Music as Divine Order
Read More![First published in 1503, this influential encyclopaedia by Gregor Reisch demonstrates the way music had since ancient times been conceived in relation to mathematics. Arranged in sections according to the seven liberal arts, music is grouped together with three other mathematical subjects: arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (the remaining three being grammar, logic, and rhetoric). This edition contains woodcuts with allegorical representations for each of the seven disciplines.
<br><br>
The frontispiece of Reisch's work depicts Nicostrata, the supposed inventor of the Latin alphabet, bearing a placard displaying the alphabet to a young student. Her left hand unlocks the door to the tower labelled <i>triclinium philosophiae</i> (the banquet of philosophy). The tower’s first two floors symbolise the teaching of grammar whilst upper floors relate to other liberal arts: the third represents logic, rhetoric and poetry, the fourth is labelled music, geometry and astronomy. The top of the tower is devoted to theology or metaphysics.<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Gregor Reisch<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Margarita philosophica </i> [Pearl of wisdom] (Basel, 1583) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21574072500003606"> C.14.24</a><br>
<b>Provenance:</b> Gift of Edward Martin, President of Queens’ College 1631.](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Heavenly-Harmony/Divine-Order-Gallery/i-x2SFcq2/0/51243849/M/C-014-024-004-M.jpg)
First published in 1503, this influential encyclopaedia by Gregor Reisch demonstrates the way music had since ancient times been conceived in relation to mathematics. Arranged in sections according to the seven liberal arts, music is grouped together with three other mathematical subjects: arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (the remaining three being grammar, logic, and rhetoric). This edition contains woodcuts with allegorical representations for each of the seven disciplines.
The frontispiece of Reisch's work depicts Nicostrata, the supposed inventor of the Latin alphabet, bearing a placard displaying the alphabet to a young student. Her left hand unlocks the door to the tower labelled triclinium philosophiae (the banquet of philosophy). The tower’s first two floors symbolise the teaching of grammar whilst upper floors relate to other liberal arts: the third represents logic, rhetoric and poetry, the fourth is labelled music, geometry and astronomy. The top of the tower is devoted to theology or metaphysics.
Author: Gregor Reisch
Title: Margarita philosophica [Pearl of wisdom] (Basel, 1583)
Shelfmark: C.14.24
Provenance: Gift of Edward Martin, President of Queens’ College 1631.
![The reverse of Queens’ College MS 77b includes one four-line musical stave and preserves the number LXXXXVIII and part of the lauda in Italian for St James the Great whose feast was celebrated on 25 July: ‘… uocato./ Vienne do me li disse il sal/uatore. Andando lung il/ mare di galilea. Che ‘l uide in/ naue come pescatore. c[o]n ça/ bedeo lo quale p[er] padre auea./ allora incontanente fu tan/to ubidiente. che tutte cose…’. The miniature on the other side depicts Dagnus, King of Lycia, ordering the martyrdom of St Christopher. This is one of three leaves owned by Queens' from a now disbound and dispersed Laudario of Sant’Agnese that contained miniatures by Pacino di Bonaguida, active in Florence c.1303–c.1347 (see next).<br><br>
<b>Creator:</b> Pacino di Bonaguida <br>
<b>Title:</b> <i>Martyrdom of St Christopher </i> (14th century) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> Queens' College MS 77b](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Heavenly-Harmony/Divine-Order-Gallery/i-D8Nw58X/0/f21ca7c9/Ti/QC%20MS%2077b%20reverse-Ti.jpg)
![Printed sixteenth-century missal according to the Use of Sarum, containing all liturgy (with music) for the celebration of Mass throughout the year. <br><br>
<b>Title:</b> <i>Missale ad usum ecclesie Sarisburiensis </i> [Missal for the use of Sarum] (Paris, 1529) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> H.6.24<a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21420881150003606"></a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Heavenly-Harmony/Divine-Order-Gallery/i-qjH3d7h/0/9eae3db0/Ti/H-006-024-198-Ti.jpg)
![Preface of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary printed on paper (left page) and vellum (right page). On the other side of the vellum leaf starts the Canon of the Mass, one of the most used parts of the liturgy, which explains why it was printed on vellum, a strong and durable material. <br><br>
<b>Title:</b> <i>Missale ad usum ecclesie Sarisburiensis </i> [Missal for the use of Sarum] (Paris, 1529) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> H.6.24<a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21420881150003606"></a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Heavenly-Harmony/Divine-Order-Gallery/i-JSCqPMd/0/e621352e/Ti/H-006-024-019-Ti.jpg)
![First published in 1503, this influential encyclopaedia by Gregor Reisch demonstrates the way music had since ancient times been conceived in relation to mathematics. Arranged in sections according to the seven liberal arts, music is grouped together with three other mathematical subjects: arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (the remaining three being grammar, logic, and rhetoric). This edition contains woodcuts with allegorical representations for each of the seven disciplines.
<br><br>
The frontispiece of Reisch's work depicts Nicostrata, the supposed inventor of the Latin alphabet, bearing a placard displaying the alphabet to a young student. Her left hand unlocks the door to the tower labelled <i>triclinium philosophiae</i> (the banquet of philosophy). The tower’s first two floors symbolise the teaching of grammar whilst upper floors relate to other liberal arts: the third represents logic, rhetoric and poetry, the fourth is labelled music, geometry and astronomy. The top of the tower is devoted to theology or metaphysics.<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Gregor Reisch<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Margarita philosophica </i> [Pearl of wisdom] (Basel, 1583) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21574072500003606"> C.14.24</a><br>
<b>Provenance:</b> Gift of Edward Martin, President of Queens’ College 1631.](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Heavenly-Harmony/Divine-Order-Gallery/i-x2SFcq2/0/51243849/Ti/C-014-024-004-Ti.jpg)
![Title page to the section on music section in Reisch's <i>Margarita philosophica </i> . Reisch divided this section into two parts, the first devoted to mathematical ‘principles’. The second explores practical aspects, including how monochord intervals equate with the system of solmisation that was in those days used by musicians to remember music.
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Gregor Reisch<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Margarita philosophica </i> [Pearl of wisdom] (Basel, 1583) <br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/1nnjft8/44CAM_ALMA21574072500003606"> C.14.24</a><br>
<b>Provenance:</b> Gift of Edward Martin, President of Queens’ College 1631-44 and 1660-61](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Heavenly-Harmony/Divine-Order-Gallery/i-vSMJSJJ/0/c8b0077b/Ti/C-014-024-006-Ti.jpg)