paigneur Guillaume d'Amiens

Guillaume d'Amiens was a French trouvère active towards the end of the thirteenth century, whose musical output has survived in a single source. The rubrics of that manuscript identify him as a painter, and a tax document from Amiens of 1301 mentions a "Willelmi pictoris", who is probably the same person, although this cannot be stated conclusively.

His music is preserved in the Arras codex I-Rvat reg.1490, which contains eight rondeaux and one virelai, alongside two love songs. This collection, modest but coherent, follows the forms customary at the time; some refrain repetitions present slight variants, and in the rondeau Prendés i garde the irregular poetic form requires a melodic adjustment. In addition, at least four other of his poetic texts survive without music. A large miniature preceding the rondeaux may have been painted by Guillaume himself.

His melodies generally revolve around the fifth D–A, although several have C, G or F as their tonal centre. His importance lies above all in documenting, together with Adam de la Halle and Jehannot de l'Escurel, the trouvère practice of the monophonic rondeau at the end of the thirteenth century.