Lasso's first motet book after he took up residence in Munich was the Sacrae cantiones of 1562, twenty-five new motets for five voices, published in Nuremberg by Berg and Neuber. It was his most famous and influential motet collection, reprinted complete only five months later in Venice by Antonio Gardano and fourteen more times thereafter, in addition to many separate printings of individual pieces.

Forty-seven instrumental adaptations of the Nuremberg motets are known to have been printed, ...