‘Laura’ was the name of the beloved for whom Francesco Petrarch wrote many poems. They are found in his major work, the ‘Canzioniere’, a collection of sonnets for every day of the year and one of the most important literary works of Humanism.

The concluding high point of the Canzioniere is in the eight sonnets in which the beloved Laura is raised up to ‘madonna angelicata’ in the invocation to Mary the Mother of God. Each of the eight madrigals of this spiritual love poem begins with the invocation "Vergine", and this has also given the pieces their name.

In Palestrina's works, the settings of these spiritual madrigals fall between his sacred and his secular compositions, and therefore occupy a special position. The Ensemble Officium, under the direction of Wilfried Rombach, include in this CD the first recording of Palestrina's Missa Ave Regina caelorum.