Depends on what sort of literature or history floats your boat. I don't recall if I'd had exposure to the term in formal schooling, but certainly ran across it in such as Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle), Fullmetal Alchemist (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421357/), and a variety of historical fiction (most of which it's been well over 15y since I've read, and as such I've long forgotten what it was).