Pavane
slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century
The pavane ( pə-VA(H)N; Italian: pavana, padovana; German: Paduana) is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century (Renaissance).
The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, in Joan Ambrosio Dalza's Intabolatura de lauto libro quarto in 1508, is a sedate and dignified couple dance, similar to the 15th-century basse danse. The music which accompanied it appears originally to have been fast or moderately fast but, like many other dances, became slower over time.
Origin of term
The word pavane is most probably derived from Italian [danza] padovana, meaning "[dance] typical of Padua" (similar to Bergamask, "dance from Bergamo"); pavan is an old Northern Italian form for the modern Italian adjective padovano (= from Padua). This origin is consistent with the equivalent form, Paduana.
An alternative explanation is that it derives from the Spanish pavón meaning peacock.
Although the dance is often associated with Spain, it is "almost certainly of Italian origin".
History
The decorous sweep of the pavane suited the new more sober Spanish-influenced courtly manners of 16th-century Italy. It appears in dance manuals in England, France, and Italy.
The pavane's popularity was from roughly 1530 to 1676, though, as a dance, it was already dying out by the late 16th century.
“Pavane” enters the record as slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pavane, slow and processional can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q180853. The Library of Congress control number is sh98004298. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1508, 1530 and 1676.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pavane” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.