Marin Mersenne and the Study of Harmony : From Sound to Music.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

van der Miesen, Leendert.

Series:

Scientiae Studies

Scientiae Studies ; v.7

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (363 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2025.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Marin Mersenne and the Study of Harmony delves into the central role of music among the early modern sciences by focusing on the work of the French polymath Marin Mersenne (1588–1648). Although now regarded more as an art than a science, music was for many early modern scholars a universal science for studying the harmonies present in all beings. For Mersenne, music’s ability to be quantified while being experienced aesthetically meant that it was the central science to approximate the sounding and inaudible harmonies present in the world and universe at large. Bringing together Mersenne’s interests in the physics of sound and hearing, musical composition, instruments, curiosities, and music from outside Europe, this book shows why so many scholars were drawn to music and how music was at the center of the early modern debate on the foundations of knowledge.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Note on Typography and Citation

List of Figures

List of Music Examples

Introduction: Harmonies at Work

1. Music, the Measure of Sound

2. Instruments between Art and Nature

3. Collecting Curiosities: Images, Observations, and Earwitnesses

4. “The octave pleases all”: The Universality of Music

5. Counting and Composing

Conclusion

Appendices

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9789048564149

904856414X

OCLC:

1515468469