the Holy Land under the
leadership of Louis, Duke of Bourbon. A 32-line verse pastoral by Vitry, Le dit du franc Gontier, was
widely circulated in the 15th century and provoked responses from Pierre d’Ailly (1351–1420) and an
elaborate parody in François Villon’s Contredit (1461). A satirical ballade without music, De terre en
grec Gaulle appellee (?1337–8), and Vitry’s part (the sentencia judiciis) of a jeu-parti, Ulixea fulgens
facundia, written with Jean de Savoie (d 1353) and Jean de le Mote, survive in an important 15th-
century literary collection (F-Pn lat.3343) that also includes the triplum text of Vitry’s motet for Pope
Clement VI (see below).

Vitry’s involvements in Anglo-French relations are similarly reflected in his works, and were probably
also the product of Bourbon and royal patronage. He possibly accompanied the duke to London in
March 1331, and in the following month he was present at Pont-Sainte-Maxence when Edward III did
homage to Philippe VI for Gascony and Ponthieu. Comment on England in his poetic output, however,
almost certainly dates from after the outbreak of hostilities with England in 1337. The triplum of Phi
millies/O Creator/Iacet granum/Quam sufflabit, for which no music survives, calls for an end to English
perfidy (‘et cessabit horum perfidis, nec plus erit hoc nomen: Anglia’) and the salvation of the French
nation. The ballade De terre en grec Gaulle appellee styles England ‘de Dieu maudite’. Vitry may also
be the author of an episode describing the treachery of Edward I in 1301 that he copied into his copy of
Guillaume de Nangis’s Chronicon; in the same manuscript Vitry commented on the danger posed to
Paris by the English in 1346 (Watney, 1992, 1998).

It was perhaps through Louis that Vitry first forged his contacts with the papal curia. Vitry was in
Avignon in 1327, ?1334, 1342, 1344, and 1349–50, and enjoyed the particular support of Pierre Roger,
Archbishop of Rouen, elected Pope Clement VI in 1342, and of Cardinal Guy de Boulogne. His motet
Petre clemens/Lugentium siccentur/Non est inventus, written at Christmas 1342 for the visit early in
1343 of the Roman ambassadors to Avignon, supports Clement VI in his dispute with the Holy Roman
Emperor over the proper seat of the papacy (Avignon versus Rome) (Watney, 1993). Alongside Paris,
the papal court at Avignon emerges as a major focal point in Vitry’s network of political and intellectual
contacts. It was probably there, perhaps in the 1320s, that Vitry first encountered Petrarch. He may
have been at Avignon during the conference on calendar reform to which Johannes de Muris and
Firmin de Beauval were summoned by Clement in 1344. Annotations by Vitry in one of his own books
reveal some astronomical knowledge (specifically of Abu Ma‘shar’s De conjunctionibus); it is likely that
he contributed to the series of prognostications made for the curia later that year by three of his
associates (the above-named Muris and Beauval, and Gersonides) on the great conjunction of Saturn
and Jupiter due to occur in 1345 (Watney, 1997).

Vitry was a leading intellectual figure and from about 1340 onwards he attracted the praise of several
contemporaries. Two letters from Petrarch to Vitry survive, from 1350 and 1351; Petrarch called him
‘litteratissimus homo’ and ‘the only true poet among the French’, and also made Vitry (personified as

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‘Gallus’) his co-respondent in a debate between music and poetry in the fourth eclogue of the
Bucolicum carmen (?1344). On the strength of this relationship, Vitry acquired some fame among early
Italian humanists, and his posthumous reputation among such scholars may be one factor in the
literary circulation of his motet poetry (see below): writing in 1394, Francesco Piendibeni da
Montepulciano, chancellor of Perugia, called Vitry a ‘most famous musician and philosopher, well
known to Petrarch’, and for Donato degli Albanzani he was ‘in musica summus artifex’. Petrarch
recorded Vitry’s death, along with very few other personal losses, on the front flyleaf of his own copy of
Virgil, now in Milan.

No other 14th-century musician appears to have been praised so frequently or from so many quarters.
Vitry received tributes from astronomers and mathematicians as well as from literary figures. Such
regard by notable authors is unprecedented for a musician, and evidently testifies to verbal and
intellectual as well as musical gifts. Although no philosophical, historical, or mathematical writings
have been identified as his, recent work on his library (Wathey, 1997) and its relations to his motet
texts does perhaps provide some of the necessary interface. The Benedictine theologian Pierre
Bersuire called him (c. 1340) ‘a man of excellent intellect, an exceptionally ardent lover of moral
philosophy, history, and antiquity, and learned in all the mathematical sciences’ (Samaran, 1962).
Nicholas Oresme, the celebrated mathematician, theologian, and philosopher, dedicated his Algorismus
proportionum (after 1351) to Vitry, there likening him to Pythagoras and requesting his approval for its
contents. Vitry was the dedicatee of two other works. Johannes de Muris, who also lent Vitry several
books, dedicated his Opus quadripartitum numerorum (1343) to him as ‘the one person in the world
who is worthiest of this work’; Gersonides claimed to have written his De numeris harmonicis (1343) in
response to a direct request from Vitry, whom he dubbed ‘a leading expert in the science of music’.
Nevertheless, individual tributes to his musical and poetic abilities appear to predominate and the
testimony of Jean de Fillou de Venette, Prior Provincial of the Carmelite order in France (L’histoire des
trois Maries, before 1357, F-Pn fr.12468, ff.142v–143), makes plain Vitry’s fusion of mastery in these
two spheres:

Maistre Philippe de Vitry,

Qui en son chant est bien mery

Et pour ses diz qui sont moult beaux,

Car il est evesque de Meaux,

Bien a chanté, bien ditté;

Qui sires est de tel citté

Par ma foy bien l’a deservi,

Car de chanter a mieux servi

Et de ditter trestout ensemble

Que nul autre, si com moy semble.

