Adrian Le Roy (c. 1520–1598) was an influential French music publisher, lutenist, mandore player, guitarist, composer, and music teacher.
Le Roy was born into a wealthy family in the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer in northern France. Very little is known about his early years, but he was probably a choir singer and learned to play the lute, guitar, and cittern from various teachers.
He became an accomplished musician and initially entered the service of Claude de Clermont, then Jacques II (Baron de Semblançay and Vicomte de Tours), both members of the nobility who were influential at court. In 1546, he met the publisher Jean de Brouilly in Paris and married his daughter Denise de Brouilly.
Le Roy and his cousin Robert Ballard (c. 1525–1588) founded the printing house “Le Roy & Ballard” and received the royal privilege to print music from Henry II in August 1551. The movable music type was supplied by Guillaume Le Bé. In February 1553, the company was awarded the title “Imprimeur du Roi en musique” (previously held by Pierre Attaignant). This office, which was renewed by successive monarchs, provided the company with legal protection from competitors and commercially valuable prestige. The royal patronage was an important factor in the company’s success, as it ensured both a regular supply of new music from the court musicians and a market for its publications. Over the next two decades, other competing companies disappeared from the market, and from the 1570s onwards, Le Roy & Ballard enjoyed a virtual monopoly in music publishing. The publishing house continued to exist into the 19th century.
While Robert Ballard took care of the business side, Le Roy assumed the role of artistic director. He gained fame as a composer and arranger of songs and instrumental pieces. His published works include at least six books of tablature for the lute, five volumes for the guitar, and arrangements for the cittern. Le Roy also contributed to the success of the composer Orlande de Lassus by introducing him to the court and publishing his music.
Le Roy’s book L’Instruction pour la mandore provides modern historians with clues about the origin and construction of the instrument. Although it is now lost, Pierre Trichet commented on things he had read in Le Roy’s book that tell us that the instrument came to France via Navarre and Biscay. Trichet also lets us know that Le Roy, the author of a textbook on the mandore, actually owned the instrument he wrote about.
Le Roy died in Paris in 1598.