As Spain encountered economic and political crises in the seventeenth century, the imagery of musical performance was invoked by the state to represent the power of the monarch and to denote harmony throughout the kingdom. Based on contemporary sources, Gonzalez is able to unravel the complex iconography of Spanish politics.

Introduction; Chapter 1 String Versus Wind Instruments: The Ancient Tradition of the Musical Cosmos; Chapter 2 The Harmony of the Divine Christian Order; Chapter 3 The Harmony of Earthly Rule: Erasmus of Rotterdam and Jean Bodin; Chapter 4 Emblematic Literature and the Ideal Ruler; Chapter 5 Musical Emblems of the State in Seventeenth-Century Spain: Amphion, Timotheus Milesius, Marsyas and the Sirens; Chapter 6 The Celestial Lyre: Royal Virtues and Harmonious Rule; Chapter 7 Cosmic Harmony, Royal Wisdom and Eloquence; Chapter 8 The Death of the Monarch and the Discord of the Elements; conclusion Conclusion;