The Popess keeps a closed book on her lap — concealed wisdom, not yet given out.

Behind almost every great work of this period stands a woman whose inspirationwent unnamed, credited only in code, or not credited at all.

This year's offering, Lauro, takes its title from the laurel of poetic fame and Petrarch's Laura folded into one word. Its core is Tosone's Primo libro de madrigali a quattro voci of 1590 — an astonishing reworking of the exact texts from Il Lauro Secco, published in Ferrara in 1582.