Philippe de Vitry

Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 – 9 June 1361) was a French composer-poet, bishop and music theorist in the ars nova style of late medieval music. An accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, he was widely acknowledged as a leading musician of his day; the early Renaissance scholar Petrarch wrote a glowing tribute, calling him: "... the keenest and most ardent seeker of truth, so great a philosopher of our age."^[1] The important music treatise Ars nova notandi (1322) is usually attributed to Vitry.

It is thought that few of Vitry's compositions survive; though he wrote secular music, only his sacred works are extant.