Life
Gallus may have been named Jakob Petelin at birth. Petelin means "rooster"; handl and gallus mean the same in German and Latin, respectively. He was probably born in Reifnitz, (now Ribnica, Slovenia), although Slovenian folk tradition also claims his birthplace to be at Šentviška Gora in the Slovenian Littoral. He used the Latin form of his name, to which he often added the adjective Carniolus, thus giving credit to his homeland Carniola.
Gallus most likely was educated at the Cistercian monastery at Stična (German: Sittich) in Carniola. He left Carniola sometime between 1564 and 1566, traveling first to Austria, and later to Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. For some time he lived at the Benedictine Melk Abbey in Lower Austria. He was a member of the Viennese court chapel in 1574, and was choirmaster (Kapellmeister) to the bishop of Olmütz, Moravia between 1579 (or 1580) and 1585. From 1585 to his death he worked in Prague as organist to the Church of St. John on the Balustrade (Cz. Sv. Jan na Zábradlí). Gallus died on 18 July 1591 in Prague.
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