In 1585 Adam Berg published thirty-two Lasso motets under the title Sacrae cantiones, all for four voices except the eight-voice "Stabat Mater dolorosa" that concludes the volume. Except for this piece and two others, all the motets in this volume are settings of offertories for the Mass, and most of them appear in a large manuscript of 1581-83 that contains a cycle of Lasso's offertory settings for Advent and Lent.

The manuscript presents its contents in calendrical order, but Sacrae cantion...