A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ornithoparcus, Andreas

by William Barclay Squire

ORNITHOPARCUS or ORNITOPARCHUS, Andreas, the author of a rare Latin treatise, entitled 'Musicæ Activæ Micrologus,' which was published at Leipzig in 1516. [See Micrologus.] His real name was Vogelsang or Vogelgesang, and he seems to have adopted the Greek pseudonym of Ornithoparcus on account of the many countries which he had visited, and of which he gives a list at the end of the third book of his work. Nothing further is known about him, except that he was a native of Meiningen, and that he entitled himself 'Magister Artium.' [App. p.736 "he was M.A. of Tübingen, and in October 1516 was connected with the University of Wittenberg."] His book was translated into English by John Dowland (London, 1609).

[ W. B. S. ]

Appendix:

It will be observed that the date of the publication of the first edition of the Micrologus of Ornithoparcus is stated variously as 1516 and 1517. The former date is that given by Panzer (vii. p. 196), on the authority of the Catalogue of Count Thott's Library (vii. p. 172). But no trace of this edition—if it ever existed—can now be found, and it seems certain that the work was first printed in 1517. The following are the various editions through which it passed:—

1. Leipzig, Jan. 1517. The colophon runs as follows:—

Excussum est hoc opus Lipsiae in aedibus Valentini | Schuman. Mēse Januario, Anni virginei partus De | cimiseptimi supra sesquimillesimū Leone de | cimo pont. max. ac Maximiliano | gloriosissimo Impatore orbi terrae | praesidentibus. |

This is the first edition, and only one copy is known to exist, viz. in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, the whole of sheet A of which is wanting. It was described by Fétis, who however confuses it with the second edition.

2. Leipzig, Nov. 1517. Described in Panzer (ix. 496). The colophon is:—

Excussum est hoc opus, ab ipso authore denuo castigatum, | recognitumq: Lipsie in edibus Ualentini Schumanni, calco- | graphi solertissimi: Mense Nouēbr: Anni virginei partus de- | cimi septimi supra sesquimillesimū. Leone decimo Pont. Max. | ac Maximiliano inuictissimo impatore orbi terrax psidētibus. |

This edition, though the colophon clearly proves the contrary, is generally described as the first. Copies of it are in the British Museum; Kgl. Bibliothek, Berlin; Hofbibliothek, Darmstadt; Library of St. Mark's, Venice; University of Bonn, and the 'Rosenthal Antiquariat.' Munich (May 1888).

3. Leipzig, 1519. The colophon runs:—

Excussum est hoc opus: denuo castigatum recognitumq: | Lipsie in edibus Ualentini Schumanni: calcographi solertissi | mi: Mense Aprili; Anni virgiuei partus vndeuigesimi supra | sesquimillesimum. |

There are copies of this at Berlin (Royal Library), Munich (Royal Library), Königsberg (see 'Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte,' 1870, p. 47), Göttingen (University Library) and Brussels (see 'Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de F. J. Fétis,' p. 621). A copy is said ('Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte,' viii. p. 22) to be in the Rathsschulbibliothek of Zwickau. Fétis says there is an edition of 1521 at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, though on enquiry (May, 1888) the only copy found there was that of Jan. 1517. The colophon he quotes is that of the 1519 edition, but he seems to have imagined that 'undevigesimi' meant twenty-one, instead of nineteen. His statement has been copied by Mendel.

4. Cologne, 1533. The title-page runs:—

Andræ Ornitoparchi Meyningensis, De arte cantandi micrologus, libris quatuor digestus, omnibus musicæ studiosis non tarn utilis quam necessarius, diligenter recognitus. Coloniæ, apud Joanuem Gymuicuin, anno 1553.

A copy of this edition is in the Bibliothèque du Conservatoire National de Musique, Paris (see M. Weckerlin's Catalogue, p. 209).

5. Cologne, 1535. An edition without colophon, similar to the preceding. A copy is in the Royal Library at Munich.

6. Gerber (Lexicon, ed. 1813, iii. p. 618) quotes Schacht's 'Bibl. Music.' (1687) to the effect that there exists an edition in oblong 8vo. printed by Johannes Gymnicus at Cologne in 1540, but no copy of this is known to exist.