The list of prebends and positions which follows is unquestionably incomplete. Most of the documents from which information about Janequin’s prebends and positions is culled were concerned with other matters, and the occupational references which occur were frequently just a quick way to make clear the identity of the persons involved. Consequently, most of the references furnish very little if any information about when the prebends were assigned or when they were relinquished, the names of those responsible for granting the prebends or the nature of the duties connected with them. Also, even though more than one prebend is frequently mentioned in a given document, this should not be construed as representing all the prebends held by Janequin at that moment, but rather just those prebends which the author of the document under consideration thought well-adapted for identification purposes.
Abbreviations:
AC Archives diocésianes de Chartres
AG Archives départementale de Gironde
AML Archives départementale de Maine-et-Loire
AP Archives nationale de Paris
Lev48 Levron, Jacques. Clément Janequin: Musicien de la Renaissance: Essai sur sa vie et ses amis. Grenoble et Paris: B. Arthaud, 1948.
Les51 Lesure, François. “Clément Janequin: Recherches sur sa vie et son oeuvre,” Musica Disciplina, Vol. 5, 1951.
Les 57 Lesure, François and Paul Roudié. “C. Janequin: chantre de François I (1531)”. Revue de musicologie 40, no. 116 (dec. 1957).
De58 Delaporte, Yves. “Clément Janequin Compositeur ordinaire du roi, curé d’Unverre: Date de sa mort.” Bulletin de la Société archeologique d’Eure-et-Loire (1958, no. 4.)
Les63 Lesure, François and Paul Roudié. “La jeunesse bordelaise de Clément Janequin (1505-1531)”, Revue de musicologie 49 no. 127 (dec. 1963).
Hac16 Hachem, Nancy. “Nouveau élements biographiques sur Clément Janequin”, Revue de musicologie 102, no. 1 (2016).
1 Organist and maitre des enfants Luçon
Title: Organist and choir director
Institution: Cathedral de Notre Dame de L’Assomption (Luçon diocese)
Place: Luçon (220 km north of Bordeaux)
Collateur: Unknown (Luçon chapter dean Mathurin de Dercé?)
Date accorded: Before February 1507 (AN coll Le Nain, Série U, U2216, fol 119v-124; Hac16:132.)
Date released: After July 1507 (AN U2216; Hac16)
Conditions: Document lists duties but not employment terms.
Comments: Documents from summer 1505 and from March 1512 do not mention Luçon.
2 Chanoine St. Émilion
Title: Chanoine (canon)
Institution: Église paroissiale Sant Émilion (Bordeaux diocèse)
Place: Saint Émilion (35 km northeast of Bordeaux, pop. ca. 200-300)
Collateur: Unknown (Archbishop Jean de Foix?)
Date accorded: By 1525 (AG 3E 2496; Les63:181)
Date released: After 24.7.1529 (AG 3E 4728 fol. 266; Les63:181)
Conditions: 100 livres
Comments: Revenues from this prebend during the year 1525 are mentioned in a document from April 7 1528 (AG 9802 fol 25v; Les63:177), but the prebend may have been granted not long after the death of Janequin’s patron Lancelot du Fau in April of 1523.
3 Curé St. Michel de Rieufret
Title: Curé (parish priest, in practice often replaced by a “vicaire”)
Institution: Église paroissiale St. Michel de Rieufret (Bordeaux diocèse)
Place: St. Michel de Riefret (30 km southeast of Bordeaux, pop. ca. 100-150)
Collateur: Unknown (Archbishop Jean de Foix?)
Date accorded: Before April 27 1526 (AG E9802 fol25v; Les63:177)
Date released: After 1528 (if the agreements named in the document were respected.)
Conditions: 100 livres tournois annum
Comments: Janequin cedes (sells) the proceeds of the prebend to Bordeaux merchant Arnaud de Lesonac for 2 years for 200 livres tournois.
4 Curé St. Nicolas
Title: Curé (parish priest)
Institution: Église paroissiale Sainct-Nicolas (Angers diocese)
Place: Brossay (45 km southeast of Angers: pop. ca. 100-150)
Collateur: Unknown (Jean le Bouef?)
Date accorded: Before May 26 1526 (AG 3E 4734; Les63:177)
Date released: After March 22 1533 (ML 254, H11 xlv ro; Lev48:73)
Conditions: Permutation with Philippe Champion.
Comments: The prebend was connected to the catherdral St. Maurice in Angers and precedes Janequin’s move to Angers by at least seven years.
5 Chapelain de Beaucoul
Title: Chapelain de Beaucoul
Institution: Cathédrale St. Maurice
Place: Angers
Collateur: Unknown (Jean le Boeuf?)
