Aureus Dix

Aureus Dix was a Bohemian lutenist and composer, active in Prague in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. His name appears under several spellings, including Aurius, Audius and Aureo, and his birth date is thought to lie between 1668 and 1669. He died in Prague on 7 July 1719.

He was a friend and probably a pupil of Count Jan Antonín Losy. According to his death record, he died of tuberculosis at the age of fifty. He enjoyed a good reputation in his lifetime, and writers such as Baron and Walther mention him with esteem; he also had some standing as a teacher. Dlabačz described a method for lute of his authorship, but it has not been located, nor have two sonatas for two lutes listed in a Breitkopf catalogue of 1761.

For a long time it was believed that no compositions by him survived. In 1955 two suites came to light in Prague, and since then seven further pieces have surfaced. With so few sources one must be cautious, but his works, all in the dance forms customary at the time, display a more sober and less ornamented style than that of his contemporaries. His suites are melodically appealing and make good use of the lute, which justifies the epithet "the foremost lutenist of Prague".