Sigüenza, Fray José de (c. 1544–1606) Spanish
historian
Named after his birthplace, Sigüenza was librarian of the
ESCORIAL and later became prior of the Jeronymite
monastery there. He is known for one work of dull but au-
thoritative scholarship, Historia de la Orden de San Jerón-
imo (History of the Order of St. Jerome; three volumes,
1595, 1600, 1605), of which order he had been a friar
since 1567. The third volume contains a full description of
the Escorial that has never been superseded and the work
offers fascinating glimpses of PHILIP II’s role in the building
of the great complex and his relationships with artists who
decorated it.
Siloe, Diego de (c. 1495–1563) Spanish architect and
sculptor
Born in the city of Burgos, Diego was the son of the sculp-
tor Gil de SILOEand was trained largely in Italy. His earli-
est documented piece is the marble Caraccioli reredos
(1514–15; San Giovanni a Carbonara, Naples), on which
he collaborated with his fellow-Spaniard Bartolomé OR-
DÓÑEZ. In 1519 he returned to Burgos, where he executed
a number of designs, including one for the tower of Sta.
Maria del Campo. His major work in that city, however,
was the Escalera Dorada (1519–26), a magnificent gilded
staircase in the cathedral. Diego is best known for his de-
sign of Granada cathedral (1528–43), where he succeeded
Enrique Egas as architect. On Egas’s Gothic foundations
Diego erected a great domed church that combined el-
ements of Italian, Gothic, and Spanish Muslim styles in
the manner known as PLATERESQUE, also employing fea-
tures of the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem. Later works included the church of El Salvador
at Ubeda (1536), the cathedrals of Málaga and Guadix
(1549), and San Gabriel at Loja.
Siloe, Gil de (active 1486–1499) Spanish sculptor
Possibly born in Orleans or Antwerp, Gil was one of the
last great sculptors in the Gothic style in Spain. The few
works by Gil that have survived include a number of elab-
orate tombs, including those of John II of Castile and his
second wife Isabella of Portugal, Infante Alfonso, and Juan
de Padilla (1489–93; all in La Catuja, Miraflores). Also for
the monastery of Miraflores near Burgos, Gil executed a
notable altarpiece (1496–99); other works include four
reredoses for churches in Valladolid and Burgos. All his
works show the influence of Spanish Muslim and Flemish
styles but themselves had little artistic impact upon sub-
sequent sculptors working in the Italian style, such as his
son Diego de SILOE.
Simone Martini See MARTINI, SIMONE
Simons, Menno See MENNONITES
singers Before the later 16th century, the history of Euro-
pean singing is mainly a story of ecclesiastical musicians,
who also acted as directors, composers, teachers, and the-
orists. The Church provided livings for clerics who were
expected to sing multiple daily services, and it is in this
context that the literate and educated musical world
found its broadest support. Increasingly during the 14th
and 15th centuries, endowments from private donors for
chapels provided a vehicle for the introduction of regular
polyphonic singing alongside the traditional (and much
more commonly performed) plainchant. With the combi-
nation of the revenues from these endowments, from the
late 14th century onward churches were able to provide
permanent employment specifically for singers.
The ecclesiastical training provided to singers—men
and choirboys—was of a thoroughly different character to
that known today. For many, musical knowledge was lim-
ited to a proficiency in monophonic singing, allowing
them to perform plainchant from memory and to read
it as notated in chant books (without rhythm). In the
ever-growing number of institutions that supported
polyphonic music, however, instructors grounded their
singers in numerous more advanced practices. Well-
developed aural skills and a good working knowledge of
improvisational styles were key elements in the education
of such singers; other skills, such as organ-playing and
reading polyphonic notation, were important but not as
common. The singer’s role was very much a productive
one, and the line between singer and composer only began
to take on real definition in the late 15th century.
Throughout the 16th century, the majority of successful
composers were hired as singers and chapel directors.
Specific information on the use of different voice
types in polyphony from this period is notoriously diffi-
cult to come by. The issue is complicated by the fact that
the names of voice parts in the musical sources refer pri-
marily to function, rather than range. Furthermore, the
notational system in use did not presuppose a fixed pitch
standard, so a single piece could be performed at different
pitches to suit different performing ensembles. From the
14th to the 16th centuries, the array of voice parts used in
composed pieces underwent a gradual expansion and re-
finement, arriving eventually at a common disposition
very close to the modern choral ensemble of soprano, alto,
tenor, and bass. Boy trebles were used for polyphonic
singing in numerous institutions by the later 15th century,
both in England and on the Continent. Chapels without
boys would employ adult males singing in falsetto (head
voice) for the top parts in polyphony, but the use of this
voice type in other contexts is disputed. Particularly diffi-
cult for modern choral performance is the existence of
parts that could be performed either by high tenors
(singing in chest voice) or by male altos extending into
lower ranges; a common hypothesis is that male singers in
the 15th and 16th centuries developed the ability to44442 2 SSiigguuïïeennzzaa,, FFrraayy JJoosseeíí ddee