Page "Josquin des Prez" Paragraph 2

During the 16th century, Josquin gradually acquired the reputation as the greatest composer of the age, his mastery of technique and expression universally imitated and admired.

Writers as diverse as Baldassare Castiglione and Martin Luther wrote about his reputation and fame ; theorists such as Heinrich Glarean and Gioseffo Zarlino held his style as that best representing perfection.

He was so admired that many anonymous compositions were attributed to him by copyists, probably to increase their sales.

More than 370 works are attributed to him ; it was only after the advent of modern analytical scholarship that some of these mistaken attributions have been challenged, on the basis of stylistic features and manuscript evidence.

Yet in spite of Josquin's colossal reputation, which endured until the beginning of the Baroque era and was revived in the 20th century, his biography is shadowy, and we know next to nothing about his personality.

The only surviving work which may be in his own hand is a graffito on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, and only one contemporary mention of his character is known, in a letter to Duke Ercole I of Ferrara.

The lives of dozens of minor composers of the Renaissance are better documented than the life of Josquin.