At the beginning of March 1551, the lutenist Pietro Paolo Borrono journeyed from Milan to Rome. His official reason for travelling was to oversee the printing of some lute tablature in the city; in fact, Borrono was a diplomatic agent employed by Charles V, in the service of the governor of Milan, Ferrante Gonzaga, and he was working undercover as a professional musician in order to fulfil another assignment – as part of a plot to assassinate Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, archbishop of Monreale. We know of this concealment primarily because while in Rome, in an apparent betrayal of his master, Borrono confessed the details to Cardinal Farnese before the assassination could take place; however, he did not subsequently lose favour with Gonzaga, and continued to work in the governor's diplomatic service for some years to follow.

This episode in the life of Borrono epitomises the varied and immensely complex array of networks spanning northern Italy during the middle of the sixteenth century – including connections of a musical and diplomatic nature. Furthermore, this account, having as its subject someone who straddled both these worlds, provides a pertinent introduction to this chapter. Although Borrono's involvement in various assassination attempts probably has no direct connection to the transmission of musical sources to Strasbourg in the 1530s, it is plausible that diplomacy did play a part, potentially involving Borrono or one of a number of other figures involved in Milanese court life. Like many others, Borrono is known to have travelled across the continent for his work and, being an amateur gentleman lutenist whose own compositions were published in his lifetime, he also held a genuine interest in music. He was also involved in the Milanese publishing industry.

These details also provide a useful starting point for acknowledging the complexities surrounding the transmission of 28 Latin motets from Milan to Strasbourg during the 1530s. German publishers of the sixteenth century placed great value on the ability to acquire new repertoire from abroad, and music from Italy was particularly prized. Schöffer claims: ‘As far as I know, this music has not previously been seen in our Germany’, while on the Tenor partbook title page he is more blasé, stating simply that the motets had not been published ‘before this print’ (‘Ante hac typis nondum diuulgata’) – a different assertion altogether.