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The work of Vitry and his brothers (see below) was praised alongside that of Guillaume de Machaut
and Jean de le Mote in the Meditations (c. 1350) of Gilles li Muisis, Prior of St Martin Tournai. In turn,
Jean de le Mote, perhaps writing at the same time, placed Vitry among the ‘mondains dieux d’armonie’,
and in a related text (1350) Jehan de Savoie, a notaire in the French Parlement, called him the ‘eminent
prince of musicians, outstanding peer to Orpheus, whose name should live for ever’. The anonymous
author of the Quatuor principalia (see John of Tewkesbury), who perhaps had first-hand knowledge of
the composer and is the authority for two motet attributions, described Vitry as ‘flower of all musicians
in the world’. The royal chaplain Gace de la Buigne, in his Roman de deduis (1359–77), wrote that Vitry
‘mieux sceut motetz que nul homme’, while the anonymous author of the Règles de la seconde
rhéthorique (between 1411 and 1432) credited Vitry, under the general rubric of poetry as a second
rhetoric, with discovering ‘la manière des motès, et des ballades, et des lais et des simples rondeaux’,
although little of the extensive poetic and musical production there implied has survived; as regards
music, he is credited with inventing ‘les iiij prolacions, les notes rouges et la nouveleté des
proportions’. Both Vitry and Machaut are mentioned in texts of two motets along with other
contemporary musicians: Apollinis eclipsatur/Zodiacum signis and Musicalis sciencia/Sciencie
laudabilis.

A strong case can be made for regarding Vitry as the author of his own Latin motet texts, confirming
the judgment of Jean de Fillou (cited above). These texts were copied not only with music, but also
enjoyed an independent literary circulation that probably originated in Vitry’s relationship with
Petrarch and early Petrarchan scholarship. By the 15th century, Vitry’s motet poetry was widely copied
in humanist anthologies (alongside dictaminal treatises, letters, and classical works), acquiring special
popularity with German students at Italian universities and subsequently in Germany (Watney, 1993).
Among the non-liturgical texts set in 14th-century motets, only Vitry’s (however weakly attributed
elsewhere) appear to have been circulated in this way. Although the independent grounds for
attribution are sometimes not strong, inclusion in this tightly circumscribed group of works may itself
offer support for Vitry’s authorship. This largely Petrarchan tradition also preserves the texts of extra
voice-parts no longer found in musical sources, pairings of texts that differ from those found in the
motets, and, in the case of the motet Petre clemens, a date and occasion for its composition. The
dissemination of Vitry’s literary reputation and motet poetry may well have been responsible,
particularly in Italy, for the attribution to him of other works, including several writings on music, as
well as a commentary on Aristotle’s Libri naturales (I-Rvat Ottob.1521).

Vitry’s activities as a scholar, some of which were pursued in close proximity to (if not within) the
University of Paris, have left a small but important literary deposit. He borrowed several books from
Johannes de Muris (probably during the 1330s), including Muris’s own Commentum super musicam,
Boethius’s De musica, and the Didascalion of Hugh of St Cher. He also provided the theologian Pierre
de Bersuire with a French commentary on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and, in addition to Abu-Ma‘shar,
there is evidence that he read the Historia hiersolymitana of Albert of Aachen. Three books once
possessed by Vitry have survived, containing the Elementarium of Papias Grammaticus (F-RS 1092), a
commentary on Aristotle’s Libri naturales (I-Rvat Ottob.1521), and Guillaume de Nangis’s Chronicon (
I-Rvat Reg.lat.544). The last of these provides valuable evidence for Vitry’s scholarship and
intellectual perspectives, since he annotated most of its 744 pages, recording the date of his own birth
against the year 1291 and writing out (as a moralizing aside to a passage in the Chronicon) a
hexameter couplet that he used in the motet Tribum que non abhoruit/Quoniam secta latronum/Merito

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hec patimur (see Wathey, Musica e storia, 1998). Marginal annotations by Vitry, reflecting a deep
concern with legal questions and dating from his period as bishop, are also found in one of the
cartularies of the cathedral chapter at Meaux (MS 63).

2. Music theory.

Vitry’s earliest reputation in modern scholarship was as a theorist, the author of the treatise Ars nova.
Sanders (Grove6; after CSM, vol.8, 1964) reported that only the last ten of the 24 chapters are original,
on the grounds that the first 14 come from a different work or section of the work, and that they in any
case represent Vitry’s teaching as formulated by his disciples. Of these ten, the last five chapters occur
only in full in I-Rvat Barberini 307, and in much abbreviated form in F-Pn lat.14741; the whole is
greatly condensed in Pn lat.7378A (both I-Rvat 307 and F-Pn 7378A bear ascriptions to Vitry in their
explicits; see Fuller). Sarah Fuller took this further with arguments that have won general acceptance:
while its teaching may be associated with Vitry and with the innovations of his compositions, its
connection with him is so tenuous that he can no longer be regarded as the ‘author’ of a stably
transmitted text. The body of theory survives in several different related versions, often with different
citations of named music examples. Some earlier arguments for Vitry’s authorship treated such
citations of motet titles in ‘Vitry’s’ Ars nova as grounds for their attribution to him; however, many of
the cited motets do not survive. The treatise has been dated about 1320 (Roesner, 31; or up to five
years before or after, and to other dates in the early 1320s by Fuller and Michels), on grounds of the
state of development of its notational theory and in relation to other datable treatises from the 1320s,
notably that of Jacobus of Liège. It reflects a notational stage comparable to that found in the
interpolated Fauvel manuscript, namely, that values shorter than the breve are assumed to be
adequately notated as stemless semibreves to be decoded in conformity with standard groupings,
though their values are clarified in the treatise by stems. None of the motets in Fauvel uses
arrangements other than these that would have required stems, nor do they use minim rests or indeed
distinguish minim and semibreve rests. Two of the motets assigned to Vitry by Leech-Wilkinson,
however, and dated by him 1316/1317 (Per grama and Flos/Celsa) go beyond Fauvel and Ars nova in
both these respects, as do their passages of nearly complete isorhythm in upper parts.

