From the very beginning, one of the most important and ambitious goals of the MAMS collection has been publication of the collected works of Iacobus Handl-Gallus in a modern transcription tailored to the needs of contemporary performers. The publication of his famous collection of motets, Opus musicum, consisting of four books containing a total of 374 motets, partially achieved this goal in 1990. The transcriptions and critical commentaries were prepared by Edo Škulj, and Gallus’s motets were published in thirteen volumes between 1985 and 1990. The edition is enriched by numerous facsimiles from Gallus’s original prints, published between 1586 and 1590 by the Prague printer Georg Nigrin (Jiří Černý).

Gallus divided the second book of his Opus musicum (1587) into four sections, which have been retained in the MAMS edition. The first volume (II/1) consists of 4-, 5-, 6- and 8-part motets for the liturgy of Holy Week. The volume also contains three polyphonic settings of the Passions, two based on the Gospel of John and one on the Gospel of Matthew.

The 2024 digitized post-edition is accompanied by a new preface and an introductory study by Dr Marc Desmet that summarizes and compiles all recent findings about the composer and his work.