Rore's famous settings of the Vergine poems of Petrarch which open his Terzo libro di madrigali a cinque voci (1548) are often considered his masterpiece. While other composers as early as Dufay had written music for individual stanzas, Rore's remains the only setting of the complete cycle. The three 4-voice madrigals presented in addition on this recording are among his most widely known pieces today, just as they were the most influential part of his output in the sixteenth century.