An MS or printed book containing principally chansons (i.e. lyric poetry in French) or settings of such poetry. They range from 13th-century collections of the monophonic songs of the troubadours and trouvères to the small, elegantly decorated 15th-century miscellanies of secular French polyphony, often compiled for princes or courtiers in Italy and Germany as well as in France and the Low Countries. These also include Latin motets, pieces with non-French texts and even works apparently conceived for instruments. Well-known examples include the Mellon Chansonnier, copied c 1476, which contains 57 pieces (now at the library of Yale University), the Laborde Chansonnier, copied c 1470- 80, with 103 pieces (Library of Congress, Washington, dc) and the Chansonnier Cordiforme, copied in Savoy before 1477, which contains 44 pieces and is famous for its heart-shaped format (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris).
The term is also used of a songwriter who sings, in France (usually for a satirist) and in French Canada.
