A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Missa Papæ Marcelli

MISSA PAPÆ MARCELLI. A very celebrated Mass, composed in the year 1565 by Palestrina; and printed in 1567 [App. p.719 "1569"] in his Second Book of Masses, dedicated to Philip II. King of Spain. The origin of its title has been hotly disputed; though all that is really known upon the subject is, that the only name by which it has ever been distinguished was given to it by the Composer himself, fully ten years after Pope Marcellus II. had breathed his last. It was written at the instance of a Commission, appointed by Pope Pius IV. to suppress certain vicious Schools of Ecclesiastical Music condemned by the Council of Trent; and gave such unqualified satisfaction, that it was at once accepted as a model of the style to be thenceforth generally adopted. For a more detailed analysis of its characteristics, and a fuller account of the circumstances which led to its production, see Mass, and Palestrina.

[ W. S. R. ]