Canonical systems occupy a central position in the spectral theory of second order differential operators. They may be used to realize arbitrary spectral data, and the classical operators such as Schr dinger, Jacobi, Dirac, and Sturm-Liouville equations can be written in this form. 'Spectral Theory of Canonical Systems' offers a selfcontained and detailed introduction to this theory. Techniques to construct self-adjoint realizations in suitable Hilbert spaces, a modern treatment of de Branges spaces, and direct and inverse spectral problems are discussed. Contents Basic definitions Symmetric and self-adjoint relations Spectral representation Transfer matrices and de Branges spaces Inverse spectral theory Some applications The absolutely continuous spectrum