The debut of Orlandus Lassus and Philippus De Monte

Antwerp, 13 May 1555. Orlandus Lassus put his signature under the preface of his first book, Il primo libro dovesi contengono madrigali, villanesche, canzoni francesi e motetti a quattro voci.

Lassus addressed the volume to Stefano Gentile, a rich banker and trader from Genoa living in Antwerp. In these years the polyphonist Philippus De Monte, then also residing in the city, enjoyed - as he later well remembered - the "spontaneous and loyal support" of the young Genoese Giovanni Grimaldi, banker and trader (then in his early twenties). Later, in 1576, De Monte gratefully dedicated his third book of six-part madrigals to Grimaldi.