Part of the treatise ‘Ars nova’, based on the teachings of ‘Philippe de Vitry’ (I-Rvat Barberini 307, f.19r, 2nd
column, and f.20r), showing the end of chapter XIV and most of chapter XV (f.19r), and the end of chapter
XVII and chapters XVIII and XIX (f.20r)

Surviving motets mentioned in the various versions of the text have invited attribution to Vitry on
grounds of his supposed authorship of Ars nova, some because they are mentioned in one or more
versions of the treatise: Orbis orbatus/Vos pastores, Firmissime/Adesto, Colla/Bona condit, Douce
playsance/Garison (in chap.XVII, on modus and tempus changes); Douce/Garison (in chap.XVIII, on
modus and tempus signs); and Douce/Garison; Garrit/In nova; Tuba/In arboris (chap.XIX, on red notes,
where many other motets are named in the various versions of the treatise, only three of which are
clearly identifiable with surviving compositions). All the last three have at some time been assigned to
Vitry (Garrit/In nova is in Fauvel), and constitute the earliest known motets using coloration in the
tenor to effect changes of tempus and modus. Vos quid/Gratissima, attributed to Vitry in the Quatuor

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principalia, is cited in F-Pn lat.14741, which uniquely supplies examples for the section of Ars nova
(‘Chapters 20–24’) dealing with tempus and prolation. The attributions of some of these motets to Vitry
are somewhat weakened by the loosening of Vitry’s connection with the various versions of the
treatise, but there is in any case no significant tradition of self-citation in treatises before Tinctoris.

The chief notational innovations associated with Vitry are all present to some degree in Ars nova:
values shorter than the semibreve and the use of red notes. The author of Les règles de la seconde
rhéthorique attributed to Vitry the ‘quatre prolacions’ and the invention of red notes; the Quatuor
principalia states that the minim was invented ‘in Navarina’ and was approved and used by Vitry. The
setting out of the combinations of modus and tempus and the assignment of standard values to notes
below the semibreve seems to qualify as the prolations, but the hierarchy is less completely
systematized in the Ars nova writings than in fully developed Ars nova theory. The various treatises that
make up the complex of Ars nova give several different meanings for red notes and are the first to do
so; one could say that the grounds for assigning this body of theory to Vitry on the testimony of the
seconde rhéthorique are no worse than the grounds for other assignations to him.

Of the wide range of meanings given for red notes, many are not documented in any surviving
composition, or are apparently different from surviving practical uses; some of them are cited as
occurring in works that do not survive. According to Ars nova, red notes can change combinations of
modus and tempus from perfect to imperfect or vice versa. In Tuba/In arboris red notes effect modus
change only, and effect parallel variation of tempus and modus in Douce/Garison. They can also be
agents of syncopation (though no known uses are so early). A corrupt sentence seems to refer to the
distinguishing of notes deviating from the chant by red notation, but the meaning may not be as clear
as Sanders suggested (Grove6). Red can signal imperfection of a long before another, or non-alteration
of a second breve (Garrit/In nova); or perfection of a preceding long or breve (Tuba/In arboris). Red
notes can also cause upward octave transposition of a cantus firmus; two motets are cited for this
usage but, as in some other examples, neither survives, nor is any example known.

3. Musical works.

(i) Motets.
Apart from the special case of Machaut, most 14th-century music survives anonymously. Only two
works are attributed in any musical source to Vitry. One of these (Impudenter circuivi/Virtutibus) was
in F-Sm 222 (burned in 1871), the other (O canenda/Rex quem) is in a fragment (CH-Fcu Z 260) whose
authority may be somewhat undermined in that its other piece is misattributed to Machaut. In Vitry we
encounter a well-known public figure of formidable learning and authority whose general culture and
musical composition are attested in a wide range of extra-musical sources, encouraging the enterprise
of identifying his music among anonymously transmitted pieces. Vitry’s stature not only as a theorist
but as a composer was first revived by Besseler, the first to attribute (eight) anonymous motets to him.
Schrade extended this list to the 14 (plus one without music) in his edition.

