Léonin [Leonius, Leo, Leoninus]

(c.1135 - after 1201)



Musician, canon, and poet. A canon in Paris at the Church of St. Benoit and later the Cathedral of Notre Dame; author of a lengthy versification of part of the Old Testament. According to the 13th-century music theorist Anonymous IV, he was creator of the Magnus liber organi, originally a book of 2-voiced organal settings of certain Mass and Office chants. Various revised, updated, and supplemented fonns of this collection survive in 13th-century manuscripts.



A PartialDiscography of Early Polyphony Before 1300  |  Early Polyphony Before 1300