The Membership of the Chapels of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne in the Years Preceding Their Deaths

Abstract

7Ihe French court has always been recognized as one of the major musical centers of the early sixteenth century, but study of it is difficult; there seem to be no extant court records that throw much light on the workings of the royal musical establishment, and very few extant musical sources can be claimed as originating in the court of the French king. However, enough can be surmised to show that composers active in court circles were influential (perhaps even more influential than is at present believed) in creating and spreading a new style of polyphony based on points of imitation, that quickly became part of all sacred and secular genres as the sixteenth century progressed. Because of this, the lack of specific information about the membership in the French royal chapel becomes all the more frustrating. In an attempt to shed some light on this subject, the following documents are offered. They originated, not in the French court, but in the papal curia in Rome (or wherever the pope happened to be-some of the documents cited below were signed in Bologna and other places on papal itineraries), and are drawn from the vast series of documents known as the Registers of Supplications. Anyone who wished a benefice or favor from the pope, had to submit a legal document, a supplication, to the pontiff who personally approved or disapproved it.2 If approved by the pope or his surrogate,

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