Editing Josquin des Prez (section)

====Birth and background====
[[File:Hainault and the surrounding area.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[County of Hainaut|Hainault]] and the surrounding area in the time of Josquin{{sfn|Fallows|2020|p=8}}]]

Little is known about Josquin's early years.{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}} The specifics of his biography have been debated for centuries. The musicologist William Elders noted that "it could be called a twist of fate that neither the year, nor the place of birth of the greatest composer of the Renaissance is known".{{sfn|Elders|2013|p=17}} A now-outdated theory is that he was born around 1440, based on a mistaken association with Jushinus de Kessalia, recorded in documents as "Judocus de Picardia".{{sfn|Fallows|2020|p=18}} A reevaluation of his later career, name and family background has discredited this claim.{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}} He is now thought to have been born around 1450, and at the latest 1455, making him a "a close contemporary" of composers [[Loyset Compère]] and [[Heinrich Isaac]], and slightly older than [[Jacob Obrecht]].{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}}

Josquin's father Gossart dit des Prez was a policeman in the [[castellany]] of [[Ath]], who was accused of numerous offenses, including complaints of [[undue force]], and disappears from the records after 1448.{{refn|Gossart had died by the time Josquin took up his inheritance in 1483. It remains uncertain exactly when he died, and whether the composer was an orphan for much of his youth.{{sfn|Kellman|2009|loc=p. 199, note 57}}|group=n}} Nothing is known of Josquin's mother, who is absent from surviving documents, suggesting that she was either not considered Josquin's legitimate mother, or that she died soon after, or during, his birth. Around 1466, perhaps on the death of his father, Josquin was named by his uncle and aunt, Gille Lebloitte dit des Prez and Jacque Banestonne, as their heir.{{sfn|Fallows|2020|pp=11–13}}{{sfn|Kellman|2009|pp=183–200}}

Josquin was born in the French-speaking area of Flanders, in modern-day northeastern France or Belgium.{{sfn|Sherr|2017|loc=§ "Introduction"}}{{refn|Modern scholarship differs in how it describes Josquin's nationality; his exact birthplace is unknown,{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}} and determining nationalities for 15th-century composers is problematic in general.{{sfn|Bridgman|1960|p=241}} He is known to have been born somewhere in French-speaking [[County of Flanders|Flanders]].{{sfn|Sherr|2017|loc=§ "Introduction"}} The musicologist [[Gustave Reese]] contends that "By far the greater number of [Josquin's] secular compositions have French texts. Culturally and legally Josquin was a Frenchman".{{sfn|Reese|1984|p=2}} As such, sources such as Patrick Macey, [[Jeremy Noble (musicologist)|Jeremy Noble]], Jeffrey Dean and Reese in ''[[Grove Music Online]]'' call him a "French composer".{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§ "Introduction"}} The musicologist {{ill|Nanie Bridgman|fr}} notes that Josquin succeeded [[Johannes Ockeghem|Ockeghem]] in leading the 'Netherland[ish] Style', but also that Josquin and his contemporaries united that school with the "very different world of French music",{{sfn|Bridgman|1960|p=241}} resulting in what scholars call the [[Franco-Flemish School]].{{sfn|Gleason|Becker|1988|pp=106, 109}} Some sources refer to him as 'Franco-Flemish'.{{sfn|Milsom|2011}}{{sfn|''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music''|2013}}|group=n}} Despite his association with Condé in his later years, Josquin's own testimony indicates that he was not born there.{{sfn|Fallows|2020|p=18}}{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}} The only firm evidence for his birthplace is a later legal document in which Josquin described being born beyond Noir Eauwe, meaning 'Black Water'.{{sfn|Fallows|2020|p=18}}{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}} This description has puzzled scholars, and there are various theories on which body of water is being referred to.{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}} L'Eau Noire river in the [[Ardennes]] has been proposed, and there was a village named [[Prez, Ardennes|Prez]] there,{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}} though the musicologist [[David Fallows]] contends that the [[#Name|complications surrounding Josquin's name]] make a surname connection irrelevant, and that the river is too small and too far from Condé to be a candidate.{{sfn|Fallows|2020|p=19}} Fallows proposes a birthplace near the converging [[Scheldt|Escaut]] and [[Haine]] rivers at Condé, preferring the latter since it was known for transporting coal, perhaps fitting the "Black Water" description.{{sfn|Fallows|2020|pp=19–20}}{{refn|If the Haine theory from Fallows is correct, that would mean Josquin was born in the County of Hainaut, which would fit with a 1560 verse by the poet [[Pierre de Ronsard]] that describes him as such.{{sfn|Fallows|2020|p=20}}|group=n}} Other theories include a birth near [[Saint-Quentin, Aisne]], due to his early association with the [[Basilica of Saint-Quentin|Collegiate Church of Saint-Quentin]], or in the small village of [[Beaurevoir]], which is near the Escaut, a river that may be referred to in an acrostic in his later motet ''Illibata Dei virgo nutrix''.{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§1 "Birth, family and early training (''c''1450–75)"}}