Pierre Davantès

DAVANTÈS, Pierre (Latin pseudonym: ‘Antesignanus’). b. Rabastens (southern France, near Tarbes), ca. 1525; d. Geneva, 31 August 1561. Very little is known about his life, although he possibly worked in Lyon. Early in 1559 he moved to Geneva and was accepted as a citizen (bourgeois). Expert in philology, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, he was not only an outstanding humanist but also a theorist and melody writer. Contributing to the Renaissance practice of ad fontes (the return to original sources), he collaborated with Matthias Bonhomme in printing, among other works, those of Hippocrates (480-377 BC) and Terence (ca. 190-158 BC). As a theorist, Davantès specialized in musical notation using...