Liban, Jerzy z Legnicy (EN)

Liban Jerzy z Legnicy [Jerzy Liban of Legnica], Georgius Libanus Legnicensis, Georgius Legnicensis, *1464 (?) Legnica, †17 XII 1550 Krakow, music theorist, composer, humanist, Greek scholar active in Kraków, son of Georgius, presumably called Weihrauch (the German Weihrauch translates to libanos in Greek). He most likely began his studies at the University of Krakow in the winter semester of 1494/95, presumably continuing them in Cologne, before returning to Krakow in 1501, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1502, and a Master of the Arts degree in 1511. In 1511 and 1513, he lectured at the University of Krakow, explaining Mancinelli’s treatise on Cicero’s metre and Sedulis’ Carmen Paschale. In 1520 he began lecturing in Greek grammar, which he soon discontinued under pressure caused by accusations of spreading heresy.  From around 1506 to 1528, he worked at the parish school at St Mary’s Church in Krakow, initially as a cantor and, from 1514, as rector; he taught Greek, music and the principles of Latin prosody for the recitation of liturgical texts. He was also an altarist at St Mary’s Church in Krakow. In 1528 he delivered a speech entitled De musicae laudibus oratio, which he published in 1540 along with a treatise on music. In 1529 or 1530 he travelled to St Florian’s Abbey near Linz in Austria, where he spent 13 days. During this trip, he was rescued from the Turks by Ulrich Croat (Krabat?), who he stayed with for two days at Leiben Castle near Melk. He described these events in a letter to Ulrich Croat (published in 1535 by F. Ungler, together with a speech delivered on the occasion of the wedding of Sigismund the Old’s daughter, Hedwig and Joachim II Hohenzollern – In sponsalibus illustrissimi Principis Ioachimi Brandenburgensis (…) cum Serenissima Principe, virgine Hedvige); the letter contains a lively description of these celebrations. The same publication included a short speech on the sacrament of marriage by Jan Valassius, probably a student of Libanus, to whom De musicae laudibus oratio is dedicated.

Liban was one of the most prominent figures in Krakow’s intellectual circles. He was associated with a group of humanists, mainly Silesians, who gathered around the powerful Boner family of Krakow. He was friends with Wacław Koler from Jelenia Góra, a Greek and Hebrew scholar, to whom he owed his knowledge of three ancient languages. He kept in contact with Caspar Borner, rector of the University of Leipzig. Liban found patrons among the most prominent figures in Krakow, namely Piotr Tomicki, Piotr Gamrat, Stanisław Hozjusz and Marco della Torre (provincial of the Franciscan monastery).

Liban’s oeuvre comprises 16 works published in Krakow between 1522 and 1545. Most of them are editions (including a poem about St Stanislaus by Filippo Callimaco-Buonaccorsi – ca. 1522, an anthology of Greek writings by the Church Fathers – 1528, Pseudo-Aristotle’s Economics with a Latin translation by Aretino – 1537 etc.), as well as sermons, speeches and poetic works, including a short iambic piece in honour of St Stanislaus (published together with Callimachus’ poem around 1522 and later added to De accentuum…) and an elegy in honour of F. Boner (1538, lost). He also produced works at the intersection of poetry and music.

Liban’s musical treatises fully reflect both his individual interests and extensive erudition, as well as the prevailing trends in music theory at the time.  De musicae laudibus oratio is related to ancient music. In this treatise, Libanus presented Greek musical notation symbols as well as a glossary of Greek musical terms; he devoted a lot of space to the expressive properties of music, basing himself mainly on Boethius’ De institutione musica. He also drew on the works of Cicero, Cassiodorus, Macrobius, Isidore of Seville, among others, as well as contemporary theoretical treatises, most notably those of Gaffurius. He also classified consonances in accordance with the contemporary principles of counterpoint (Chapter VII). He demonstrated familiarity with the latest developments in the theory of intervals of his time, illustrating the division of the whole tone into nine commas of progressively decreasing size (Chapter I), a view that aligns closely with that of G. Anselmi. In terms of its general assumptions, this treatise is close to Glarean’s early work Isagoge in musicen (1516). 

In De philosophiae laudibus oratio, presenting all fields of contemporary science, Liban placed music between rhetoric and theoretical disciplines (physics and mathematics), thus reflecting the dual nature of music, which is, on the one hand, a mathematical discipline and, on the other, has the ability to influence the human psyche. The treatise De accentuum ecclesiasticorum exquisita ratione, dealing with the rules of reciting liturgical texts, is the result of Liban’s many years of teaching at St Mary’s School; Liban sharply criticised the state of church music culture in contemporary Krakow. In his work, he connected the rules of ecclesiastical accentuation with the principles of Latin prosody and also included a brief description of accentuation in Greek and Hebrew. He richly illustrated the rules of recitative with musical examples, using choral notation with mensural elements, which was common in liturgical manuscripts. He applied the same notational system in his four-voice antiphon Ortus de Polonia, enriching the note-against-note technique with minim values. In his settings of the Magnificat and the psalm In exitu Israel de Aegypto, published in De musicae laudibus oratio, written in an imitative style, the mensural notation predominates, with occasional neumatic signs. This notation reflects the clarity and rhythmic simplicity of his compositions. Although only a small portion of Liban’s musical works has survived, they demonstrate his remarkable skill and mastery of counterpoint. 

Literature: A. Mułkowski De vita et scriptis Libani Legnicensis, Krakow 1836; J. Reiss Georgius Libanus als Musiker, “Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft” I, 1922; W. Voisé Twórczość naukowa Jerzego Libana z Legnicy, “Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce” II, 1966; E. Witkowska Kilka uwag do biografii Jerzego Libana z Legnicy, “Muzyka” 1971 no. 1; H. Kowalewicz Rekonstrukcja mało znanego poematu Filipa Kallimacha, “Eos” LX, 1972; H. Barycz Libanus Jerzy, Polski Słownik Biograficzny XVII/2, iss. 73, 1972; L. Gadomski Renesansowa pochwała muzyki. Jerzy Liban z Legnicy, “Studia Estetyczne” X, 1973; W. Domański Der “accentus” des Gregorianischen Gesangs im Musiktraktat “De accentuum ecclesiasticorum exquisita ratione” von Georg Liban aus Liegnitz/Legnica, “Musik des Ostens” 10, 1986; H. Kowalewicz, J. Morawski Hymny polskie, «Musica Medii Aevi» VIII, ed. J. Morawski, Krakow 1991; B. Sudak Tradycja boecjańska w poglądach akustyczno-harmonicznych Jerzego Libana z Legnicy, “Muzyka” 1995 no. 4; E. Witkowska-Zaremba Georgius Libanus o swej podróży do Austrii, in: Artes atque humaniora. Studia Stanislao Mossakowski sexagenario dicata. Warsaw 1998; J. Kubieniec Jerzy Liban i hebrajskie lamentacje, in: Affetti musicologici: Księga pamiątkowa z afektem ofiarowana profesorowi Zygmuntowi Marianowi Szweykowskiemu w 70. rocznicę urodzin/Book of essays in honour of professor Zygmunt Marian Szweykowski in his 70th birthday, Krakow 1999; E Zwolińska Pytania o muzykę w Kościele Mariackimw Krakowie w pierwszej połowie xvi stulecia i o postać Jana z Lublina, “Muzyka” 3, 2018.