According to a thousand-year-old tradition the city of Venice promises itself as a bride to the Adriatic Sea every year anew on Ascension Day (Venetian: Sensa). The symbolic marriage ceremony has been observed since time immemorial enriched through instrumental and choral music. In 1736 Antonio Lotti composed Spirto di Dio for this important feast day in the Venetian calendar. Conceived as a unostentatious a cappella composition, the four-part setting develops into a splendid feast day song in rich blocks of sound and with climactic imitating lines. This edition presents English and German versions from the 19th century contentually based on the original text respectively that originated in the course of the then contemporary enthusiasm for all things Italian and thereby preserving the sumptuous tone of the piece.