In recent years, the cultural background to Purcell’s interest in the trio sonata has become much better understood and far more accessible. Apart from the perennial issue of his likely Italian models, we now recognize a body of ‘Restoration Trio Sonatas’, including works both by English composers (notably John Blow) and by Europeans active in London (among them Giovanni Battista Draghi and the elder Nicola Matteis). The example of Robert King’s ‘Sonetta after the Italion Way’ apparently composed around 1680, even sits alongside Purcell’s sonatas as an example of an explicitly acknowledged attempt to emulate Italian stylistic features.