Arbeau, Thoinot 03/17/1520 - 07/29/1595

Thoinot Arbeau (1520-1595), French clergyman and dance teacher, was born Jehan Tabourot to a family in Bourgogne. He first studied law in Dijon and Poitiers, where he learned to dance as well as ride and fence. At the age of 27 he became a priest in Langres. He was encouraged by the Jesuits to continue his secular studies of dance even as a priest. Finally, in 1589, at the age of 70, he published his richly illustrated, for its time unusual, "Orchésographie et traité en forme de dialogue." In it he describes dances and dance songs of the nobility as they were performed in the sixteenth century.