This article gives a synthesis of the known facts ­concerning the external history of the troubadours’chansionners, lost or still extant today, in France from the 16th to the 18th century. It gives a chronological overview of their circulation, and the most important collections and owners. The appendix offers, for each manuscript, a synthesis of the elements related to the provenance (marks, ex-libris, old catalogs and inventories, ­contemporary mentions...) and of the bibliography.