De institutione musica (Fundamentals of Music)

De institutione musica (Fundamentals of Music)

While Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae remained an enduring text beyond the Middle Ages, and his ambitious, unfinished project to translate all Aristotelian and Platonic texts from Greek into Latin resonated with humanist audiences, his treatise on music, De institutione musica, was less frequently copied in the Renaissance. Nevertheless, the De musica was included in the first printed edition of Boethius’s works and remained a fundamental reference work on music theory and harmonics. The work put forward the influential notion of a tripartite division of musical types: the imperceptible music of the spheres, the spiritual and somatic music of the body, and the audible instrumental music of voice and instrument. The present volume, illustrated with diagrams throughout, demonstrates the ongoing utility of the manuscript medium, especially since the complex visual schematics could not readily be printed. The semi-humanist script and watermarks indicate a date of production for this manuscript around 1490.

Author: Boethius

ca. 1490

Manuscript on paper, 52 fols.

University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, LJS 47

France (?)