The polyphonic settings for the liturgy for the dead circulating in Italy c. 1550-1650 constitute a rich and fascinating repertory that regrettably has attracted only little attention from modern-day scholars. This book offers an introduction to the different sources that enable an historiography of polyphony pro mortuis: music collections, liturgical sources, chronicles, funeral books and further sources are woven together to map the features and functions of the music that accompanied exequies and commemorations of the departed. It will become clear that the liturgy for the dead fulfilled conflicting objectives and catalysed diverging expectations. Hence, it represents a vantage point from which to investigate the centrifugal tendencies of early modern musical cultures.