Heading into college 40 years ago, Ellen Hargis planned to become a linguist. David Douglass, now married to Hargis, had entered as a chemistry major. But when they graduated, they both had degrees...

After reigning for less than 10 years in the mid-1600s, Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated her throne and moved to Rome. She had always been interested in music, and there — in arguably the center of...