By far the biggest single contributing composer to Schöffer's Cantiones anthology was Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495–c. 1560), with just under one third of the anthology's motets – nine out of 28 – attributed to him.

Certain details of Gombert's life are sketchy, with neither birth nor death date confidently agreed upon by scholars. Contemporary biographical evidence on Gombert is found in treatises by Hermann Finck, Girolamo Cardano, and the writer and merchant Lodovico Guicciardini, while Juan Bermudo and Francisco Correa de Arauxo also speak of his music in their writings. Gombert was almost certainly born in Flanders, and he is known to have spent much of his life in that area. His main employment was in Emperor Charles V's court chapel from 1528 as maître des enfants – the second most important position in the chapel – having begun as a singer in the capilla flamenca two years earlier in 1526 (the first time his name appears in the historical records); he also served unofficially as court composer. Gombert's Missa Sur tous regretz is referred to in one source as the ‘missa incoronacion’, which suggests that the work was either composed for or performed at the imperial coronation of 1530. He was also a cleric, holding benefices during his life at institutions in various northern cities, and was a canon of Tournai Cathedral from 1534. Possibly the most oft-repeated fact about his life is that he was a convicted child molester, gaining infamy for being banished to the galleys for violating a boy who was in the service of the emperor.11Nevertheless, Gombert eventually received the emperor's pardon, having composed some ‘swan songs’ whilst in exile. It is possible that he was removed as maître des enfants and replaced in 1540 by Thomas Crecquillon; there is a gap in the records from this year until 1547, when Gombert wrote a letter from his Tournai residence to Ferrante Gonzaga, one of Charles's generals. There has been speculation (strengthened by his Venetian publications) that during these years Gombert visited Italy. Judging by reports from Finck and Cardano, he probably died sometime between 1556 and 1561.