<i>MUSICA MUNDANA</i>, ARISTOTELIAN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND PTOLEMAIC ASTRONOMY
Gabriela Ilnitchi
Emanating from a cosmos ordered according to Pythagorean and Neoplatonic principles, the Boethian musica mundana is type of music that ‘is discernible especially in those things which are observed heaven itself or combination elements diversity seasons’. At core this recurring medieval topos stands ‘a fixed sequence modulation [that] cannot be separated celestial revolution’, one most often rendered writings as ‘music spheres’ ( spherarum ). In cosmological traditions, long established by time Boethius wrote his De institutione , spheres just possible manifestation concept world harmony. It pertains universe musical cosmic structures express same mathematical ratios, each planets produces distinctive sound its revolution these sounds themselves forms well-defined scale. Although harmony continued function cosmology fundamental conceptual premise, notion spheres, despite popularity among writers, was generally treated neither at any significant length nor an innovative fashion. Quite exceptional respect treatise subject present study, text beginning Desiderio tuo fili carissime gratuito condescenderem attributed anonymous bishop late thirteenth-century manuscript miscellany now Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Barb. lat. 283, fols. 37 r -42 v ) but probably coming Franciscan convent Siena. This seldom considered work affords remarkable special insight into ways old new ideas converged, intermingled coexisted dynamic sometimes volatile cross-currents scholarship.
Early Music History