Ciconia, Johannes

Ciconia fu figlio di un prete canonico presso San Giovanni Evangelista a Liegi e della sua amante, figlia di Jacques d'Heur. Un corista (duodenus) dallo stesso nome appare nei registri del collegio di San Giovanni Evangelista nel 1385, il che fa pensare a una prima formazione del compositore nelle materie di grammatica, aritmetica e musica. Nel 1391, Papa Bonifacio IX (Pietro Tomacelli, 1389–† 1404) concesse a Johannes Ciconia, clericus leodiensis, una dispensa papale per il «difetto» di essere figlio illegittimo di un prete (defectus natalium de presbitero genitus). Questa dispensa gli consentiva, in ambito ecclesiastico, di ricevere benefici e ricoprire uffici (compresi quelli del padre). Nella stessa dispensa si stabilisce...

Ciconia (Cichonia, Cyconia, Zygognia), Johannes. Singer, composer, and music theorist (Liège, ca.1370 – Padua, 10.06–12.07.1412), son of a canon-priest of Saint John the Evangelist and his mistress, a unnamed daughter of Jacques d’Heur of Liège. A choirboy (duodenus) of the same name was documented at Saint John the Evangelist in 1385, suggesting the composer’s early education in grammar, arithmetic, and music. In 1391, Pope Boniface IX (Pietro Tomacelli, r. 1389–1404) granted Johannes Ciconia, clerk of Liège (clericus leodiensis), a dispensation from illegitimacy as the son of a priest (defectus natalium de presbitero genitus). This legal document cleared the way for its recipient to hold benefices and offices in the church, including those of his father. It also links this individual to the household of Cardinal Philippe d’Alençon (1338/9–1397) in Rome. In the same year, the same Ciconia witnessed a will at the Hospital of D’Alençon’s titular church in Rome, the Basilica of Saint Mary in Trastevere; the cardinal’s palace was nearby. As papal legate, D’Alençon may have recruited the young and talented Ciconia during his missions in the Lowlands in the late 1380s and smoothed the way for the composer’s subsequent career in Padua. Later as Patriarch of Aquileia, D’Alençon was a regular guest of the ruling Carrara family in Padua. D’Alençon’s connections to Padua continued into the mid 1390s as abbot in commenda of the Benedictine monastery of S. Giustina of Padua.