Monteverdi’s First Book of Madrigals for five voices, published in Venice in 1587 when he was still only nineteen, was his third major publication. Written for courts and patrons whose pleasure it was to surround themselves with the finest artists of the time, the madrigal was the secular song par excellence. With amorous texts depicting the antitheses of love-suffering and life-death, it reached it highest expression with Monteverdi. In the First Book, with its wonderful variety of light and shade, its highly effective unravelling of melodies and intricate harmonies and striking word-painting, the seeds are sown for Monteverdi’s mature and increasingly radical works. The disc concludes with the complete secular manuscript works, including the masterpiece Lamento d’Olimpia, in editions prepared by Marco Longhini. Fuggi cor and Se d’un angel are here recorded for the first time.