In 1564 the firm of Berg and Neuber in Nuremberg published a five-volume anthology of motets for from four to eight voices under the title Thesaurus musicus. The 229 motets in this collection represent composers from the time of Josquin Desprez up to that of Lasso. Seventeen motets by Lasso were published there for the first time, in addition to six others reprinted from his Antwerp motet book of 1556.

Most of the texts of Lasso's new motets in this volume are sacred, although one of them is ...