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Issu d'une riche famille patricienne, il suit sa scolarité
à l'école latine de Kalkar, puis suit ses études à l’Université de Cologne,
et à Paris (il a peut-être Johannis de
Muris comme professeur), où il
est Magister artium de la Sorbonne en 1356, magister Regent en 1359 (professeur),
et procurezru de la nation anglaise (les étudiants
sont organisés en nations. En 1362, il
est doyen de la Sorbonne.
Kalkar
au Moyen-Âge
En 1363, il est chanoine à
la collégiale St. Georg à Cologne et à
St. Suitbert de Kaiserwerth près de Dusseldorf.,
où il intègre, en 1365, l'ordres des chartreux.
En 1367-1372, il est prieur à Monnikhuizen
(Arnheim), puis recteur à Roermond.
de 1375 à 1395, il est visitateur de l'ordre
pour l'Allemagne inférieure (Alemannia inferior
: Rhein et Saxe), mais visite aussi des monastères
en France, Bohème, et Moravie.
Entre 1378 et 1384, il est prieur à St.
Barbara de Cologne, puis jusqu'en 1396, à Marienberge
(Srasbourg).
En 1396, il regagne alors St. Barbara de cologne
comme simple moine.
Écrits relatifs à
la musique
Cantuagium sive de musica : liber I
Manuscrits
- Ms. XI 649, St.-Florian, Stiftsbibliothek, XIIe, XIIIe,
et XIVe siècles, f. 125v-128
- Ms. Cpv 2339, Wien, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, XIIIe siècle, f. 116v
- Ms. theol. lat. qu. 165, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek
preußischer Kulturbesitz, XVe siècle, f. 180v-181rv, solmisation, Nota
quod tres sunt cantus in manu scilicet biduralis, naturalis et bmollis;
ethos des modes, Est etiam sciendum quod musica habet ornatus proprios
sicut rhetorica ornat enim cantum [...]
- Ms. Mus. ms. theor. 1325, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek
preußischer Kulturbesitz,
origine allemande, XIVe siècle. f. 18-37v
- Ms. 705, Darmstadt, Hessische
Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek
- Ms. Hs. II. 375, Mainz, Stadtbibliothek,
daté avec prudence de 1466, f. 41v-57
- Ms. Clm 16072, München, Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, origine allemande, XVe siècle, f. 89v-91v, Tres sunt
cantus in manu [...]
- Ms. Clm 19818, id., première moitié XVe siècle, f.
273, Cantus in manu sunt tres quis b duralis naturalis et b mollis [...]
-
Ms. 17.19 Aug. 4° (cat. 3109), Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek,
origine allemande, XVe siècle, f. 345v, Tres sunt cantus […]
Éditions
- HÜSCHEN HEINRICH, Das Cantuagium des Heinrich Eger von
Kalkar. Dans «Beiträge zur Rheinischen Musikgeschichte» (2), Köln-Krefeld
1952 [avec fac-similé.] [édition
électronique de l'Université d'Indiana]
- —, Albertus Magnus
und seine Musikanschauung. Dans «Speculum musicae artis: Festschrift
Heinrich Husmann zum 60. Geburtstag», München 1970, p. 205-218
Bibliographie
- HARTZHEIM J., Bibliographia Cartusiensis. Köln 1747
- HAAS ROBERT, Eger von Kalkar, Heinrich Dans «Neue
deutsche Biographie» Berlin 1953
- KEMPIS, Vita Gerardi Magni. Opera Omnia. Édition J.
Pohl 1902-1922, VIII, 4
- LE COUTEULX CAROLO, Annales ordinis Carthusiensis ab
anno 1084 usque ad annum 1429. Montreuil 1887-1889
- PESCE DOLORES, The Affinities and Medieval
Transposition. Bloomington-Indianapolis 1987, p. 73
- PETREJUS F. J., Bibliographia cartusiana sive
illustrium s.o. cartusiensis catalogus. Köln 1609
- RÜTHING HEINRICH, Der Karthaüser Heinrich Egher von
Kalkar 1328-1408. Göttingen 1967 [importante bibl.]
