Surname
Mares (des)
Given Name
Guillaume
Active period
1445 - 1478
Biography
Reynolds 1995, p. 195 sq: Guillaume des Mares, a tenor at St. Peter's from the latter half of July 1471 through June 1472, was a musician and cleric whose achievements have yet to be recognized. Elsewhere he is identified as a priest, master of choirboys, scribe, and author of a theological treatise. From St. Peter's he passed directly into the papal choir in July 1472, remaining until circa 1477-78. Benefices he sought as a member of the Sistine Chapel indicate origins in Normandy, with particular reference to a canonry at Evreux Cathedral and an unspecified benefice in the diocese of Lisieux,[19] Both are mentioned m Reg. vat. 569, fols. 20-21 (12 NOV. 1474). I am grateful to Jeremy Noble for this information. At St. Peter's he replaced, and was later replaced by, Johannes Guillant (also Guillault, Giglior, Quilant, Glant, and Olant).] and the parish church of Ste. Colombe near Caudebec in the diocese of Rouen. The last document names him as a priest from the diocese of Evreux.[20Reg. vat. 573, fols. 50v-51v (10 Feb. 1475).] During the mid-1460s Guillaume traveled between Evreux and Chartres. Des Mares was in Evreux long enough to welcome the newly elected bishop Guillaume de Floques to the cathedral on 16 March 1464. Already a canon, he presented the bishop with a small tract (opusculum ) that he had written on the Holy Eucharist, with a dedication to Bishop de Floques.[21: "Guillelmus de Mara canonicus Ebroicensis, dicavit Guillelmo [de Floques] opusculum de sacrosancta Eucharista" (Gallia Christiana , 11:605). See also Pierre Le Brasseur, Histoire civile et ecclésiastique de Comte d'Evreux , 289; and G. Bonnenfant, Histoire générale du Diocese d'Evreux , 1:94. All of these describe the lengthy battle Guillaume de Floques waged to take possession of his bishopric, only to die on 25 Nov. 1464.] Despite his gift, or perhaps because of it, des Mares soon left Evreux to become an instructor of children at the cathedral in nearby Chartres, confirmed there on 25 June 1464 for an undetermined period.[22: André Pirro cited this position in "Gilles Mureau, chanoine de Chartres," 164.] In July 1471 des Mares was singing tenor at St. Peter's, where he remained until he joined the papal chapel choir a year later. The Vatican account books cease in May 1476, when des Mares was still present, and resume in 1479, after he had left. He apparently had relatives in Caudebec, all of them local officials and agents of the royal bureaucracy. Pierre des Mares, Adam des Mares, and also a Guillaume des Mares appear frequently and steadily in archival records from Normandy between 1448 and 1506, identified by such titles as "tabellion juré pour le Roy en siège de Caudebec" (1460), "procureur du Roy" (1466), "lieutenant du Verdier" (1480-81), "avocat et conseiller du Roy et vicontes de Caudebec et Monstiervillier," and also as minor nobility with the rank of écuier . However, the Guillaume who sang at St. Peter's and in the papal chapel is not the same as Guillaume des Mares, the écuier and avocat du roy active in Caudebec between 1463 and 1506. This is indicated by a notice that the latter collected taxes in Caudebec for the year 1474-75, at a time when the singer was present in Rome. The earliest probable reference to Guillaume des Mares, the priest and musician, places him in Rome during the pontificate of Nicholas V. In late summer 1449 Nicholas appointed Guillelmus des Mares, a cleric from the Norman diocese of Bayeux and a familiar of Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville, to the position of scribe in the Sacred Poenitentiary. This was no ordinary appointment, coming just days after Nicholas agreed to an exceptional increase in the number of scribes beyond the legal limit of twenty-four. As a temporary expansion made when the antipope Felix V—the erstwhile patron of Du Fay—finally abdicated, Nicholas accepted eight of the scribes who had served Felix in Basel. He did so with the proviso that no other scribes would be appointed until death or resignations reduced the total once again to twenty-four. Guillaume des Mares must therefore have come to Rome from Normandy via Basel, seeking first the patronage of the influential Norman Cardinal d'Estouteville and then taking curial employment. Des Mares would not have been the only northern singer in the musically astute cardinal's household. Jean Mocque, a singer in the chapel of the duke of Brittany, Francis I, became a familiar of d'Estouteville in September 1451.
Guillaume des Mares and Faugues share two attributes: Both served as maître des enfants , and both were identified as "prêtre" or "presbiter"—albeit not uncommon titles given the clerical status of most singers. The few details of their biographies fit chronologically. Faugues "the priest" evidently left Bourges in fall 1462, and des Mares appeared at Evreux Cathedral probably at least by 1463, since he was a canon there when he presented the new bishop with his treatise on the Eucharist early in 1464. How long he then served as master of the boys in Chartres is not recorded. Des Mares next emerges in mid-July 1471 as a tenor at St. Peter's. Mid-July 1471 is also exactly the date of the other mention of Faugues in the records of the Sainte-Chapelle at Bourges. The chapter agreed on 16 July 1471 to send for Faugues—to no avail—following the death of a chaplain. From 1472 until circa 1477-78 des Mares sang in the papal chapel. And the possibility that he was a familiar of Cardinal d'Estouteville in the 1450s would support the theory that Faugues wrote his Missa Le serviteur for the coronation of a pope. I know of two potential sources for the name "Faugues," which was not at all a common French name. Faugues is derived from the Latin fagus —as in fact he is identified in CS51 over the Missa La basse danse —meaning beech tree, and as such is actually related to the more common French words faigne and fay or fayt , which occur far more frequently as geographical and familial names, as in "Du Fay." However unusual, in Normandy near the town of Mayer in the province of Sarthe, a Chateau de la Faugue (also, "faigne") functioned as the center of an important seigneurie in the fourteenth century; also in Normandy, there was a fief named "Fauges" attached to Belleville-sur-Mer, north of Rouen.
Guillaume des Mares and Faugues share two attributes: Both served as maître des enfants , and both were identified as "prêtre" or "presbiter"—albeit not uncommon titles given the clerical status of most singers. The few details of their biographies fit chronologically. Faugues "the priest" evidently left Bourges in fall 1462, and des Mares appeared at Evreux Cathedral probably at least by 1463, since he was a canon there when he presented the new bishop with his treatise on the Eucharist early in 1464. How long he then served as master of the boys in Chartres is not recorded. Des Mares next emerges in mid-July 1471 as a tenor at St. Peter's. Mid-July 1471 is also exactly the date of the other mention of Faugues in the records of the Sainte-Chapelle at Bourges. The chapter agreed on 16 July 1471 to send for Faugues—to no avail—following the death of a chaplain. From 1472 until circa 1477-78 des Mares sang in the papal chapel. And the possibility that he was a familiar of Cardinal d'Estouteville in the 1450s would support the theory that Faugues wrote his Missa Le serviteur for the coronation of a pope. I know of two potential sources for the name "Faugues," which was not at all a common French name. Faugues is derived from the Latin fagus —as in fact he is identified in CS51 over the Missa La basse danse —meaning beech tree, and as such is actually related to the more common French words faigne and fay or fayt , which occur far more frequently as geographical and familial names, as in "Du Fay." However unusual, in Normandy near the town of Mayer in the province of Sarthe, a Chateau de la Faugue (also, "faigne") functioned as the center of an important seigneurie in the fourteenth century; also in Normandy, there was a fief named "Fauges" attached to Belleville-sur-Mer, north of Rouen.