The evidence on which modern scholars have proposed such identifications includes internal evidence
from the poetic texts, such as the authorial ‘hec concino Philippus’ of Cum statua/Hugo, and the
possibly self-referential ‘concinat Gallus’ in Tribum/Quoniam. The vituperative style that seems to be
characteristic of Vitry may be reflected in vocabulary. Citations in treatises and literary sources are

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also taken as evidence for his authorship: motet titles are cited in three chapters of Ars nova, one on
variations between perfect and imperfect modus and tempus, one on the use of red notes. Now that
this treatise’s connection to Vitry has been loosened, an earlier notion, itself questionable, that such
self-citation guaranteed his authorship of a group of works including some of the Fauvel motets, fades
further, while not disqualifying their attribution on other grounds. Douce/Garison is mentioned by
Gaces de la Buigne as a work of Vitry’s, naming him also as Bishop of Meaux (thus dating the mention
after 1351); Kügle interpreted this reference as indicating an early work. Cum statua/Hugo and Vos/
Gratissima are attributed to Vitry in the Quatuor principalia. The manuscript F-Pn lat.3343 contains
the ballade De terre en grec Gaulle appellee, and also presents the texts of Phi millies Deus
pulcherrime/O Creator, for which no music survives, and the triplum text of Petre clemens/Lugentium
with the ascription ‘hunc motetum fecit Philippus de Vitriaco pro papa Clemente’, an ascription now
corroborated by Wathey (1993) with a precise dating. Transmission of motet texts without music but
with attribution to Vitry has also been taken as evidence of his authorship of these motets. The
implication that he wrote his own texts is corroborated by parallel passages in motets, and in books
from his library with those passages marked or annotated by him. Tribum/Quoniam has now been more
firmly linked with Vitry in this way (Wathey, 1998). It must now be asked whether such separate
survival is sufficiently strong evidence for the attribution of other motet texts preserved in this way,
since the same group also includes some motets ascribed to him on independent grounds (notably Flos/
Celsa but also the still questionable Quid scire/Dantur); some of these are mentioned in treatises.
Attributions are also based on style and construction as well as on links between pieces (see especially
Leech-Wilkinson, Kügle, Coplestone-Crow).

Sanders (1975) challenged some of Schrade’s attributions and promoted others. His list of 12 removes
Dantur/Quid scire entirely, adds Floret/Florens, retains the text-only Phi millies/O Creator, and
relegates two of Schrade’s to doubtful status. Roesner’s judgment is the most severe: he found no
secure basis for assigning any of the Fauvel motets to Vitry, or indeed for Vitry’s involvement as
Chaillou’s music editor for that enterprise, confining the Vitry corpus to five, perhaps seven, reliably
ascribed motets all contained in I-IV 115 (Roesner, 38–42). Sanders proposed that Vitry was Chaillou’s
editor, one of four men presumed to have been involved in Fauvel who were all at the same time in the
royal chancery. Whatever Chaillou’s role, and whoever the compilers of Fauvel in F-Pn fr.146, they
must have had the services of an extraordinarily learned and skilful musician (or musicians), over a
wide chronological span, familiar with repertory reaching back to Notre Dame and the Ars Antiqua, as
well as the monophonic courtly lyric. The use of plainchant, some of it quite obscure, suggests a deep
familiarity such as to permit the use of chant snippets (sometimes satirically and subversively)
‘reflecting the latest developments of the emerging Ars Nova’. He (or they) must have had
‘considerable formal education, well-read in the artes, no ordinary musician – and [been] something of
a polymath as well’ (Roesner, 38).

Six Fauvel motets have been ascribed to Vitry at various times: Orbis orbatus/Vos pastores, Aman novi/
Heu fortuna, Tribum/Quoniam, Firmissime/Adesto, Garrit gallus/In nova fert, and Floret/Florens (the
latter is not in Fauvel but an adapted form of its triplum appears as the monophonic Carnalitas,
luxuria). Leech-Wilkinson (1982–3) added five more Ivrea motets on grounds of their similarity of
facture to motets more firmly attributed to Vitry. Leech-Wilkinson (1995; further discussed in
Coplestone-Crow) also proposed an anonymous ‘Master of the Royal Motets’ who he believes wrote
four other Fauvel motets, including Orbis orbatus/Vos pastores, previously ascribed to Vitry, while
reassigning to Vitry three motets in F-Pn fr.146 which Roesner had eliminated (Garrit/In nova, Tribum/

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Quoniam, Firmissime/Adesto). Leech-Wilkinson also added two non-Fauvel motets not previously
attributed to Vitry: the incomplete Per grama for Pope John XXII (he dated it around the time of his
election, 7 August 1316, but a later dating was suggested by Bent, 1998), and Flos/Celsa for St Louis of
Toulouse (canonized 7 April 1317; Leech-Wilkinson dated it before his first feast-day, 19 August; Kügle
agrees). Bent, however, argues that given the advanced notation and isorhythmic structures of these
works, either a later date must be considered for them, or the view that Fauvel was at the cutting edge
of new developments would need revision, especially if the ‘Marigny’ motets (those that describe the
downfall of the royal chamberlain Enguerran de Marigny: Aman/Heu, Tribum/Quoniam, and Garrit/In
nova) date from about 1317 rather than earlier (see below). Kügle accepted Flos/Celsa and In virtute/
Decens carmen as works of Vitry, and indeed dated their group 1315–20; he linked a further group of
motets to these: Almifonis/Rosa, Nazarea que decora/Zolomina, and Amer/Durement, but stopped short
of attributing them. Leech-Wilkinson (1995) assigned three motets to followers of Vitry: Floret/Florens,
Aman/Heu (both supported in Coplestone-Crow), and Nulla/Plange. Floret/Florens is indeed a less well
crafted piece, with uncharacteristic strings of repeated notes, but it cannot be ruled out entirely,
because of its close connection to the Marigny complex; Bent (1998) has defended Aman/Heu as a work
of Vitry because of its intimate connection to and contemporary genesis with Garrit/In nova and
Tribum/Quoniam. Leech-Wilkinson, Kügle, and Coplestone-Crow have argued for links between groups
of pieces based on musical techniques, but with differing emphases with respect to attribution.

