of the Muslim world. By the end of his reign, the fi rst
Carolingian king of the Franks had expanded the posi-
tion of his people to the status of a major power.
See also Charles Martel; Stephen II, Pope
Further Reading
Editions and Translations
Capitularia regum Francorum, ed. Alfred Boretius and Victor
Krause. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges, 2(1–2).
Hannover: Hansche Buchhandlung, 1883–1897, Vol. 1, pp.
24–43.
Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s
Histories, trans. Bernhard Walter Scholz with Barbara Rogers.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970, pp. 37–47.
Codex Carolinus, ed. Wilhelm Gundlach: Monumenta Germaniae
Historica, Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini, 1. Berlin: Wei-
demann, 1892, pp. 469–558, 649–653.
Concilia aevi karolini, ed. Albert Werminghoff. Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, Concilia, 2(1–2). Hannover and Leipzig:
Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1896–1898, pp. 1–73.
The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar; with its Continua-
tion, trans. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill. Medieval Classics. London
and New York: Nelson, 1960, pp. 96–122. (Latin text with
English translation.)
Die Urkunden der Karolinger, Vol. 1, Die Urkunden Pippins, Kar-
lomanns und Karls des Grossen, ed. Engelbert Mühlbacher.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomatum Karolinorum,
- Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1906, pp. 1–60.
Critical Studies
Affeldt, Werner. “Untersuchungen zur Königshebung Pippins.”
Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 14, 1980, pp. 95–187.
Hahn, Heinrich. Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reiches, 741–752.
Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 1863.
Halphen, Louis. Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire, trans.
Giselle de Nie. Europe in the Middle Ages, 3. Amsterdam:
North-Holland, 1977, pp. 3–39.
Kempf, Friedrich, et al. Handbook of Church History, Vol. 3, The
Church in the Age of Feudalism, ed. Hubert Jedin and John
Dolan, trans. Anselm Biggs. New York: Herder and Herder;
London: Burns and Oates, 1969, pp. 3–25.
Noble, Thomas F. X. The Republic of Saint Peter: The Birth of
the Papal State, 680–825. The Middle Ages. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984, pp. 1–122.
Oelsner, Ludwig. Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reiches unter König
Pippin. Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1871.
Riché, Pierre. Les carolingiens: Une famille qui fi t l’Europe.
Paris: Hachette, 1983, pp. 71–103.
Richard E. Sullivan
PÉROTIN (Pérotinus;
fl. late 12th–early 13th c.)
Because he composed liturgical vocal polyphony at
Notre-Dame for two, three, and four parts (each part
sung by a soloist) and employed the rhythmic modes,
sophisticated devices of repetition and voice exchange,
unprecedented length, and important notational innova-
tions, Pérotin was the most signifi cant musical fi gure
of the early 13th century. His achievements profoundly
infl uenced the course of Western music. The music
theorists Johannes de Garlandia and Anonymous 4
mention “Magister Pérotinus,” but only the latter lists
seven of his musical compositions and chronologically
places him as “the best discantor” among other singers,
composers, and notators working in Paris from the late
12th to late 13th century. Anonymous 4 credits Pérotin
with the polyphony found today at the beginning of each
of the three major extant Notre-Dame sources (W1, F,
and W2): the Graduals Viderunt omnes and Sederunt
principes, both for four voices, and adds to the list
three-part polyphony for the Alleluia Posui adiutorium
and Alleluia Narivitas, and three conductus, the three-
part Salvatoris hodie, the two-part Dum sigillum, and
the monophonic Beam viscera. On the basis of stylistic
affi nity with these works, several other works in the
Notre-Dame sources have been credited to him. Anony-
mous 4’s statement that Pérotin made many clausulae
and edited, revised, or shortened Léonin’s Magnus liber
organi has led many to attribute to him one or more of
the series of independent discant clausulae that survive
in W1 and F.
Petrus, succentor (subcantor) of the cathedral ca.
1207–38, has been proposed as the most probable iden-
tity for Anonymous 4’s “Pérotinus optimus discantor,”
partly because responsibility for the daily services
at the cathedral would have fallen to the succentor
rather than the cantor, whose post had become largely
administrative. Petrus’ dates seem to correlate with
Anonymous 4’s description of Léonin’s Magnus liber
organi, which he stated was in use until the time of
Pérotin, while Pérotin’s “book or books” were used in
the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris up to Anonymous
4’s own time, probably the 1280s. Hans Tischler and
others have maintained, however, that Pérotin lived ca.
1155/60–1200/05, largely on the basis that ordinances
issued in 1198 and 1199 by Odo de Sully, bishop of
Paris, sanctioned performance of three- and four-part
organum at Notre-Dame during Christmas Week. That
Pérotin’s composition of the four-part polyphony for
Viderunt omnes and Sederunt principes might have elic-
ited these decrees can only be conjectured. The dating of
Pérotin’s polyphony is particularly important to a history
of the musical style of the period. If it dates generally
before 1200, that would mean that the rhythmic modes
and their notation as well as the discant clausula and
consequently the early motet were well advanced at the
very beginning of the 13th century.
See also Léonin; Philip the ChancellorFurther Reading
Pérotin. Works, ed. Ethel Thurston. New York: Kalmus, 1970.
Tischler, Hans. “Pérotinus Revisited.” In Aspects of Medieval
and Renaissance Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese,PÉROTIN