Tarquinio Merula was born in 1595 in Busetto (Parma). From a young age he was connected to the city of Cremona, a city which was then part of the Spanish Duchy of Milan, and where he would reside most of his life. Besides working intermittently as organist and chapel master in Cremona, he held several positions in Lodi, Bergamo and Padua. He also spent some years serving king Sigismund III of Poland. At the end of his life he returned to Cremona, where he died on 10 December 1665.
The volume titled Pegaso contains Tarquinio Merula's opera 11. Additionally, as the title indicates, it is the third book of a collection of sacred works with instruments. The edition we keep is dated in 1640, although the first edition must have been printed years before, between 1633 and 1637.