Johannes Ciconia

He was born in Liège, but worked most of his adult life in Italy, particularly in the service of the papal chapels in Rome and later and most importantly at Padua Cathedral.

Another Johannes Ciconia is recorded in Liège in 1385 as a duodenus, generally identifying a person of young age; scholars agree that this is the composer himself.

There is also the possibility of an intermediate stay in Pavia (as suggested by the scholars John Nádas and Agostino Ziino), on the grounds that this is where he would have connected with the House of Visconti and acquired knowledge of the ars subtilior style and the compositions of Philippus de Caserta quoted in his Sus un fontayne ("Under a fountain") (see below).

While it remains late medieval in style, his writing increasingly points toward the melodic patterning of the Renaissance, for instance in his setting of O rosa bella.

He wrote music both secular (French virelais, Italian ballate and madrigals) and sacred (motets and Mass movements, some of them isorhythmic) in form.