- SCHNEIDER, Die Kölner Karthäuser vom ihere Gründung bis
zum Ausgang des Mittelalters. Köln 1932
- SCHOLTES J. J., Hendrik van Eger uit Kalkar en Zijn
Kring. Dans « Studien en teksluitgaven van ons geestelyk erf» (16),
Entwerpen 1967
Jean-Marc Warszawski
Novembre 1995-28 avril 2009
Documents
Mougel Ambrose, Henry
of Kalkar.
Dans « The Catholic Encyclopedia »,
Encyclopedia Press, 1913.
Henry of Kalkar
Carthusian writer, b. at Kalkar in
the Duchy of Cleves in 1328; d. at Cologne, December
20, 1408
Henry (EGHER) of Kalkar, Carthusian
writer, b. at Kalkar in the Duchy of Cleves in 1328;
d. at Cologne, December 20, 1408. Henry began his studies
at Cologne, and completed them at Paris, where he became
Master of Arts in 1357. He forthwith occupied the post
of procurator of the German nation in 1358, being also
a professor of theology. Having obtained canonries in
the collegiate churches of St. Swibert in Kaiserswerth
and St. George in Cologne in 1362, he returned to his
native land. Soon after, however, disgusted with the
world, he retired in 1365 to the Charterhouse of Cologne,
where, owing to his talents and virtues, he was rapidly
raised to the most important offices. Successively prior
of the Charterhouses of Arnheim (1368-72), of Ruremonde
(1372-77), which he had built, of Cologne (1377-84)
and of Strasburg (1384-96), which he restored, and visitor
of his province for the space of 20 years, he was thus
called upon to play, under the trying circumstances
produced by the Great Schism, a considerable role in
the Netherlands and German-speaking countries. Relieved
at length, at his earnest request, of all his offices,
he retired in 1396 to the Charterhouse of Cologne, and
there lived in recollection and prayer until his death.
Henry of Kalkar was celebrated not
only as a writer, but also as a reformer. During his
priorate at Arnheim he had the happiness and honor of
converting one of his friends and fellow-students
at Paris, Gerard Groote (the future founder of the Brothers
of the Common Life), whom he attracted into his
Charterhouse and directed for three years. Moreover
by his spiritual writings .... he exercised on the whole
school of Deventer and Windesheim the influence of a
recognised master. He was to this extent the organizer
of the great movement of the Catholic Renaissance, which,
initiated at Windesheim and in the convents of the Low
Countries, went on developing throughout the fifteenth
century, finding its definite expression in the Council
of Trent. He distinguished himself in the eyes of his
contemporaries by his religious zeal, his great piety,
and above all by his remarkable devotion towards the
Blessed Virgin, who, it is said, deigned to appear to
him several times. Indeed such was his reputation, that
many attributed to him, though wrongly, the institution
of the Rosary and the composition of the Imitation
of Christ, and Blessed Canisius went so far as to
insert his name in his German martyrology for December
20.
As a writer he has left a number
of works on very diverse subjects. At once a man of
learning and letters, a distinguished musician, theologian,
and ascetic, he composed the treatises: Loquagium
de rhetorica, Cantuagium de musica, De
Continentiis et Distinctione Scientiarum, and was
also the author of sermons, letters, treatises on the
spiritual life, etc. These works, which have never been
printed, are scattered about in different libraries—at
Basle, Brussels, St. Gall, etc. One alone has been published
and has enjoyed a strange career, the Exercitatorium
Monachale or Tractatus utilis proficere volentibus.
Inserted in a number of manuscripts of the Imitation
between the first and third books, it has sometimes
passed as an unedited book of that work, and was published
as such by Dr. Liebner at Gottingen in 1842. Several
times reprinted, especially by Msgr. Malou in his Recherches
sur le veritable auteur de l'Imitation, it has been
translated into French (Waille, Paris, 1844) under the
title L'Imitation de J.C., livre inedit trouve dans
la bibliotheque de Quedlinbourg. Moreover it has
in great part passed into the "Mystica theologia"
(chap. I) of Henry of Balma, and into the treatise De
Contemplatione (lib. I, art. xxi) of Denis the Carthusian,
and, after having inspired Thomas A Kempis and Garcia
de Cisneros, it furnished St. Ignatius himself with
some ideas for his famous "Exercises".
AMBROSE MOUGEL
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