With this phrase refers to a group of composers active in the sixteenth century. at the papal chapel in Rome, whose main representative was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Their production is characterized by: gender mostly sacred music, masses and motets; fusion of elements typical of the Franco-Flemish polyphony with the sound and melody Italian; regular rhythmic and flowing; preference of Gregorian melodies as a function of the cantus firmus.

The Roman school realized the aesthetic ideals and sacred music of the liturgy of the Counter made ​​by the Council of Trent (1545-63).

The council allowed to run in the church of polyphonic music (music figuratively) despite the proposed prohibition, however, by establishing these conditions:
- Comprehensibility of the text: was achieved through the declamatory homophony and accentual to the parties by the dense and extensive, while the polyphonic style was restricted to short segments (as in the Sanctus or in Amen);
- Expressive dignity: in opposition to the excesses of "suffering" and the style madrigal;
- Exclusion of the cantus firmus and profane parodies of the Masses: proscription observed only initially (many parody Masses of Palestrina, Lasso, etc.)..

The council's decisions played a crucial role Jacobus De Kerle with its Preces speciales (1561) and with Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli (1562-63). Favored by the ideal of the Counter-Reformation, the style of Palestrina became the model, the example par excellence of the sacred polyphony of Catholic ritual.

In contrast to the increasing autonomy assumed by polyphonic music, the Church promoted a reform of Gregorian chant and its wider use. Palestrina, Anerio, Suriano and other composers worked in this reform (shortening of melisma, etc..). The new Editio Medici appeared in 1614, and remained in use until the Editio Vaticana, 1907.
(from: "Atlas of Music", Sperling & Kupfer)

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