Sacred Music as Public Image for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III: Representing the Counter-Reformation Monarch at the End of the Thirty Years' War. [Catholic Christendom, 1300—1700]

In a sense the book represents a reclamation project not only for the cultural legacy of Ferdinand himself but also for his principal court composer, Giovanni Felice Sanees (c. 1600-79), whose extant sacred music- scored mainly for small vocal forces with instrumental accompaniment-is skillfully read here as a mirror of Ferdinand's power and piety.