Title page
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This banned account of the Council of Trent (1545-1643) was written by Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623), a Venetian cleric who at one time in his life was a close friend of high church officials such as Charles Borromeo and Robert Bellarmine. Because Sarpi was excommunicated in 1606 for refusing to recognize the validity of Pope Paul V's interdict against Venice, most of his writings were published only after his death. His history of the Council, however, was printed without his consent at London in 1619, perhaps by the apostate Archbishop De Dominis. Numerous editions and translations of the work followed. This Frankfurt edition, perhaps one of the earlier translations, has a title page with interesting pictorial scenes of the Council.

Although the Council had been asked to deal with problems relating to the use of music in the Church - especially the bad enunciation of the singers, the rowdy behavior of the musicians, and the profuse use of instrumental music - they did not seem to come as close to banning polyphonic music from the service as nineteenth-century music historians have suggested. The decisions by the Council regarding music in the Church were limited to two: at the twenty-second session the delegates recommended abolishing everything from the service that did not contribute to its dignity; in the twenty-fourth session the value of music in the liturgy was reaffirmed. The local authorities were left to regulate the details of these general statements.