oa Jacobus de Ispania and Liège

The early fourteenth-century music theorist Jacobus, author of the encyclopedic treatise Speculum musicae (c. 1330), has long been thought to have been associated with the city of Liège-for which reason modern scholarship has dubbed him Jacques de Liège. However, his apparent association with Liège has recently come into question with Margaret Bent’s discovery that the author was known in his own time as magister Jacobus de Ispania. In the light of that discovery it has seemed all but certain that Jacobus was a Spaniard, or at least of Spanish descent. In a recent monograph Bent has undertaken a critical review of the Liège hypothesis, and decided that it had been ‘flimsily-founded’ and ought never to have taken root. However, this conclusion may be premature. Firstly, ‘Ispania’ may refer to other locations besides Spain, notably the region of Hesbaye in which Liège was situated: the usual Latin name for that region in the Middle Ages was Hispania or Hesbania. As a matter of fact the theorist’s last name was current in Liège, where numerous documents refer to individuals called de Hesbania or de Hesbaingne. Conceivably the theorist could have come from a family so named. Secondly, in his treatise Jacobus states indirectly but unambiguously that he had been resident in one of the secular churches of Liège. There are numerous other clues in the Speculum musicae which corroborate that statement, and point to Liège as a place with which Jacobus was exceptionally familiar. Against this he leaves not even the most circumstantial indication that he had anything to do with Spain. The Liège hypothesis, in sum, is compelling and well-founded, and should not be dismissed too rashly.