Johannes tinctoris and the 'New Art'

Two wellknown passages from the treatises of Johannes Tinctoris have often been cited in support of the contention that the 1430s marked the beginning of the musical Renaissance. A review of the passages in question indicates that Tinctoris's claims about the recent musical past were so thoroughly shaped by contemporary models of historical interpretation that it is difficult to disentangle hard facts from his historical vision as a whole. Nothing in his testimony provides unambiguous support for the notion that a new period in music history had begun in the 1430s.