Philippe Verdelot may have been born in 1490; after 1505 he seems to have lived in Italy. His name first appears in an undated motet print which Luca Antonio Junta published around 1526. It is possible that Verdelot studied with Jacob Obrecht in Ferrara. He lived in Florence from 1523 to 1527, served in Rome from 1529 to 1533, and then lived in Venice until 1535. He may have died in 1562; at any rate he was no longer alive in 1567.



Verdelot was one of the first madrigal composers of the Netherlands and was among the non-Italian composers who helped to develop the madrigal in Italy. He composed many four-part madrigals with a flowing character. He began to write five-part madrigals to achieve a fuller sound. His music contains sensitive contrasts in sound and his text-settings give special attention to the words.



Adrian Willaert's transcriptions of Verdelot madrigals for the lute were published in 1536. Only one published volume of motets is known: Philippi Verdeloti electiones diversorum motettorum distincta 4 voc. (1549), but individual motets appear in the most famous collections of the time.