Machaut's residence in Reims
Most historians believe Machaut moved to Reims more or less permanently in 1340, at the age of about 40. This is difficult to prove, however, given surviving documents, and some scholars argue he did not live full-time in Reims until around 1360. He had held the position of canon of Reims cathedral from 1338, but it was common for canons to hold those positions without actually residing in the town in question. (For more on this issue, see "Earning a living" elsewhere on this site.)
Canons, unlike monks, did not live in common housing, but rather in individual houses surrounding the cathedral close or precinct. Normally we know little more than that, but in Machaut’s case a single document from 1372 lists ten canons, including Machaut, who lived outside the close:
Item, domum in qua inhabitat Guillermus de Machaudio, sitam prope Pourcelettam, et retro domum dicti magistri Stephani.
Item, the house which Guillaume de Machaut inhabits, situated near the Pourcelette and behind the house of the aforementioned master Stephan.[1]
This house apparently was fairly large, with a courtyard and garden. It seems to have been located at the current location of 4-10 rue d’Anjou and 25-37 rue des Fuseliers, a couple of blocks from the cathedral. [link to google maps] Evidence from Machaut’s Voir Dit and from a seventeenth-century memoir suggests that Machaut hosted the dauphin (later King Charles V) and other members of the king’s retinue, in the 1360s. If that is the case, then he must have had a substantial dwelling at that time, whether it was this house or another.
[1] Text and translation from Earp, 50.
Canons, unlike monks, did not live in common housing, but rather in individual houses surrounding the cathedral close or precinct. Normally we know little more than that, but in Machaut’s case a single document from 1372 lists ten canons, including Machaut, who lived outside the close:
Item, domum in qua inhabitat Guillermus de Machaudio, sitam prope Pourcelettam, et retro domum dicti magistri Stephani.
Item, the house which Guillaume de Machaut inhabits, situated near the Pourcelette and behind the house of the aforementioned master Stephan.[1]
This house apparently was fairly large, with a courtyard and garden. It seems to have been located at the current location of 4-10 rue d’Anjou and 25-37 rue des Fuseliers, a couple of blocks from the cathedral. [link to google maps] Evidence from Machaut’s Voir Dit and from a seventeenth-century memoir suggests that Machaut hosted the dauphin (later King Charles V) and other members of the king’s retinue, in the 1360s. If that is the case, then he must have had a substantial dwelling at that time, whether it was this house or another.
[1] Text and translation from Earp, 50.