Date accorded: Before March 22 1533 (ML 254, H11, xlv ro; Lev48:73, 115)
Date released: (Probably on Janequin’s departure from Angers in 1549.)
Conditions: Prebend was “rather lucrative” (Lev48:76)
Comments: Position “reserved for one of the principal singers or even the master.” (Lev48:73)
6 Procureur des âmes
Title: Procureur des âmes (procurator animarum) (procurer of souls)
Institution: Bordeaux diocese
Place: Bordeaux
Collateur: Unknown (Archbishop Jean de Foix?)
Date accorded: Before May 28 1526 (AG 3 E 4734; Les63:177)
Date released: After July 24 1529 (AG 3 E 4728; Les63:182)
Conditions: 150 livres per annum
Comments: Sometimes defined as “for the celebration of anniversary masses”, procuarator animarum seems in Janequin’s case to have meant charitable distributions on fixed annual dates.
7 Maitre des enfants Auch
Title: Maitre des enfants (Master of the children, ie, choir director)
Institution: “l’Église cathedralle d’Auchs” (Cathédrale Sainte-Marie) (Auch diocese)
Place: Auch (160 km south of Bordeaux)
Collateur: Unknown (Archbishop François Guillaume de Castelnau de Clermont-Lodève?)
Date accorded: Before March 3 1531 (AG 3E 3234 fol. 336; Les63:183)
Date released: After March 3 1531 (AG 3E 3234 fol. 336; Les63:183)
Conditions: Unknown
Comments: This is the sole conserved document concerning Janequin’s engagement in Auch, where work on a new cathedral began in 1498.
8 Diaconat Garrosse
Title: Diaconat (Doyen)
Institution: Garrosse (Landes) (Dax diocese)
Place: Garrosse (110 km south of Bordeaux)
Collateur: Unknown (Archbishop François Guillaume de Castelnau de Clermont-Lodève?)
Date accorded: March 20 1531 (AG 3E 9999: Les57:203)
Date released: After March 20 1531
Conditions: Unknown
Comments: Both the diocese of Dax (Dacqs) and the diocese of Auch lay south of Bordeaux, such that both geography and timing open for the possibility that the prebends from Mezos and Garrosse had something to do with enticing Janequin to Auch.
9 Curé St. Jean de Mézos (Messaulx)
Title: Curé
Institution: Église paroissiale St. Jean de Mezos (Landes) (Bordeaux diocese)
Place: Mézos, canton de Mimizan (97 km southwest of Bordeaux, pop. ca. 500)
Collateur: Unknown (Archbishop François Guillaume de Castelnau de Clermont-Lodève?)
Date accorded: Before March 3 1531 (AG 3E 3234; Les 63:182)
Date released: February 1 1550 (AN Min cen C 34; Les51:166)
Conditions: 75 francs bordelais par annum
Comments: Resigned to Philiippe Chemynart in 1550, possibly permutated in connection with Janequin’s move to Paris.
10 Curé d’Avrillé
Title: Curé (parish priest)
Institution: Église paroissiale d’Avrillé (Angers diocese)
Place: Avrillé (just across the Maine river from Angers)
Collateur: Bishop Jean Olivier/Françoise Auvé, Abbesse du Ronceray
Date accorded: March 22 1533 (ML 254, H11 xlv ro; Lev48:115)
Date released: Prebend likely surrendered in connection with Janequin’s move to Paris in 1549.
Conditions: Janequin’s duties in Avrillé were probably minimal or non-existant.
Comments: A priest named Jean Garande served as Janequin’s substitute (vicaire).
11 Maitre de la psallette Angers
Title: Maitre de la psallette (choir director)
Institution: Cathedral St. Maurice
Place: Angers
Collateur: Unknown
Date accorded: Before June 12 1534 (ML 5E 1/8 n;
Date released: Before October 1 1537 (ML Min Leg 1537 no. 394; Lev48:121)
Conditions:
Comments:
12 Curé d’Unverre
Title: Curé (parish priest)
Institution: Église paroissiale d’Unverre (Chartres diocese)
Place: Unverre (140 km east of Angers)
Collateur: Charles Ronsard, prieur de Saint Denis-de-Nogent-le-Rotrou. (Lev48:36)
Date accorded: Before August 18 1548 (AN Min Cen C 29; Les51:172)
Date released: Janequin’s death, before April 10 (Holy Thursday) 1558 (AC Insinuations, 1552-1558, fol 579; De58:12)
Conditions: Duties executed by a substitute (vicaire).
Comments: Maurice Cauchie (1923:20) checked baptismal records in Unverre but found no evidence of Janequin’s presence in Unverre.