When renaissance music went to press, the composer

or the publisher frequently added at least one paratext,

which acted in the same way as blurbs do on the dust-jackets

of today's books. Typically, we find a dedicatory epistle,

sometimes complemented with a preface to the reader and/or

verses in praise of the dedicatee, the composer or the art of music.

These texts are a treasure trove of information about Renaissance

music and its context. They inform us about the lives of the composers,

the publication and function of polyphonic music, and the

music theory of the period. But they also read as a who's who of

the courts of Europe and the higher echelons of the Church, and

reveal networks between composers, printers, patrons of music

and celebrated authors such as Jean Dorat, Jacques Gohory and

Paulus Melissus Schede.

This book offers the first critical edition of more than 150 such

liminary texts, all paratexts in printed collections of motets composed

by the authoritative representatives of the genre, i.e. polyphonists

from the Low Countries.