PHILIPPE MOUSKÉS
(b. ca. 1193). Fourth son of aristocratic parents, Juliane Mouskete and N.Mouskés of
Tournai, Philippe Mouskés wrote before 1243 a Chronique rimée (15,628 octosyllabic
couplets) of the French kings, from the legendary Marcomire, grandson of Priam of Troy
and first king of the Gauls, to the middle of the reign of Louis IX. He is remembered
primarily for having used a now lost French translation (related to B.N. fr. 2137 and
17203) of the Latin Pseudo-Turpin chronicle for the almost 5,000 couplets dealing with
the history of Charle-magne and for preserving otherwise unknown chansons de geste by
borrowing extensively from them. His other sources are French and Norman chronicles;
on the reigns of Philip II Augustus, Louis VIII, and Louis IX, he often reports as an
eyewitness. His Chronique reflects the 13th-century tendency toward popularized history
and differs from other chronicles by the fact that Mouskés worked without a patron,
simply to amuse himself (pour resgoïr).
Hans R.Runte
[See also: BIOGRAPHY; GORMONT ET ISEMBART; HISTORIOGRAPHY;
PSEUDO-TURPIN]
Philippe Mouskés. Chronique rimée de Philippe Mouskes, ed. Frédéric-Auguste-Ferdinand-
Thomas, baron de Reiffenberg. 3 vols. Brussels: Commission Royale d’Histoire, 1836–45.
[Edition of B.N. fr. 4963.]
Walpole, Ronald N. “Philip Mouskés and the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle.” University of California
Publications in Modern Philology 26 (1947):327–471.
PHILIPPUS DE CASERTA
(fl. ca. 1370). Italian composer of French chansons, represented in the Chantilly codex
(Chantilly, Musée Condé 564) by six ballades and possibly one rondeau. Some of his
works borrow bits of text from ballades of Machaut. Philippus was active in the papal
choir at Avignon in the 1370s, and one of his ballades celebrates Pope Clement VII. His
works feature complex and irregular rhythms, and he is possibly the author of the
Tractatus de diversis figuris on complex Ars Subtilior note shapes. Johannes Ciconia
quoted both text and music of three of Philippus’s ballades in his virelai Sus un’fontayne,
perhaps in homage to his teacher.
Benjamin Garber
[See also: ARS SUBTILIOR; CICONIA, JOHANNES; COMPOSERS, MINOR
(14TH CENTURY); EGIDIUS DE MURINO; MUSIC THEORY]
Strohm, Reinhard. “Filippotto da Caserta, Ovvero I Francesi in Lombardia.” In In cantu et in
sermone: For Nino Pirrotta on His 80th Birthday, ed. Fabrizio Della Seta and Franco Piperno.
Florence: Olschki, 1989, pp. 65–74.
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