„… ET NOS IMMUTABIMUR”,

The concept of conversion as confessional and spiritual change obtains a critical place in the researchof history and the arts in early modernity. In this study the first attempt is made to examinethe relation between this multifaceted concept and music, within the specific context of Rome inthe first half of the 17th century.In the aristocratic circles around the Pope - in the anti-Protestant climate intensified by the ThirtyYears' War - the concept of conversion became an instrument of Chiesa militante and the paradigmof Roman identity, self-perception and self-representation. This book focuses on conversionas a topos in music, which helped to shape the new dramatic musical genres to an astonishingextent. In this sense, the study is a significant contribution to a changed understanding of musicalworks, which are examined here in direct connection with the confessional, political, urban andperception-theory premises of the early modern period.