(b ?Altrip, nr Ludwigshafen, c842; d Trier, 915). German monk, historian, canonist and music theorist. A 17th-century annalist of Prüm, Heinrich Brandanum, asserted that Regino was born of ‘very noble parents’; he gave no birthdate, but it may be deduced from the date of his abbacy. Regino probably entered the Benedictine abbey of Prüm as a youth, where he received instruction under Abbot Markward, one of the most learned men of his time. In 885 he became provost (custos) of the monastery; in 892 he was elected abbot, but was forced to resign seven years later under political pressure. Archbishop Radbod of Trier then appointed him Abbot of St Martin, where he wrote a Chronica of the years from the birth of Christ to 906, a handbook of canon law for bishops to use during annual diocesan visitations (De synodalibus causis) and a music treatise together with a tonary (Epistola de armonica institutione; Octo toni de musicae artis). He died at the abbey of St Maximin of Trier, where his tomb was discovered in 1581.
The music treatise was written in the form of a letter dedicated to Radbod, hence the title Epistola. It must have been compiled about 901, shortly after Regino’s arrival in Trier. Only the beginning and the end are original, the main body of the longer version being a compilation of Boethius, Martianus Capella (through the compilation of Remigius of Auxerre), Macrobius and, to a lesser extent, Calcidius, Cassiodorus and Fulgentius. Regino’s principal intention was to correct the intonations and confirm the modes of the antiphons and responsories of the Mass and Office, for the benefit of the clerics of the diocese of Trier; some of these intonations, he claimed, were ‘degenerate’, probably because they reflected the modal and melodic changes embodied in the newly emerged Romano-Frankish repertory, and because of the abuses (vehemently denounced) of some cathedral singers.
Two versions of the treatise survive in the original form as a letter: a shorter version (in a Brussels manuscript containing a full tonary), and a longer one (in a Leipzig manuscript) which was most likely expanded after Regino’s death by one of his disciples, as in the case of the Chronica (Continuatio Reginonis). There exists also an early 11th-century ‘abridgement’ (Breviarium de musica) which may well be a product of the monastic reforms of Guillaume de Dijon (d 1031), modelled on those of Gorze and Cluny. In the Breviarium version all reference to people’s names, even that of the author, was eliminated. Although the treatise is mostly a compilation of previous music writers, it sets out two important rules concerning 9th-century plainchant: the tone or mode proper to antiphons, introits and communions is determined by their first note; the tone or mode proper to responsories is determined by their last note.
Regino’s is the first comprehensive tonary surviving after the Metz Tonary of about 870 (F-ME 351; ed. W. Lipphardt: Der Karolingische Tonar von Metz, Münster, 1965), and together with the Hartker Antiphoner (c1000, CH-SGs 390–91; ed. in PalMus, 2nd ser., i, 1900) and the Sarum Gradual (ed. W.H. Frere, Graduale sarisburiense, London, 1894/R) it is one of the most comprehensive plainchant sources in existence. Modelled on an antiphoner of Trier (now lost), and akin to a later one from the same city (D-TRs 1245/597, originally from Prüm), it contains the incipits of 1261 antiphons, 150 introits, 127 communions and 26 responsories and their verses; it formed the basis for Gevaert’s classification of antiphons into 47 main groups. The tonary appears in full in B-Br 2750–65 [2751] (c930), which is notated in Messine neumes, whereas the much different version of D-LEu Rep. I.8.93 [169] (c950), notated in florid Messine neumes from the Mosel area that reveal a certain Irish influence, contains a classification of approximately the same repertory according to the eight modes within the cycle of the liturgical year, but omits the introits and communions while adding the alleluias, tracts, invitatories and antiphons of special feasts. These two manuscripts contain differing introductions, which cannot safely be ascribed to Regino. The other early sources of the Epistola, Breviarium and tonary are as follows: F-MOf H.159 (Breviarium without tonary; 11th century); ME 494 (early 11th-century copy of the preceding); I-Vnm Z.L.497 [1811] (Breviarium without tonary; mid-11th century); MC 318 (short excerpts without tonary; mid-11th century); GB-Ob Lyell 57 and Ob 613 (fragments; 13th century). The supposed Ulm manuscript was an invention of F.J. Beyschlag (in his Sylloge variorum opusculorum, Schwäbisch Hall, 1728).
CoussemakerS, ii, 1–73 [tonary]; GerbertS, i, 230–47 [Epistola, repr. in PL, cxxxii, 483–502]
H. Brandanum: Annales monasterii imperialis S. Salvatoris in Prumia conscripti anno 1628 (D-TRs 1710/316)
F. Kurze, ed.: Reginonis abbatis prumiensis Chronicon cum continuatione treverensi, MG, Scriptores rerum germanicarum, l (Hanover, 1890/R), 885, 892, 899
F. Haberl: Il tonario di Reginone di Prüm (diss., Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra, Rome, 1930)
E. Oberti: ‘L’estetica musicale di Reginone di Prüm’,Rivista di filosofia neo-scolastica, lii (1960), 336–54
H. Hüschen: ‘Regino von Prüm, Historiker Kirchenrechtler und Musiktheoretiker’, Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. H. Hüschen (Regensburg,1962), 205–23
H. Reetz: ‘Regino von Prüm geboren im pfälzischen Altrip’, Jb des Kreises Prüm, v (1964), 19–22
Y. Chartier: L’Epistola de armonia institutione de Réginon de Prüm (diss., U. of Ottawa, 1965, rev. and expanded, 1985)
M.P. Le Roux: The ‘De harmonica institutione’ and ‘Tonarius’ of Regino of Prüm (diss., Catholic U. of America, Washington DC, 1965)
C.M. Bower: ‘Natural and Artificial Music: the Origins and Development of an Aesthetic Concept’, MD, xxv (1971), 17–33
A. Kurjeja: Der älteste Liber Ordinarius der Trierer Domkirche, London, Brit. Mus., Harley 2958, Anfang 14 Jh.: ein Beitrag zur Liturgiegeschichte der deutschen Ortskirchen (Münster, 1970)
M. Huglo: Les tonaires: inventaire, analyse, comparaison (Paris, 1971)
M. Bernhard: ‘Zwei bayerische Exzerpte der Epistola de armonica institutione des Regino von Prüm’, Musik in Bayern, xvii (1978), 57–60
M. Bernhard: Studien zur Epistola de armonica institutione des Regino von Prüm (Munich, 1979)
E. Hlawitschka: ‘Regino von Prüm’, Rheinische Lebensbilder, vi (Cologne, 1975), 7–27
M. Bernhard, ed.: Clavis Gerberti: eine Revision von Martin Gerberts Scriptores (Munich, 1989), 39–73 [Epistola]
F. Brunhölzl: Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, ii (Munich, 1992), 82–7
YVES CHARTIER