Many earlier writers have taken the Fauvel historical motets as documentary and applied dates
accordingly. Bent (1998) has argued that the three ‘Marigny’ motets were designed as an interrelated
group, and probably by one composer, specifically for the Fauvel project, with clear and double intent
for both the Fauvel narrative and the Marigny parable (see, however, above for different views on
attributions). She challenged Sanders’s basis for an ‘orderly’ chronology (Sanders, 1975, p.36),
restoring Schrade’s attribution to Vitry, on grounds that progress towards periodicity and isorhythm is
not the only measure of order; that his de-attribution of Aman/Heu and indeed of Orbis/Vos rests on
limited criteria; and that the self-proclaimed tenses that seem to establish the order of composition of
the Marigny trio might be seen as narrative fiction, overriding Sanders’s basic argument of literal
documentary chronological order. If at least some of these motets served a double narrative purpose,
they need not all be so early (because of its present tense, Garrit/In nova has been dated during the
lifetime of Philippe IV ‘the Fair’, who died on 29 November 1314).

Criteria that may guide chronology include the extent and nature of isorhythmic organization, and the
stage of notational development required by the rhythms of the upper parts. Isorhythm may not be a
useful criterion, as advanced techniques are present in motets that are dated early; this is also true for
modus variation using coloration. As seen in the works-list, the presumably earlier motets attributed to
Vitry are preserved mostly in F-Pn 146, and the presumably later ones, with no overlap, in I-IV. It is
nonetheless difficult to propose datings for the post-Fauvel motets, apart from Petre/Lugentium. Partly
on grounds of their citation in the Ars nova complex, and partly on style considerations relating them to
Fauvel, Kügle suggested early dates for most of those preserved only in Ivrea, even those requiring
more advanced notation for short notes than the Fauvel motets.

In the unquestionably early motets that might be by Vitry, the composer contrived great variety in
manipulating modus relationships, alternating groups of twos and threes, sometimes achieved by
coloration. Among the motets that juxtapose binary and ternary modus, both within and between
voices, are Garrit gallus/In nova, Firmissime/Adesto, and Tuba/In arboris. Some (e.g. the later Colla
iugo/Bona condit; O canenda/Rex) have a second or third colour repeat in diminution (but never more

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than one level of reduction); some (Firmissime/Adesto, Vos quid admiramini/Gratissima, and Douce/
Garison) have ‘pseudo-diminution’ – a second colour that gives the impression of diminution but is in
fact independently rhythmicized. Others have no diminution, or use a wide range of other repetition
strategies, often setting up rich webs of musical and textual reference both within and between motets
quite independently of any periodic or isorhythmic repetition.

Impudenter/Virtutibus and Vos quid admiramini/Gratissima both have essential contratenors and a
‘solus tenor’ conflation of tenor and contratenor. The motet surviving without music, O Creator/Phi
millies/Iacet granum/Quam sufflabit, must have been in four voices. Other four-voice motets listed are
Apta/Flos, with two different contratenors, both inessential (therefore this is not a candidate for solus
tenor treatment) and In virtute/Decens carmen with an essential contratenor. Vitry is the first
composer associated with the solus tenor apart from an isolated earlier English case in GB-Onc 362,
no.2, also (perhaps significantly) on Jacet granum.

The upper parts of these motets, all with different texts, are much more closely integrated musically
and textually than in 13th-century motets; neither can be omitted. Some have an introitus before the
tenor entry: this applies to both ‘more certain’ Vitry motets (e.g. Impudenter/Virtutibus; Tribum/
Quoniam) and less certain works (e.g. O Philippe/O bone dux; Apta/Flos). Sanders has shown Vitry’s
skill at setting up periodic phrase structures bounded by rests in the upper parts, overlapping with
each other and also overlapping with the structural tenor joins, and sometimes sharing a numerical
significance with the motet as a whole. Upper-part isorhythm is most strongly cultivated in diminution
or pseudo-diminution sections, or in mid-talea around points of modus change (e.g. in Tuba/In arboris).

All the Fauvel motets (and Cum statua/Hugo) arrange their short notes in normative ways that do not
require overriding by stems, even if stems appear in some sources; they also do not use rests shorter
than the breve, which would also require notation with stems. This would normally suggest an earlier
date than compositions requiring more advanced notation. Douce/Garison, not in Fauvel but mentioned
in early treatises, uses semibreve rests, but only to mark the word ‘soupir’. Vos quid admiramini/
Gratissima uses minim rests in its hocket section, as does Tuba/In arboris; minim rests are also found
in the textless hocket sections of Impudenter/Virtutibus and O canenda/Rex. Conventional rhythms are
usually adhered to, but occasional exceptions are made, sometimes to emphasize particular words (for
instance in Vos/Gratissima and Colla iugo/Bona condit). Petre/Lugentium uses semibreve and minim
rests; its 9/8 rhythms depart considerably from standard trochaic patterns, requiring stems.

The novelty of the advanced motets in Fauvel that may be by Vitry is their integration of a wide range
of note values, from maxima down to minim, into a single composition, under tight numerical control.
Tenor organization at the modus level accommodates organization of the upper parts also by tempus
and prolation. As Sanders concluded (Grove6), ‘Each composition is an integral entity with a specific
structural and poetic individuality, retained throughout all its manuscript sources … The variety of
uniquely conceived forms in Vitry’s works is as fascinating as the clarity and pregnancy of melodic
style of many of his motets are attractive.’

