Cuvillie, John Baptiste

Dates Active in Dublin: 

c. 1697–1728

Business Type: 
Musical instrument maker: organ
Address(es): 

Fleet Street

Details: 

Also known as Cavillie, Covillie, Culville, Cuvilly.

Cuvillie came to Dublin as an assistant of Renatus Harris c. 1697, having formerly worked with Harris at Norwich Cathedral in 1693. Information on his background is lacking, although his name indicates a French origin. Nevertheless, his name does not occur in records of Hugenot families in Dublin.

Following his death in 1728 his widow Mary was given financial assistance by the dean and chapter of St Patrick's Cathedral to enable her to send her son to 'apprentice to a protestant tradesman' (Grindle). This was apparently either the John Baptiste Cuvillie who was admitted a freeman of the city as painter and apprentice of John Tomlinson in 1726, or the James Cuvillie admitted freeman as a painter and apprentice of John Wotton in 1738 (Boydell, 'The Organ of Trinity College Chapel, Dublin'). A John Baptiste Cuvillie, 'house painter', is also listed in the Dublin Directories.

[Details differ according to sources: Grindle states that Cuvillie maintained the organ of St Fin Barre's from 1711 but Caulfield states he carried out the work in 1712.]

Select Product/Work List: 

Built or Enlarged

  • Organ: St Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral, 1697–98 [assisting Renatus Harris] (Boydell, 'St Michan's')
  • Organ: Christ Church Cathedral organ, 1698 [additions to stops]
  • Organ: Trinity College Dublin, c. 1700–01 [Chair added, 1705–06] (Holmes and Boydell 'St Michan's)
  • Organ: St Fin Barre's Cathedral organ, Cork, 1710–11 (Boyell Calendar)
  • Organ: St Colman's Cathedral Cloyne, 1713 [additions 1718] (Boydell, Calendar)
  • Organ: St Mary's Church, 1713 (Boydell, 'St Michan's')
  • Organ: St Peter's Church, 1713 (Boydell, 'St Michan's')
  • Organ: St Michan's Church, 1724–25 (Flood and Boydell, Calendar)

    • Maintained

  • Organ: Christ Church Cathedral, 1698–1728 [new Harris/(Cuvillie) organ] (Boydell, Calendar)
  • Organ: Trinity College Dublin, 1700–?
  • Organ: St Patrick's Cathedral, early-eighteenth century (Grindle)
  • Organ: St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, 1712 (Caulfield)
  • Organ: St Colman's Cathedral, Cloyne, 1713–28 (Grindle)
  • Organ: St Canice's Cathedral, 1719–28 (Grindle)

    • Repaired

  • Organ: Trinity College Dublin, 1698–99 (Holmes)
  • Organ: St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, 1704 (Grindle), 1710 (Boydell, Calendar)
    • Source(s): 

    Caulfield, Richard, Annals of St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork (Cork: Purcell & Company, 1871), p. 56

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, 'Irish Organ-Builders from the Eighth to the Close of the Eighteenth Century', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th ser., 40.3 (30 September 1910), 229–34 (p. 233)

    Holmes, John, 'The Trinity College Organ in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries', Hermathena, 93 (1972), 40–48

    Callender, Michael E., 'The Organs of Cork Cathedral', The Organ, 60 (1981), 178–87

    Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), pp. 32, 38, 41–42, 260

    Grindle, W.H., Irish Cathedral Music: a History of Music at the Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland (Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1989), pp. 52–33, 133–34, 140–01, 152, 154, 157

    Boydell, Barra, 'John Baptiste Cuvillie, Ferdinand Weber, and the Organ of Trinity College Chapel, Dublin', The Organ, 72.283 (1992), 15–27

    Boydell, Barra, 'St Michan's Church, Dublin: the Installation of the Organ in 1725 and the Duties of the Organist', Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 19 (1995), 74–96

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Cuville, Jean-Baptiste (1)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Cuville, Jean-Baptiste (2)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 17-02-2017