Reims. Hucbald had access to the major ancient works of learning, notably Martianus
Capella, Boethius, and Chalcidius’s commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. His own work,
however, is original. Adopting the Greek scale transmitted by Boethius (Greater Perfect
System), Hucbald described a second tetrachordal system, different from the Boethian
tradition, that is built on the tetrachord of the finals D-E-F-G and that became paramount
for the development of medieval modal theory. His concern for practical issues is shown
by his method of illustrating theoretical points with examples taken from chant repertoire
as sung in the monasteries. Hucbald also devised a letter notation, suggesting its
simultaneous use with neumes, to indicate their precise musical pitch.
Tony Zbaraschuk
[See also: BOETHIUS, INFLUENCE OF; MUSIC THEORY; MUSICAL
NOTATION (NEUMATIC); MUSICAL NOTATION (12TH-15TH CENTURIES)]
Palisca, Claude V. ed., Hucbald, Guido, and John on Music: Three Medieval Treatises, trans.
Warren Babb. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
HUE DE ROTELANDE
(fl. late 12th c.). Anglo-Norman author of Ipomedon (10,580 octosyllabic lines) and
Protheselaus (12,741 octosyllabic lines). Probably a native of Rhuddhan (Flintshire), Hue
lived in Credenhill, near Hereford, when he wrote his two romances for local nobility
(Protheselaus for Gilbert Fitz-Baderon, lord of Monmouth; d. 1191). Ipomedon, the
earlier of the two, is concerned with the love of La Fière, princess of Calabria, and
Ipomedon, son of the King of Apulia. In Protheselaus, the hero is the son of Ipomedon
and La Fière; he eventually becomes king of Apulia. Ipomedon, the finer work, is
remarkable for its treatment of the motifs of the Three Day’s Tournament and the rescue
of the princess by the hero disguised as a madman. Hue de Rotelande is especially gifted
as a comic writer, and Ipomedon is thoroughly humorous from beginning to end, the
humor ranging from whimsicality to open obscenity. While it is not usually possible to
show specific sources for the two romances, both owe a good deal to the Romances of
Antiquity, the Tristan romances, and the works of Chrétien de Troyes. Ipomedon, which
is preserved complete in two manuscripts (London, B.L.Cotton Vespasian A VII and
Oxford, Bodl. Rawlinson Miscel. D 913), was adapted on three occasions into Middle
English.
Keith Busby
[See also: ANGLO-NORMAN LITERATURE; ANTIQUITY, ROMANCES OF;
IDYLLIC ROMANCE]
Hue de Rotelande. Ipomedon, poème de Hue de Rotelande (fin du XIIe siècle), ed. Anthony
J.Holden. Paris: Klincksieck, 1979.
——. Protheselaus, ein altfranzösischer Abenteuerroman, ed. F.Kluckow. Halle: Niemeyer, 1924.
Calin, William. “The Exaltation and Undermining of Romance: Ipomedon.” In The Legacy of
Chrétien de Troyes, ed. Norris J.Lacy, Douglas Kelly, and Keith Busby. 2 vols. Amsterdam:
Rodopi, 1987, Vol. 2, pp. 111–24.
Legge, M.Dominica. Anglo-Norman Literature and Its Background. Oxford: Clarendon, 1963, pp.
85–96.
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