Biography
Nicolas Signac is a composer born around 1585 in Bray-sur-Seine (province of Île-de-France), died in 1645 in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
Recent research has made it possible to trace the biography of this composer, which has remained mysterious until now. Nicolas Signac spent his entire career in Lorraine, first as a servant of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (1567 - 1607), son of Duke Charles III. In 1606 he took part in the ballet given in Nancy in honor of Marguerite de Gonzague, second wife of the Duke of Bar, future Henri II of Lorraine. From 1615 to 1617, Signac was in the service of Jean des Porcelets de Maillane, bishop of Toul and abbot of Saint-Mansuy, as controller in the episcopal hotel and ès grueries of the bishopric and the abbey of Saint-Mansuy. The bishop helped him to constitute the dower of Françoise Hubert, daughter of Denis Hubert, musician of the room of the duke Henri II, whom he married in 1615. Appointed thanks to the support of his father-in-law adviser and auditor in the Chamber of Accounts of Lorraine in 1617 , he held these positions until it was suppressed in 1634 by Louis XIII , after the invasion of Lorraine. by French troops. We find “noble Nicolas Signac, bourgeois of Nancy ” on September 9, 1639 as a witness to an act signed by the painter Georges de La Tour. The last years of his life were difficult, in a Lorraine deserted by his ducal family and devastated by the passage of soldiers. The notarial minutes show him lending money, exploiting some land and renting cows by sharing the fruit with the lessees. He was buried onNovember 16, 164 5in the Benedictine monastery in Nancy, followed the January 4th next by his widow. They left an only daughter, Renée de Signac.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.