As complex and widespread as the trade in manuscripts had become by the late 15th century, it couldn’t hold a candle to what was in store with the new technology of music printing.
Although printing of some kind or another had been around for centuries, it wasn’t until the turn of the sixteenth century that the technology was streamlined and made more practical for European mass-production.
This new technology impacted composers, too. One of the earliest important printers was Ottaviano Petrucci in Venice. Among his first handful of publications were three collections of masses dedicated to a single composer, Josquin des Prez.
While Josquin was already a known and respected composer, these collections expanded his reputation exponentially, making him an important model for any aspiring composer in the Renaissance.