Abstract
This study suggests that three French‐texted motets from the fourteenth century refer to specific living women, named by the liturgical context of then‐tenors. These motets link upper‐voice amatory texts in French with tenors taken from chants for virgin martyrs, a combination not seen elsewhere in the motet repertory. After considering how virgin martyrs differ from other female saints, and some of the ways saints are used in late‐medieval art and literature, the conclusion is drawn that these motets are most likely to celebrate not a martyred saint but a living namesake. Two motets can be linked to Agnès de Navarre, wife of Gaston Fébus, count of Foix and Beam, and one to Lucia di Bernaoò Visconti, onetime fiancée of Louis II of Anjou. These dedicatory connections support previously‐known connections of their respective manuscript repertories: the Ivrea codex with the French royal court and with Gaston Fébus, the Chantilly codex with the claimants to Sicily of the second Angevin house and with Visconti Milan.
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