1400-1425 manuscript

1430's A pipe and tabor player charged with taking part in a fight in Rouen, Normandy, might have been a novice,
as he was criticized for playing “false” music at a festival.

‘The musical sounds of medieval French cities : players, patrons, and politics’ by Peters, Gretchen, 2012

1436 For the 'celebration of peace' on February 20, in Narbonne, Occitania, in commemoration of the Treaty of Arras
wages, as well as lodging, were offered to six musicians, who all but one travelled to Narbonne: four trumpeters,
and two pipe and tabor players, who were the city’s regular “Gysana”

In the second half of the fifteenth century, pipe and tabor players appear in festivities
and celebrations throughout southern France:

1450, Narbonne, among the substantial expenses for cheese and wine are three categories of musicians:
the minstrels (menestriers), the trumpeters (trompetas), and the pipe and tabor player

1451 a payment record reads “to Guissana,” the regular pipe and tabor player in Narbonne. This pipe and tabor
player was hired by the city over the next forty years and is the only non-trumpeter who has been identified multiple
times in the account books.

1481, a trumpet-kettledrum ensemble and four soft minstrels were hired; these included a pipe and tabor player.

1481 A few months later, a lavish reception was staged in honour of the return of the papal legate who was a strong
patron of the arts. At one city doorway a pavilion was covered with greenery, turrets, and an image of the Virgin;
at another portal a pipe and tabor player accompanied an angel.

Dijon, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté: tax records include musicians who were offered tax breaks in the second half
of the fifteenth century due to poverty, including several pipe and tabor players. In 1444 a man by the name of “Taborin”
made very little with “his pipe and tabor” as “no one makes festivals any more”

The financial constraints of two other pipe and tabor players are noted in tax records; one could not support his wife
and three children through music, which was his only source of income. The other could make a living only
“with great pain” by supplementing his music with sewing.”
1454 The pipe and tabor was also a tenuous source of income for a minstrel from the region of Savoy who was offered
charity, specifically a coat,

Around 1466 Amiens, Hauts-de-France,a pipe and tabor player, while performing at the celebration of Saint Leu,
became involved in a scuffle serious enough to result in formal punishment.

No musician could engage himself for more than one event in a single day in Amiens.The minstrel guild in Amiens
had a difficult time enforcing this stipulation, as in 1489, an amendment to the statutes was issued to reinforce it.”
The amendment did not prevent the problem, however, as the next year a harp player and a pipe and tabor player
had to pay a 20 s. fine because they had lined up two weddings in a single day.

Orléans, Centre-Val de Loire, the civic-supported musician was Rotier, a pipe and tabor player, who was particularly
noted for performing at the dance where “the ladies of the city came”
1469 the young Duke Louis and his mother passed through Orléans and sixteen minstrels were hired for the occasion
who were primarily soft instrumentalists appropriate for dances and general entertainment, including two organists,
seven gittern players, two tabor players, three harp players, and two identified only as menestriers.

In 1498 musicians, including soft instrumentalists, were hired in Lyons for “the entrance of the Duke of Valentinois.”
Cesare Borgia was an important general and statesman. This prompted the organization of special musical entertainment
…. two pipe and tabor players and a rebec player were hired. Dances included “bergeres, bergidios, and morisque,”
One of the pipe and tabor players was paid extra to rehearse with the dancers of the moresque for the banquet.

The minstrel’s guild in Montpellier, Occitania: … In the fifteenth century officers represented different categories of music
… one officer appears during the last decades of the century to represent the 'taborins’

‘Urban Ministrels in Late Medieval Southern France: Opportunities, Status and Professional Relationships’ by Gretchen Peters
Early Music History, Vol. 19 (2000), pp. 201-235

In Montpellier the minstrels as a profession participated in an annual charitable custom on Ascension Day.
The city council and the organized professions in town distributed bread to individuals in need. From 1486 to 1491
the lists are unusually explicit in identifying those who were “minstrels of the consulate” and “the other minstrels
who are trumpeters and pipe and tabor players.”

‘The musical sounds of medieval French cities : players, patrons, and politics’ by Peters, Gretchen, 2012

15th century Bible, Paris

1480-1505 description of the Marriage of Julius Caesar and the Queen of Bithynia:
"A group of four musicians with lute, rebec, shawm and one-handed wind instrument with cylinder drum
lead a wedding procession that enters a town square from the left through a town gate"