(ii) Songs.
Vitry is credited in the Règles de la seconde rhéthorique with the invention of ballades; but although
one text exists, no composed ballades are known to survive, nor have any been attributed to him. There
has been a presumption that in order to be new, such works are likely to have been polyphonic, that

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the resources of the Ars Nova were brought to bear on these forms as antecedents to Machaut’s
polyphonic songs. All the ballades in Fauvel are monophonic. However, the most advanced of the large-
scale Fauvel ballades and some other monophonic forme-fixe songs are notated in the same way as the
Fauvel motets, in stemless semibreves set off where necessary by dots. They can be read in exactly the
same formulaic way and produce the same rhythmic language as the motets and as shown in Ars nova
and related treatises, with a much wider range of note values than was possible previously. Thus
interpreted, they are far different from all their precedents; this is masked by their free transcriptions
in Rosenberg and Tischler’s edition. Could these be, or be like, the lost repertory of ballades and other
song forms by Vitry? Earp (1983, p.357; 1987) and Page (1998, p.384) have affirmed the distinction
between the long, unmeasured grant chant courtois and the measured rhythms of dance-song to which,
around 1300, rhythmic innovations earlier applied to the motet were now applied. Page demonstrated
both the antecedents of the Fauvel ballades in a series of ballade texts transmitted in GB-Ob Douce
308 and their rhythmic potential, but stopped short of claiming the Fauvel ones for Vitry. Although the
loosening of Vitry’s association with the treatise formerly ascribed to him may seem to weaken his
association with such notational reforms, there is enough to link him with Ars Nova practices. Given
the growing evidence of Vitry’s connection with F-Pn 146, these should be considered serious
candidates for his authorship. While not, in this form, polyphonic, they are ‘new’ rhythmically and in
extent, and if we accept that Vitry may well have been Chaillou’s music editor, and remove the modern
presumption that Vitry’s innovation in this area was necessarily polyphonic, the case for seeing these
pieces as candidates – it can be put no higher than that – for the lost ballades of Vitry gains some
weight.

Works

Editions:

The Works of Philippe de Vitry, ed. L. Schrade, PMFC, vol.1 (1956) [S]

Motets of French Provenance, ed. F.Ll. Harrison, PMFC, vol.5 (1968) [H]

Theory edition:

Philippi de Vitriaco Ars nova, ed. G. Reaney, A. Gilles, and J. Maillard, CSM, vol.8
(1964) [A]

Securely or plausibly attributable works

Attributable through contemporary testimony or attribution, or internal evidence

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 Incipit Editions Sources Theoretical Attributions,
(with citations Remarks
music
unless
otherwise
stated)

Cum statua/ S 82 F-CA 1328; Quatuor triplum text: ‘hec

Hugo/ I-IV 115; principalia concino Philippus
Magister F-Pn n.a.fr. publice’; Quatuor
invidie 23190 principalia: ‘in
(index) moteto qui vocatur
Text only: Hugo quem edidit
D-Ju Buder Philippus de
4o 105 Vitriaco’ (CoussemakerS,
vol.4, 268); allusion
in Jean de le Mote;
literary
transmission
supports
attribution

Douce S 72 F-Pn n.a.fr. A, cap.XVII attrib. in Gaces de

playsence/ 23190 (P1, P2, V); A, la Buigne: Le
Garison/ (index); I-IV cap.XIX (P1, roman de deduis,
Neuma quinti 115 V); Quatuor ed. Å. Blomqvist
toni principalia; (Karlshamn, 1951),
anon. treatise 315ff; cited in Ars
in V, ff.21–7, nova
attrib.
‘Theodoricus
de Campo’

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 Petre S 97 F-Pn n.a.fr. A-
Wn 4195:
clemens/ 23190
‘Magister Philipus
Lugentium/ (index); I-IV
de Vitrejo in
Tenor [Non 115
laudem Pape
est inventus] Text only: ti
Clementis vj anno
A-
Wn 4195; suo primo circa
F-Pn lat. natalem domini’;
3343 F-Pn lat.3343:
‘Hunc motetum
[sic] fecit Philippus
de Vitriaco pro
papa Clemente’;
literary
transmission
supports
attribution

Tribum/ S 54 B-Br Wolf anon. Hexameter (citing

Quoniam 19606; 1908, ed. in Joseph of Exeter) at
secta/Merito D-Mbs Clm KJb, vol.21 end of triplum also
hec patimur 29775/10; (1908), 33–8; used by Vitry in
D-ROu 100 Tractatus annotations to
(2vv); F-Pn figurarum I-Rvat Reg.lat.544
fr.146; (Wathey, Musica e
GB-Lbl storia, 1998);
Add.28550 linked by poetic
(kbd arr.) subject matter to
Text only: Garrit and Floret;
Lübeck literary
University transmission
152 (lost) supports
attribution

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 Vos quid S 76 (second B-Ba 758; A, cap.XX– Quatuor principalia:
admiramini/ ‘solus tenor’ F-CA 1328; XXIV (P2 only); ‘in tenore de
Gratissima/ should be F-Pn n.a.fr. Quatuor Gratissima quem
Contratenor/ disregarded; 23190 principalia idem Philippus
Gaude correct (index); edidit’ (cf Cum
gloriosa reading is GB-DRc 20; statua). Tenor
‘vacat [not I-IV 115; copied in Johannes
‘vivat’] iste’) E-E O.II.10, de Muris’s
f.224v notebook on same
(tenor only) page as the record
of a book loan to
Vitry

Phi millies/O ed. in Music lost F-Pn lat.3343:

creator/Iacet Schrade, Text only: ‘Meldensis
granum/ Commentary, F-Pn lat. episcopus Philippus
Quam 119; Pognon 3343; de Vittriaco’;
sufflabit (1939), 50–52 F- literary
TOm 520 transmission
supports
attribution

