Born in Florence in 1787, Egisto Mosell was the last member of a family of musicians who were active on the Florentine scene in the final decades of the 18th century and the early 19th. His brother George Mosell was the Director of the Band of the Royal Guards. His brothers Antonio and John Felice played the violin in the Duchy chapel. Mosell was a respected flautist and oboist and played the oboe in the orchestra of the Teatro della Pergola, which belonged to the impresario Alessandro Lanari. In later life Egisto Mosell was in charge of all the Military Bands of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He died in his native Florence in 1852. From the late 18th century to the mid 19th, arrangements of classical operatic literature for small chamber ensembles were a common way of bringing popular works to a wider audience.

The libretto of the opera La Gazza Ladra by Rossini was based on the melodrama La Pie voleuse, ou la Servante de Palaiseau, the French playwright Louis-Charles Caigniez. The opera tells the story of the peasant girl Nanetta who has been sentenced to death for allegedly stealing some silver cutlery. At the last moment the true thief is discovered: a magpie. This trio comes from Nanetta's aria from Act I Scene 2: "Di piacer mi balza il core".

The first printed edition is kept in Genova at the Niccolo Paganini music library at the Conservatorio Statale. The publisher and the distributor wish to express their thanks for the access to and permission to publish this edition.