Howard Mayer Brown was correct in his understanding that a complete knowledge of the French chanson from the second half of the sixteenth century must take in the provincial activity in this genre and its rapports with Paris, for it is essential to study the ties that connected the centre with its periphery. During the 1570s in Toulouse, the Auvergne-born Anthoine de Bertrand and his ‘friends’ formed one such provincial school, which was strongly attached to the personality of Pierre de Ronsard and to the poetic ideals of the Pléiade. Complementing the praise given to the composer by Henry Expert, who believed as early as 1926 that his works merited a complete edition, Howard Brown considered Bertrand ‘one of the very best composers’ of this music.