(fl late 13th century). English composer. He is probably to be identified with the R. de Burgate who was abbot of Reading from 1268 to 1290, and who apparently resigned because of his inability to cope with the abbey's financial difficulties. His name occurs in the first item of the list of compositions contained in a book, now lost, which was owned in the later 13th century by W. de Wintonia: ‘Spiritus et alme. R. de Burg’. Fragments of a four-voice setting of the Spiritus et alme trope of the Gloria exist in the manuscript GB-Omc 60, ff.84v–85. If, as is likely, this is R. de Burgate's composition, it is understandable that it was given pride of place in the manuscript; not only was it written by a prominent man, but it also reveals such first-rate craftsmanship and imagination as to indicate the work of a superior composer. In view of its advanced style he probably composed the piece in the late years of the century, perhaps after his abbacy, rather than before 1268, as Handschin assumed.
B. Schofield: ‘The Provenance and Date of “Sumer is icumen in”’, MR, ix (1948), 81–6, esp. 82–3
J. Handschin: ‘The Summer Canon and its Background’, MD, iii (1949), 55–94, esp. 91; v (1951), 65–113
L.A. Dittmer: ‘An English Discantuum Volumen’, MD, viii (1954), 19–58, esp. 38–9
E.H. Sanders, ed.: English Polyphony of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, PMFC, xiv (1979), appx 15
ERNEST H. SANDERS