De terre en ed. in no music Maistre Philippe de

grec Gaulle Diekstra Text: F-Pn Vitry
appellee lat.3343;
(ballade) US-PHu
French 15

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Attributable through relationship with known works and/or biography, textual content

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 Aman novi/Heu S 48 F-Pn fr. Included by Schrade (
Fortuna/Heu 146 MQ, 1956) and
me, tristis est Besseler (1958);
anima mea doubtful work in
Grove6; rejected by
Leech-Wilkinson
(1995) and Coplestone-
Crow as the work of
one of Vitry's
followers; Bent (1998)
reattributes it to Vitry

Floret/Florens/ ed. in F-CA J. Boen: Musica Linked by poetic

Neuma Sanders 1328; subject matter to
(1975), F-Pn fr. Garrit gallus and
37 146; Tribum. Accepted by
B-Br Schrade (MQ, 1956)
6
1960 and Sanders (1975),
but assigned on
stylistic grounds by
Leech-Wilkinson
(1995) and Coplestone-
Crow to ‘a follower of
Vitry’

Garrit gallus/In S 68 F-Pn A, cap.XIX (P1, Linked by poetic

nova fert/ coll.de P2, V); Quatuor subject matter to
Neuma Picardie principalia; Tribum and Floret.
67; F-Pn anon. treatise in Accepted by Schrade (
fr.146 V, ff.21–7, attrib. MQ, 1956), Sanders
‘Theodoricus de (1975), Leech-
Campo’ Wilkinson (1995),
Coplestone-Crow;
questioned by Roesner;
cited in Ars nova

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 Impudenter S 91 B-Ba 758; Boen: Ars F-Sm 222: ‘Philippus
circuivi/ B-Br de Vitriaco’. Rejected
Virtutibus/ 19606; by Besseler (1968) but
Contratenor/ CH-BEsu supported by Sanders (
Tenor [Alma 421; Grove6) and Roesner;
redemptoris F-APT literary transmission
mater] 16bis; supports attribution
NL-Lu
342A;
F-Sm 222;
I-Fsl 2211
Text only:
A-
Wn
883; D-Lu
15

O canenda/Rex S 106 CH-Fcu Boen: Ars; Crusade-related text,

quem/ 260; Musica probably connected
Contratenor/ F-Pn with Vitry’s work for
Rex regum n.a.fr. Louis de Bourbon in
23190 the 1330s (Wathey,
(index); Musica e storia, 1998),
F-Pn lat. CH-Fcu: ‘Philippus de
2444; Vitriaco’; the motet is
GB-DRc related in style,
20; I-IV technique, and
115 material to Vos/
Gratissima

Tuba sacre S 88 F-Pn A, cap.XVII (P1, Citations often in a

fidei/In arboris/ n.a.fr. P2, V); Wolf pair with Vitry’s
Virgo sum 23190 anon. 1908, ed. Garison. Accepted by
(index); in KJb, vol.21 Schrade (MQ, 1956),
I-IV 115 (1908), 33–8; Sanders (Grove6),
anon. treatise in Leech-Wilkinson
V, ff.21–7, attrib. (1982–3); regarded as
‘Theodoricus de plausible by Roesner;
Campo’; Boen: cited in Ars nova
Ars; Wolf anon.
1918–19, ed. in
AMw, vol.1
(1918–19), 329–
45

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Works attributed to Vitry on stylistic grounds, weakly supported by citation
in ‘Ars nova’ or by literary transmission

Attribution widely accepted

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 Colla iugo/ S E- E- A, Accepted by Schrade
Tc 1; Tc 2; F-APT
Bona condit/ 85 cap.XVII (MQ, 1956), Sanders
16bis; F-AS 983; F-CA
Libera me (P1, P2, (Grove6), Leech-
1328; F-Pn n.a.fr.23190;
Domine [/ V); Boen: Wilkinson (1995);
F-Sm 222; I-IV 115;
Egregius Musica regarded as plausible
PL-
labor] WRu 1955k, 1 or 2vv by Roesner; literary
Text only: A-KR 149; transmission
A- A- supports attribution;
Wn 3219; Wn 3244 cited in Ars nova
(twice); D-B lat.2o 49; D-
B 991 (B.8); D-Ju Buder
D-
4o 105; TRs 804;
D-
W Helmst.525;
D- D-
W Helmst.608; W
973 Novi; Signa
quindecim horribilia
(Cologne, after 1500)

Firmissime/ S B-Br 19606; F-Pn fr.146; A, Structurally similar

Adesto/ 60 GB-Lbl Add.28550 (kbd cap.XVII to Tribum (Leech-
Alleluya, arr.) (P1, P2, Wilkinson, 1995).
Benedictus Text only: D-DS 521 V); Wolf Accepted by Schrade
anon. (MQ, 1956), Sanders
1908, ed. (Grove6); literary
in KJb, transmission
vol.21 supports attribution;
(1908), cited in Ars nova
33–8

Flos ortus/ H D- Proposed by Leech-

W I.10/12a; F-CA
Celsa cedrus/ 42 Wilkinson (1983),
1328; F-Pn n.a.fr.23190
Tenor accepted by Kügle;
(index); F-Pn lat.2444;
since then
I-Fsl 2211; I-IV 115
strengthened by
Text only: D-DS 521 literary transmission.
Dated 1317 by Leech-
Wilkinson (1995);
Bent (1993) prefers
date of 1330s on
grounds of advanced
notation

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Attribution less widely accepted

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 Orbis S F-Pn fr.146 A, Accepted by Schrade (MQ,
orbatus/Vos 22 cap.XIX 1956) and Besseler (1968);
pastores/Fur (V only) doubtful in Grove6, rejected in
non venit Roesner; attrib. ‘master of the
royal motets’, Leech-Wilkinson
(1995); cited in Ars nova

