We know hardly anything about his early life, but we know he was living in Rome by 1539 whe was made a member of the Julian Chapel. Soon he joined the Sistine Chapel, where he had the job of "magister puerorum" (director of the boys choir), and later he became choirmaster. In the same year he published four of his total of six books of madrigals for four voices. Probably around 1553 he moved to France, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote a very large number of chansons (French songs). He also wrote some masses.