francesco rognoni

image: 
from Athanasius Kirchner's Musurgia Universalis

The 17th century is a turning point in the West. The élan provided by the Renaissance is dissipating and the reactionary forces are at work, consider for example the Counter-Reformation.

Nevertheless the human spirit prevails in spite of. This was a time of experimentation with new forms and new ideas. As the saying goes, it got better just before it got much worse and, hélas, finis.