Universal music-making

Athanasius Kircher's Musurgia universalis (1650) was one of the largest and most widely circulated works of music theory in the seventeenth century. Although his reputation has waned over the centuries, Kircher was a leading intellectual figure of his day, authoring dozens of treatises on a multitude of topics and corresponding with scholars from around the world. Kircher's central place within the world of learning resulted in a unique perspective on music theory and musical practice within the seventeenth century.