(b ?Paris; fl Florence, 2nd half of the 14th century). French composer. According to GB-Lbl Add.29987, he was a friar of the Augustinian friary of Santo Spirito in Florence, and in fact a ‘Guilielmus de Francia’ is listed there in 1371. Sacchetti described him as ‘pariginus frater romitanus’. One madrigal and two ballatas can safely be attributed to him. Three other ballatas (the first three below) appear uniquely in I-Fl 87 (see illustration), and bear collectively the names ‘Magister Frater Egidius et Guilielmus de Francia’; the authorship of both fratres is possible. The simple and formally concise style of all six works shows French influence.
Editions: Der Squarcialupi-Codex Pal.87 der Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana zu Florenz, ed. J. Wolf (Lippstadt, 1955) [W]The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy, ed. N. Pirrotta, CMM, viii/5 (1964) [P]Italian Secular Music, ed. W.T. Marrocco, PMFC, ix (1975) [M]
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Alta serena luce, 2vv, W 320, P 320, M 94 (by Guilielmus or Egidius) |
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Donna, s’amor m’invita, 2vv, W 321, P 30, M 95 (text inc.; by Guilielmus or Egidius) |
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Mille merçe[de], Amor[e], 2vv, W 319, P 31, M 96 (by Guilielmus or Egidius) |
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Piacesse a Dio, 2vv, W 319, P 31, M 99 (first verse quoted by or from Giovanni Fiorentino, ballata no.5 of Pecorone, 1378) |
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Tutta soletta si gia, 2vv, W 320, P 32, M 100 (laude contrafacta: ‘Tutta smarrita si va’; ‘Tutta gioiosa Cristo va chiamando’) |
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La neve, el ghiaccio (F. Sacchetti), 2vv, P 28, M 97 |
N. Pirrotta and E. Li Gotti: Il Sacchetti e la tecnica musicale del Trecento italiano (Florence, 1935)
O. Gombosi: ‘French Secular Music of the Fourteenth Century’, MQ, xxxvi (1950), 603–10
K. von Fischer: Studien zur italienischen Musik des Trecento und frühen Quattrocento (Berne,1956), 24
G. Corsi, ed.: Poesie musicali del Trecento (Bologna, 1970), pp.xlii–xliii, 89–93
M.P. Long: ‘Francesco Landini and the Florentine Cultural Elite’, EMH, iii (1983), 83–99
F.A. Gallo, ed.: Il codice Squarcialupi (Florence, 1992) [incl. K. von Fischer: ‘Le biografie’, i, 127–44, esp. 140–41; N. Pirrotta: ‘Le musiche del codice Squarcialupi’, i, 193–222, esp. 217–18]
KURT VON FISCHER