Contents: Introduction: by the tomb of St Genesius, Peter Gillgren and Mårten Snickare; Part I A Performative Society: Varieties of performance in 17th-century Italy, Peter Burke; Diplomatic performances and the applied arts in 17th-century Europe, Martin Olin; CorpoReality: Queen Christina of Sweden and the embodiment of sovereignty, Camilla Kandare; How to do things with the piazza San Pietro: performativity and baroque architecture, Mårten Snickare. Part II Performances and Audiences: Transforming spectators into viri perculsi: Baroque theatre as machinery for producing affects, Erika Fischer-Lichte; Angels or sirens? Questions of performance and reception in Roman church music around 1650, Lars Berglund; The Quarant 'Ore: early modern ritual and performativity, Nils Holger Petersen. Part III Performativity and Interpretation: Allegories of Eros: Caravaggio's masque, Genevieve Warwick; Una dolcissima estasi: performing The Visitation by Frederico Barocci, Peter Gillgren; The apparition of faith: the performative meaning of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's decoration for the Cornaro chapel, Margarethe Rossholm Lagerlöf; Performativity in Michelangelo's Last Judgment, Giovanni Careri. Part IV Postscript: Baroque rhetoric: the methodology, David Carrier; Bibliography; Index.