Career
Johannes Cotto (John Cotton, Johannes Afflighemensis) (fl c 1100) was a music theorist, possibly of English origin, most likely working in southern Germany or Switzerland. He wrote one of the most influential treatises on music of the Middle Ages, one which included unusually precise directions for composing chant and organum. Next to nothing is known about his life.
Indeed his identity has been a matter of controversy among scholars.
Formerly it was thought he was from Lorraine or Flanders, based on a dedication he made in his treatise, but other more recent evidence suggests that he may have been a John Cotton from England who worked under an abbot named Fulgentius at or near Saint Gallen (in modern Switzerland). Some of the more compelling evidence includes his knowledge of chant peculiarities of that region, notational idiosyncrasies found only in southern Germany, and his use of the old Greek modal names such as Phrygian and Mixolydian, something which was mainly done in Germany.
