Vassadel, Bertrand (…-…). Musician; Singer

Onomastics. Although his name in Vatican documents and music sources is generally given as “Bertrandus de Vaqueras” or “Vaqueras”, several supplications also refer to him as “de Vaquerassio alias Vassadelli”, “Vassadelli alias de Vacqueyras”, or “de Vacqueras alias de Bassea”, and his autograph signature recording his entry, along with the other papal singers, into the Confraternità of the Ospedale di Santo Spirto in Sassia on 14 June 1484 reads: “Ego Bertrandus de Bassea alias Vaqueras” (Rome, Biblioteca Lancisiana, MS m328, fol. 98r; Egidi 1914). This means that his real name was Bertrand Vassadel and that he was a member of the family that had been lords of the town of Vacqueyras in the comtat Venaissin near Orange since the 14th century (“de Bassea” must be a Latin rendering of Vassadel and not a place name as earlier scholars have thought). However, he must have moved away from Vacqueyras, which is in the diocese of Orange, at a young age, since he consistently identifies himself as a cleric of the diocese of Cavaillon in supplications.
• Basilica of St-Peter in Rome, 1481-1483. “Bertrandus de Bassea” is listed as a contra in the chapel of St. Peter’s from December 1481 to April 1483 (Reynolds 1982).
• Papal chapel, 1483- 1507. Vaqueras joined the papal chapel in November 1483 as one of nine new members and remained in the chapel until his death: he is in all extant chapel lists until April 1507, and beneficial documents attest to his membership during the period when there are no lists. As might be expected, he concentrated his quest for benefices in dioceses neighboring Cavaillon, particularly Vaison, Arles, and Avignon, but he also was able to retain benefices in the cathedral of Liège and in the collegiate church of Notre Dame de Tongres (Tongeren) in the diocese of Liège. These had become vacant in 1494 on the death of Petrus Holy*, a former papal singer (1483-1484) who had then moved to the chapel of the Duke of Milan, and had been provided to the Bishop of Segorbe, the magister capelle, by virtue of the Indult of Innocent VIII (on the Indult, see Sherr 1998), but the bishop resigned them in favor of Vaqueras on 28 August 1494 (RS 996, fols. 83r-83v). Vaqueras held these benefices at the time of his death, this being one of the rare occasions when a papal singer was actually able to take possession of a benefice far from his home diocese. Vaqueras also requested other benefices in the dioceses of Liège and Tournai but it is not known if these were successful. At the time of his death, his accumulated benefices brought in an estimated annual income of 192 gold cameral ducats, twice his chapel salary of 96 ducats a year. In 1498, he purchased a vineyard from the chapter of St. Peter’s in an area behind the basilica, curously called “Egitto” (Reynolds 1982).
• Death, April 1507. 21 April 1507 is the date of the first of a number of supplications requesting benefices made vacant by the death of Vaqueras in Rome. The supplicants included the papal singers Tomasso de Fazanis (RS 1257, fol. 205r: supplication dated 21 April 1507), Filippo de Primis (RS 1254, fol. 277r: supplication dated 21 Apriol 1507), Remi de Mastaing (RS 1254, fol. 8v: supplication dated 10 May 1507), Jan Gruter (RS 1254, fols. 57v-58v: supplication dated 10 May 1507), Jakob Walpot (RS 1254, fols. 182r-182v: supplication dated 10 May 1507), and Michel Touppe (RS 1256, fols.26v-27r: supplication dated 4 June 1507) who activated the Indult of Innocent VIII, as well as Vaqueras’s nephew, Jean Vassadel alias Vaqueyras, who describes himself as a cleric of the diocese of Orange and was a member of the papal household (the magister capelle specifically waived the Indult in this case because of the familial connection- RS 1259, fols. 202r-202v: supplication dated 2 July 1507). At the time of his death, Vaqueras was in possession of an archdeaconry and priory of Sanbelet in the cathedral of Vaison, a chaplaincy in the cathedral of Arles, two other chaplaincies in churches in the diocese of Avignon, the parish church of St Genèse the diocese of Avignon; the canonries and prebends in the cathedral of Liège and the collegiate church of Notre Dame de Tongres, the parish churches of Ste Eulalie and Dempuelon [?] in the diocese of Lausanne (another non-French diocese, but not as far away as Liège) and, most curiously a benefice described as the “chapel of St Pierre in the ruined chateau of Montmurat” in either the unlikely diocese of Bayonne (“Baionensis” in one document: RS 1167, fol.78r: supplication dated 26 June 1503) or the even more unlikely Bayeux (“Baiocensis” in another document: RS 1259, fols. 202r-202v).
• Works. Vaqueras is the composer of a small number of sacred works (two masses, three motets, two Credos) all preserved in Vatican sources, and one secular work is attributed to him (NG2, art. Vaqueras). The manuscript Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat, 2836, fols. 94Ar-103v contains several poems in humanistic Latin with corrections that indicate that they are autographs that are ascribed to “Bertrandus de Vaqueirassio” (Reynolds 1982; one of the poems, addressed to Antonio Flaminio, is transcribed in Vatasso 1900). This would seem to show that Vaqueras was also a Humanist and member of the circle of Flaminio and the University of Rome. The only problem is that the handwriting in Vat. Lat. 2836 is manifestly different from the handwriting of the autograph signature in the book of the Confraternità di Santo Spirto in Sassia. It is true that the poems can be dated about 10 years after the signature, and it might be possible that Vaqueras radically changed his handwriting in the interim. Whether this is more unlikely than the presence of two people named Bertrandus de Vaqueras in Rome at the same time is an open question.