Jacobus gallus biography

Slovene Renaissance composer

Jacobus Gallus (a.k.a. Jacob(us) Handl, Jacob(us) Händl; between 15 April and 31 July 1550 – 18 July 1591) was a late-Renaissance composer of presumed Slovene ethnicity.^[1] Born in Carniola, which at the time was one of the Habsburg lands in the Holy Roman Empire, he lived and worked in Moravia and Bohemia during the last decade of his life.

Life

Gallus's name has been Slovenianized as Jakob Petelin^[2] (petelin means 'rooster'; Handl and gallus mean the same in German and Latin, respectively).^[3] However, Gallus never used the name Petelin.^[4] He was probably born in Reifnitz (now Ribnica, southern Slovenia), although Slovene folk tradition also claims his birthplace to be at Šentviška Gora in the Slovenian Littoral.^[5] He used the Latin form of his name, to which he often added the adjective Carniolus, thus giving credit to his homeland Carniola.

Jacob Handl - ChoralWiki - CPDL NUZ