Perrin d'Angicourt (''

floruit ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

'' 1245–70) was a

trouvère ''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French ('' langue d'oïl'') form of the '' langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word '' troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to po ...

associated with the group of poets active in and around

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

. His birthplace was most likely Achicourt, just south of Arras. His surviving oeuvre is large by the standards of the trouvères, and well-distributed in the

chansonnier A chansonnier (, , Galician and , or ''canzoniéro'', ) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally " song-books"; however, some manuscripts are call ...

s: thirty-five (35) of his songs survive, in some case in as many as eleven different manuscripts. Two or perhaps three, of Perrin's songs "J'ai un joli souvenir", "Quant partis sui" and perhaps "Quant li cincenis s'escrie" are described in their chansonniers as "crowned songs" (''chansons couronnées''), indicating that they had won poetry competitions, probably under the aegis of the '' puy d'Arras''. Twice Perrin composed '' jeux partis''"Perrin d'Angicourt, respondés" and "Prince del pui" with Jehan Bretel, also from Arras, and he is referenced in other ''jeux partis'' by Bretel, Gaidifer d'Avion, Lambert Ferri, Jehan de Grieviler and a certain Audefroi (perhaps the banker Audefroi Louchart), and also a song by Gillebert de Berneville. Perrin dedicated his own songs "Quant voi en la fin" and "Lors quant je voi" to Duke Henry III of Brabant and Count Guy of Flanders, respectively, known patrons of the trouvères of Arras. Perrin's most important patron, however, was Count

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou or Charles d'Anjou, was King of Sicily from 1266 to 1285. He was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily. Between 1246 a ...

, younger brother of King

Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VI ...

and later himself

King of Naples The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first Sicilian Vespers, separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501) House of Anjou ...

.According to Karp, Charles "is known as the patron of

Adam de la Halle Adam de la Halle (1245–50 – 1285–8/after 1306) was a French poet-composer '' trouvère''. Among the few medieval composers to write both monophonic and polyphonic music, in this respect he has been considered both a conservative and pro ...

and Rutebeuf." Perrin dedicated "Quant li biaus estés repaire" to Charles, he and the count partnered to compose the ''jeu parti'' "Quens d'Anjou" and the two together judged "Encor sui cil qui a merci s'atent" by Jehan Erart. Charles also judged one of Perrin's ''jeux partis'' with Bretel, "Perrin d'Angicourt, respondés". Although the Charles and Perrin's literary relationship is known, evidence of their real-world interactions is scarce. One document of 1269 may refer to Perrin when it names Petrus de Angicuria as a "rector of the chapel" (''rector capellae'') to Charles in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. Most of Perrin's poems are

strophic Strophic form – also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form – is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. Contrasting song forms include through-composed, ...

, that is, they contain stanzas each with lines of different length. "Quant partis sui" has five line lengths per strophe. His preference was for heptasyllables. Twelve of his poems have fixed or varying

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeated in poetry or in music">poetry.html" ;"title="Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeat ...

s. Five or six of were used as models for

contrafacta In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this "lyrical adaptation" date back to the 9th century in Gregor ...

. Two, possibly three, have their melodies preserved in

mensural notation Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for polyphony, polyphonic European vocal music from the late 13th century until the early 17th century. The term "mensural" refers to the ability of this system to describe precisely measur ...

Notes

Sources

* Theodore Karp
"Perrin d'Angicourt"
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed 5 April 2013. {{Authority control Trouvères French male classical composers