Jean Taisnier (or Taisner) (Latin: Johannes Taisnierius; 1508, Ath, Habsburg Netherlands – 1562, Cologne), surnamed Hannonius (i.e., of the County of Hainaut), was a Wallonian musician, mathematician and astrologer who published a number of works and taught in various European cities and universities.H. Bosmans, 'Taisnier (Jean), érudit', Biographie Nationale (de L'Académie Royale de Belgique), Vol. XXIV: Steyaert-Thimus (Établissements Émile Bruylant, Bruxelles 1926-1929), cols 499-511. Read at Academy pdf (academieroyale.be).J. Dewert, 'Jean Taisnier', Annales du Cercle Royal Archéologique d'Ath et de la Région, I (1912), pp. 1-36.M. Soons, 'Jean Taisnier, mathématicien', Annales du Cercle Royal Archéologique d'Ath et de la Région, I (1912), pp. 37-44. In some sources he is mis-named Jean Fuisnier. He was for some time schoolmaster of the boys of the Chapel (Sacellanus) in the court of Emperor Charles V. By 1559 he styled himself "Poet Laureate" (a laureation of the Holy Roman Empire),'Jean Taisnier, Johannes Taisnier, Taisnerus (1508/9-?1589)', in J. Flood, Poets Laureate in the Holy Roman Empire: a Bio-bibliographical Handbook, 4 vols (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2011), IV, p. 2050 (Google). Contains some inaccuracies. and "Doctor of both Laws", but upon what authority is unknown.'IV. Taisnier (Jean)', in E. Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIXe Siècle, 8 vols (G.A. Van Trigt/Schott Frères, Bruxelles 1867-1888), III (1875), at pp. 227-42 (Internet Archive).L.C. Ribeiro, Jesuit Astrology: Prognostication and Science in Early Modern Culture, Series: Time, Astronomy and Calendars (Brill 2023), pp. 460, 472, 478. While he propounded a general theory of Mathematics in four "Quantities" of Astronomy, Geometry, Arithmetic and Music, and aimed to publish a general exposition of them, he became preoccupied with astrology and cheiromancy, and neglected to publish his advertised Treatise on Music which (given his experience) might have been the most interesting of all his works. His unacknowledged use of the work of other authors has incurred the accusation of plagiarism.L. Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vols V-VI: The Sixteenth Century (Columbia University Press, New York 1941), V, pp. 580-88 (Internet Archive). He was the great-uncle of David Teniers the Elder.N. De Pauw, 'David Teniers, le jeune, ses ancêtres, ses armoiries, et sa noblesse', Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, LXXVIII, Académie Royale de Belgique (Brussels 1909), pp. 23-33 (Internet Archive).
Life Origins and education John, or Jehan, Taisnier was one of the children of Thomas Taisnière, a successful Wallonian merchant who owned various properties near the market-place of the city of Ath, and his wife, demoiselle Cathérine de l'Issue. The families were long-established in that place. He had a sister Françoise and brothers Joachim (Taynière) and Pierchon. These relationships are illustrated in a series of deeds in the archives of Ath: they show that father Thomas died before 4 October 1522, when Joachim, the eldest son, succeeded him as "matricularius" or parochial clerk for registrations, of the church of Saint-Julien (an office held by contract). Joachim was the grandfather of the painter David Teniers the Elder.J. Dewert, 'Origine wallonne des peintres Teniers', Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire LXXX (1911), pp. 287-319, at pp. 287-95 (Persée), and Document 9, pp. 303-04. In French.
Jean went to college in Ath, and studied Law at the University of Louvain, from which he acquired the title "Maître" (Master) by which he was known from 1531. It was not until 1558 that he referred to himself as "Doctor of both laws", so he probably did not obtain his doctorate at Louvain. Much of the available information about Taisner's life and career depends upon his own statements made at various places in his published works, and especially in his cheiromantic readings, which are full of biographical details. His examples given in the Opus Mathematicum of 1562 might almost have been selected to provide a narrative of his own life. The older authorities, and many of the more recent ones, seem to derive their information about him from his own writings.
