Jean Lhéritier

A lesser known figure in the generation after Josquin, Jean Lhéritier was yet another Franco-Flemish composer who traveled to Italy and found gainful employment. He was born around 1480 in the Diocese of Thérouanne on the border between France and Flanders, but the first known official position he held was in 1506 at the Court of Alfonso I, Duke of Ferrara, for two years, where Antoine Brumel was maestro.

In 1514 he is mentioned in connection with the Papal Chapel of Leo X and in 1521 as maestro at St. Louis des Français in Rome. In 1522 Lhéritier is in Northern Italy with the Gonzagas at Mantua then at Verona Cathedral, possibly in Venice . . . information about Lhéritier is quite sparse, but the sources of his nearly 50 motets are spread far and wide.