description of a Magnus liber organi, and the melodies
of the plainchant that form the basis of that organum
match notated plainchant sources used at Notre-Dame.
Still, this does not clarify what Léonin’s role may have
been in making such a book. Optimus organista sug-
gests a youthful man in full voice, while the diminutive
implies a beloved elder whose practical contributions
may have been overshadowed by his administrative use-
fulness—two very different “portraits” of the individual.
It may not have been so much by his initiative as by his
approval that modal rhythm became the primary innova-
tion of the Notre-Dame School, and there is no certain
evidence that such rhythm was subject to systematic
theoretical or notational principles during his lifetime.
Archival evidence only recently brought to light
establishes a probable identity for Anonymous 4’s
Magister Leoninus as Magister Leoninus presbyter, a
canon active in the affairs of the cathedral during the
late 12th century and a Latin poet whose hexametric
Old Testament commentary, Hystorie sacre gestas ab
origine mundi, was long praised after his death. There
is, however, no document, except possibly the treatise
of Anonymous 4, to substantiate the involvement of
Leoninus presbyter with music at all, a striking omis-
sion given the signifi cance of the Magnus liber organi
and the stature of the poet. Thus, while the search for
independent, corroborating evidence continues, the hy-
pothesis that Leonin, known also as Magister Leoninus
presbyter, was responsible for the vanguard of virtually
a new era in music with the Magnus liber organi should
remain compelling.
See also Pérotin
Further Reading
Reckow, Fritz. Der Musiktraktat des Anonymus 4. Wiesbaden:
Steiner, 1967.
Wright, Craig. “Leoninus, Poet and Musician,” Journal of the
American Musicological Society 39 (1986): 1–35.
Sandra Pinegar
LEOVIGILD (d. 586)
The brother of Liuva I (r. 568–72/3), who made him
coruler in 569, with responsibility for the south and
center of the Iberian Peninsula, Leovigild proved to be
perhaps the greatest of the kings of Visigothic Spain.
Even those who opposed his religious policies, such
as Isidore of Seville and John of Biclaro, admired his
military capacity and achievements. At the time of his
accession the kingdom was threatened by Frankish ag-
gression from the north and Byzantine aggression in
the southeast. Much of the north of the peninsula and
various areas in the south, including the city of Cór-
doba, had broken free of royal control. An independent
Suevic kingdom survived in the northwest. Leo-vigild’s
initial campaigns were directed against the Byzantine
enclave, and he regained Sidonia and Málaga. In 572,
he reimposed Visigothic rule on Córdoba. Following the
death of his brother Liuva I, Leovigild turned his atten-
tion northward, and in a series of campaigns between
573 and 577 made himself master of most of the north
of the peninsula, from the Rioja to the frontiers of the
Suevic kingdom, whose ruler Miro became tributary
to him. In the peaceful years of 578 and 579, the king
established the new town of Recco-polis, named after
his younger son, and also set up his elder son Hermene-
gild in Seville as coruler with responsibility for the
south. This failed when Hermenegild rebelled, at the
instigation of Leovigild’s second wife, Goisuintha,
widow of the former Visigothic king Athanagild (r.
554–568). Initially Leovigild made no move to curtail
his son’s independence, and in 581 launched a campaign
northward to contain the Basques. There he founded
another new town, called Victoriacum (probably Olite
in Navarre). Only when an alliance between Hermene-
gild and the Byzantines developed, symbolized by the
former’s conversion to Catholicism, did Leovigild act.
In 583 he took Mérida and Seville, and in 584 Córdoba,
where Hermenegild was captured. After the suppres-
sion of the revolt in the south, Leovigild overran the
Suevic kingdom in the northwest, where the son of his
former ally Miro had recently been overthrown by a
usurper. With this achieved, the Basques temporarily
pacifi ed, and a Frankish invasion of the province of
Narbonensis repelled in 585, Leovigild had achieved a
military reunifi cation of the Visigothic kingdom in the
peninsula and Septimania. To turn this into a genuine
political and cultural unifi cation required the solution of
the theological division between Arians and Catholics,
which had provided a context for factionalism and local
power struggles. This problem Leovigild hoped to tackle
by holding a council in Toledo in 580 with the aim of
modifying the theological tenets of Arianism, to make
this view of the Trinity more acceptable. In the outcome,
the polarization of religious and political opinion fol-
lowing the conversion of Hermenegild in 582 made such
a compromise unworkable. The only solution was the
acceptance by all of the uncompromising doctrinal stand
of the Catholics. It is reported in Gregory of Tours’s
histories that Leovigild himself secretly converted prior
to his death in 586, but the public resolution of the issue
was left to his heir Reccared.Further Reading
Collins, R. “Mérida and Toledo, 550–585.” In Visigothic Spain:
New Approaches. Ed. E. James: Oxford, 1980. 189–219.
Stroheker, K. F. “Leowigild. Aus einer Wendezeit westgotischer
Geschichte,” Die Welt als Geschichte 5 (1939), 446–485.
Thompson, E. A. The Goths in Spain. Oxford, 1969, 57–91.
Roger CollinsLÉONIN