This chorographic ode to the town of Ath gives a sample of his poetic fancy:
The Imperial Chapel In 1542, Taisnier was Master of the school for the children of the Imperial Chapel of Emperor Charles V: he was given charge of five children whose voices were no longer suitable, whom he took back to Louvain to pursue their higher studies.E. Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIXe Siècle, 8 vols (G.A. Van Trigt/Schott Frères, Bruxelles 1867-1888), VII (1885), pp. 356-57 (Google). In the same capacity he addressed himself in a letter to Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands), requesting possession of the prebend of Leuze-en-Hainaut,Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas, III, pp. 152-53 (Internet Archive): under entry "Manchicourt". which had been granted to him by the Emperor. Although the prebendary was an ecclesiastical officer, it is supposed that this was granted to Taisnier as a layman, as a customary means of paying him for his service: there is no certain evidence that he was in holy orders. At that time the Maître de Chapelle to Charles V was Nicolas Gombert, and it is important to distinguish Taisnier's role as instructor in languages and literary education, from the musical instruction, though as musician Taisnier was apparently a singer in the Chapel choir. In the 1558 form of his publication on the Use of the Spherical Rings (an instrument for geometrical observation), Taisnier in the title-page describes himself as "Caesareae majestatis Caroli V, invictissimi, quondam sacellanus et cantor domesticus, puerorumque sacelli pedagogus"J. Taisnier, De Sphaerae Materialis Fabrica et Usu 128 Canonum Tituli (Ioannes Bathenius, Köln 1558). Page views at Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum. ("sometime household chapel instructor and singer of his most puissant imperial majesty Charles V, and teacher of the boys of the chapel").Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas, III, pp. 228-29 (Internet Archive).
Authorities trace the assertion by De La Serna (1809) that, in a musical capacity, Taisnier accompanied the Emperor's expedition to the conquest of Tunis (1535):E. Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIXe Siècle, 8 vols (G.A. Van Trigt/Schott Frères, Bruxelles 1867-1888), VII (1885), p. 316 (Google). Straeten cites A. Henne, Histoire du Regne de Charles-quint en Belgique, 10 vols (E. Flateau, Bruxelles et Leipzig 1859), VI, at p. 91 (Google): Henne, following De La Serna, mis-spells Taisnier's name as "Jean Fuisnier".'Jean Fuisnier', in C.A. De La Serna Santander, Mémoire Historique sur la Bibliotèque dite de Bourgogne (A.J.D. De Braeckenier, Bruxelles/Frères Tilliard, Paris 1809), p. 208 (Google). La Serna cited Lodovico Guicciardini (1567): but in asserting that Taisnier was at the conquest of Tunis in 1535, he follows Tomasini (1630), who is cited also by Foppens (1739), Weidler (1741) and Carafa (1751). this derives from Giacomo Filippo Tomasini (1630), from the Abbate Ghilini (1633),'Giovanni Taisnero', in G. Ghilini, Teatro d'Huomini Letterati Aperto (Giovanni Battista Cerri e Carlo Ferrandi, per Filippo Ghisolfi, Milano 1633), pp. 174-75 (Google); 2nd edition (Per li Guerigli, in Venetia, 1647), p. 91 (Google): "...essendosi poi Cesare accinto all'impresa di Tunigi contra Turchi, dove fu in persona, volle seco per ornamento della sua Corte il Taisnero..." or from Isaac Bullart (1682), and not (as implied) from Lodovico Guicciardini (1567).L. Guicciardini, Descrittione di Lodovico Guicciardini, patritio Fiorentino, di tutti i Paesi Bassi, altramenti detti Germania Inferiore (Guglielmo Silvio (Stampatore Regio to Philip II), Antwerp 1567), at p. 269 sect. A (Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum). Guicciardini, in his notice of "Atte" (i.e. Ath, Hainaut), wrote only: "Di questa terra è nativo Giovanni Taisnier, dottore nell'uno e nell'altro iure, Poeta laureato e chiaro, Mathematico eccellente, e gran' maestro di Musica: ha scritto ultimamente una bellissima, e degnissima opera di cose mathematiche." Taisnier noted, in one of his "Chyromantiae" published in 1562, that in 1538, at Toledo, Spain, he was with singers of the Imperial Chapel to celebrate the Low German festival of the Three Kings (i.e. Epiphany 1538/39), though he did not say whether his connection with the court was then formal.Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas, III, p. 230 (Internet Archive), citing Taisnier, Opus Mathematicum (1562), p. 434 (Google). There also he claimed to have witnessed the demonstration, before the Emperor and many others, of a submersible vessel in which a lighted candle was carried under the waves of the river Tagus and returned to the surface still burning.Taisnier, Opusculum... De Natura Magnetis, &c. (Köln 1562), pp. 40-42 (Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum). In 1541 Taisnier was with the Imperial Chapel at Valladolid, where in another demonstration of palmistry"l'occasion d'exercer son art frivole et charlatanesque de chiromancie" - Vander Straeten. he recorded the death of his pupil Ysbrande Bus, who had the voice of a nightingale and was at the head of 60 singers in the Imperial Chapel, but devoted himself to drink and gluttony. Having got into a fight in which he bit off the ear of an imperial messenger, Bus disdained to travel with the other singers, succumbed to a fever, and was cast into the sea ("piscibus in escam proiectus est"). This incident occurred as the Emperor's fleet was making his ill-fated expedition to Algiers, late in 1541, in which Taisnier with the singers of the Imperial Chapel accompanied him.Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas, III, pp. 224-27 (Internet Archive), citing Taisnier, Opus Mathematicum (1562), pp. 408-09 (Google).
Teaching in Italy and Sicily