Before a modern edition of Monteverdi is issued, the musical text should be clarified and interpreted. To carry out these two fundamental editorial demands is less easy than it sounds. There are no autographs on which a truly critical edition could be based—only first prints, many of which are studded with misprints despite the fact that they had been supervised by the composer himself. These first prints (of which only very few copies have survived completely) present the music—beginning with the publication of Il quinto libro dei Madrigali in 1605—not as it was actually sung or played but in an abridged version only, i.e. in the summarizing notation of the ‘Basso continuo’ period which cuts right across Monteverdi's life.Any music, backed by a figured bass, needs realization of that part in harmonies and the working-out of a playable part for a ‘fundamental-instrument’ (keyboard- instrument or lute).