Franco of Cologne

Franco of Cologne (; also Franco of Paris) was a German music theorist, possibly a composer, one of the most influential theorists of the Late Middle Ages, and was the first to propose an idea which was to transform musical notation permanently: that the duration of any note should be determined by its appearance on the page, and not from context alone. The result was Franconian notation, described most famously in his Ars cantus mensurabilis. Life Some details are known about his life, and more can be inferred. In his own treatise he described himself as the papal chaplain and the preceptor of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John at Cologne, an extremely powerful position in northern Europe in the 13th century. Other documents of the time refer to him as “Franco of Paris” as well as “Franco teutonicus”; since his writing on music is intimately associated with the Notre Dame school of Paris, and his Teutonic origin is mentioned in several sources, he was probably German, probably traveled between Cologne and Paris, which had close relations during that time, and probably had a musical position at Notre Dame at some point, perhaps as a teacher, composer or singing master. Jacques of