The Prosopography of Renaissance Singers (PCR, after its original French title: Prosopographie des chantres de la Renaissance) is a database of biographies of professional singers employed in European princely chapels and major churches from c. 1350 to c. 1600. To this day, the database collects about 4500 entries which offer a wide variety of career profiles and information, from the variant names of the singers to their dates and places of activities, together with their full detailed biographies. Though the PCR inevitably includes most composers of the late middle ages and early modern period, its priority is to feed the biographies of their fellow colleagues who were employed in the same establishments but, not having been identified as authors of musical works, have received much less attention from musicologists and historians. The PCR is an ongoing project. Draft biographies stored in the back office are periodically validated for online publication and it is regularly enriched with new entries.

Originating as en enlargment of the prosopographical appendices of David Fiala's doctoral dissertation on the musicians of the court of Burgundy in the later 15th century (2002), the project began in 2007 with a research campaign funded by the French National Agency of Research (ANR), in collaboration with the University of Rouen, the Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance (CESR) of the University of Tours, the CNRS and Le STUDIUM agency. The database primarily collects the results of biographical research concerning singers active in institutions of France, the Low Countries and Italy, but also considers the activities of singers in Spain, Germany and other European countries. There are different kinds of entries in the database. The user will find entries in progress, which propose just a few pieces of information, as well as complete entries, available in French and English. The user can query these by full-text search. Such queries are more successful in French than in English, as a large number of biographies are in French.

The PCR data model rests on the principle of biographies structured as series of events. An event is a nexus of data situated in time and connecting an individual to various elements such as : event type, role, place, institution. The production of events being the most time-consuming task of the PCR, they are only progressively attached to the biographies. The quality and precision of the results of advanced searches are directly depending on the availibity of corresponding events.

Beside its bibliography of several hundreds of references, the PCR maintains its own reference list of archival repositories accross Europe, while references to the documentation kept in libraries follow RISM sigla. It also maintains generic tools such as a multilingual thesaurus of given names (and their diminutives) which facilitates identifications accross different contexts, or tables of music patrons and musical establishments.

Musicologists interested in contributing are invited to contact the responsible of the project, David Fiala.

Files

Sample of 65 PCR bilingual biographies in French and English, December 2008

Contributors

Avocat Guillaume

Belliot Hyacinthe

Bouckaert Bruno

Callewier Hendrik

Cavicchi Camilla

Cingolani Stefano Maria

Dumitrescu Theodor

Fiala David

Gurrieri Marco

McDonald Grantley

Nicolas Patrice

Nys Ludovic

Pilleboue Frédérique

Planchart Alejandro

Sherr Richard

Szpirglas Jacques

Vendrix Philippe

Jacques de Fécamp fl. 1384-1414†

Roles: Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon) ; Member of a court chapel (musician)

Jacques Lienart fl. 1422

Roles: Member of a court chapel (musician)

Jan die Gruyter fl. 1508/1525

Roles: Organist

Jan Gruter fl. 1491-1509†

Roles: Illegitimate birth ; Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon) ; Member of a church (musician) ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Singer ; Tenor

Jean Barbé fl. 1486-1507†

Roles: Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon) ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Priest ; Singer

Jean Beaugendre circa 1400-fl. 1422

Roles: Choirboy ; Member of a church (musician) ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Singer

Jean Bonnet dit Lienard fl. 1462-1465

Roles: Member of a court chapel (musician)

Jean Boussart dit Antitus fl. 1488-1504†

Roles: Lyricist-Poet ; Member of a church (lower ranked officer) ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Member of a princely/private household

Jean Brunet fl. 1437/1448

Roles: Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon)

Jean Cousin fl. 1523/1524

Roles: Master of choirboys ; Member of a church (musician)

Jean Daule fl. 1460/1467

Roles: Member of a princely/private household ; Monastic Order

Jean de Decker fl. 1470/1476

Roles: Member of a court chapel (lower ranked officer)

Jean de La Haye fl. 1436-1444

Roles: Composer ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Member of a princely/private household

Jean Doublet fl. 1532/1540

Roles: Composer ; Organist

Jean Du Moulin fl. 1518-1563†

Roles: Choirboy ; Composer ; Dedicatee/Owner ; Master of choirboys ; Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon) ; Member of a church (musician)

Jean Forest fl. 1473

Roles: Member of a princely/private household ; Priest

Jean Fortry fl. 1455-1468†

Roles: Master of choirboys ; Member of a church (musician) ; Member of a court chapel (musician)

Jean Gontier fl. circa 1417

Roles: Organist

Jean Guérin [Bourges] fl. 1529-1532†

Roles: Dedicatee/Owner ; Member of a church (musician)

Jean Guérin [Langres] fl. 1485/1486

Roles: Member of a church (musician)

Jean Lebuef fl. 1362

Roles: Composer ; Monastic Order

Jean Molinet fl. 1509-1523

Roles: Composer ; Member of a church (musician) ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Singer

Jean Picard fl. 1369

Roles: Master of choirboys ; Member of a church (musician) ; Priest

Jean Richafort fl. 1504-circa 1550†

Roles: Choirmaster ; Composer ; Master of choirboys ; Member of a church (lower ranked officer) ; Member of a church (musician)

Jean Servin 1529-1609

Roles: Composer ; Dedicator

Jean Tordoir fl. 1420/1424

Roles: Member of a court chapel (musician)

Jean Vincenet fl. 1422-1447†

Roles: Member of a church (higher ecclesiastic, canon) ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Priest

Joachim Richafort fl. 1532-1546

Roles: Member of a church (lower ranked officer) ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Priest

Joachim Richafort Junior fl. 1539

Roles: Member of a church (musician) ; Tenor

Johannes de Buglhat fl. 1528/1555

Roles: Bookseller ; Member of a court chapel (musician) ; Music printer ; Printer/Publisher

Johannes Reson fl. 1425/1435

Roles: Composer ; Member of a church (musician)

Johannes Vavassoris fl. 1373

Roles: Composer ; Monastic Order ; Music copyist

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Fiala David, Prosopography of Renaissance Singers (2007-...), in RicercarDataLab [http://preprod-ricercar.cesr.univ-tours.fr/projects/5/] (accessed 30 May 2025).

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