Quid scire S F-APT 16bis; Included by Schrade (MQ, 1956)

proderit/ 104 F-Sm 222; I-IV but rejected by Besseler (1968)
Dantur 115 and Sanders (Grove6); literary
officia/[…] Text only: transmission is only weakly in
B-BRs 258; M. favour
Flacius:
Carmina
vetusta
(Wittenberg,
1548)

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Works attributed on stylistic grounds

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 Almifonis/Rosa/ H 46 I-IV 115; F-Pn n.a.fr. Tentatively proposed
Tenor 23190; Archivo by Leech-Wilkinson
Storico del Comune (1982–3); see Kügle
fragment

Amer/ H 100 F-Pn n.a.fr.23190 Tentatively proposed

Durement/ (index); F-Pn by Leech-Wilkinson
Dolor meus collection de (1982–3); see Kügle
Picardie 67;
GB-DRc 20; I-IV
115

Apta caro/Flos/ H 17 F-CA 1328; F-CH Boen: Tentatively proposed

Alma 564 (different Ars; by Leech-Wilkinson
redemptorisa contratenor); F-Pn US- (1982–3) as a late
BEm
mater n.a.fr.23190 (index); work
744
GB-DRc 20; I-IVc
115; I-Fsl 2211;
I-MOe α.M.5.24

In virtute/ H 95 F-Pn n.a.fr.23190 Proposed by Leech-

Decens (index); F-Pn 2444; Wilkinson (1982–3);
carmen/Clamor I-IV 115 accepted by Kügle
meus/
Contratenor

O Philippe/O H1 I-IV 115 Tentatively proposed

bone by Leech-Wilkinson
(1982–3)

Per grama ed. in GB-Lbl Add.41667 Attrib. Vitry by

protho paret Leech- Leech-Wilkinson
Wilkinson (1995) and dated
(1995) 1316; Bent prefers
date of 1330s on
grounds of advanced
notation

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 Scariotis/Jure S8 F-Pn fr.146; F-Pn Proposed by Leech-
n.a.fr.23190 (index) Wilkinson (1995) as
an ‘early’ work
written in 1313 (on
grounds of date of
the event described
in text); Bent and
Wathey (1998) prefer
later dating;
Coplestone-Crow
assigns it to a
‘master of the royal
motets’

Se cuers/Rex S 26 B-Br 19606; F-Pn fr. Schrade (MQ, 1956),

146; GB-Lbl Add. supported by Leech-
41667 Wilkinson (1982–3);
withdrawn (1995) in
favour of a ‘master
of the royal motets’;
Coplestone-Crow
supports the latter

Se paour/Diex/ H 84 F-Pn n.a.fr.23190 Proposed by Leech-

Concupisco (index); F-CA 1328; Wilkinson (1982–3)
GB-Ob e Musaeo 7
(different texts);
I-IV 115

Servant regem/ S 33 F-Pn fr.146; F-Pn fr. Schrade (MQ, 1956),

O Philippe/Rex 571 (with duplum supported by Leech-
regum incipit ‘Ludowice’); Wilkinson (1982–3);
F-Pn n.a.fr.23190 withdrawn (1995) in
(index) favour of a ‘master
of the royal motets’;
reassigned to Vitry
by Coplestone-Crow

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Works cited in the Ars nova tradition and thus possibly by Vitry

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 Claerburg music lost A, cap.XIX (V only)

Deus iudex music lost A, cap.XVII (P1, P2,

fortis V)

Gratia miseri (? music lost A, cap.XIX (P1, P2,

Dei gratia V); Wolf anon. 1908,
ministri) ed. in KJb, vol.21
(1908), 33–5

Imperatrix music lost A, cap.XX–XXIV (P2

anglie only)

Lampadis os music lost A, cap.XIX (P2 only)

manuum

[?Marie] music lost A, cap.XVII (P1 and V

preconio/ only)
Misera per
liconia

Mon chant/Qui H F-Pn n.a.fr.23190 A, cap.XX–XXIV (P2 Attributed to a

doloreus/Tenor 80 (index); GB-DRc only); Wolf anon. ‘follower of
20; I-IV 115 1908, ed. in KJb, vol. Vitry’ by Leech-
21 (1908), 33–8 Wilkinson
(1982–3)

Nazarea que H E-Bc 853; I-IV A, cap.XX–XXIV (P2 Attributed to a

decora/ 62 115; F-Pn n.a.fr. only) ‘follower of
Zolomina/Tenor 23190 (index); Vitry’ by Leech-
F-Pn lat.2444 Wilkinson
(lost, catchword (1982–3); see
only) Kügle

O Maria affectu music lost A, cap.XX–XXIV (P2

only)

Plures errores music lost A, cap.XIX (V only)

Quant amors music lost A, cap.XIX (P1, P2, V)

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 Thoma tibi music lost; F-Pn A, cap.XIX (P2 and V
obsequia n.a.fr.23190 only)
(index)

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P1 – F-Pn lat.7378A

P2 – F-Pn lat.14741

V – I-Rvat Barberini 307

Bibliography
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See also

Ars Antiqua

Ars Nova

Borrowing, §4: 14th century

Gersonides

Lai, §2: Poetic form

Motet, §I, 3: Middle Ages, France, Ars Nova

Notation, §III, 3(iii): Polyphonic mensural notation, c. 1260–1500

Paris, §I, 4: To 1450: Practical music

Theory, theorists, §7: 14th century

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