Musical Sympathy and Occult Knowledge
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Mersenne’s many descriptions of musical instruments here and elsewhere provide detailed and invaluable insights into this aspect of seventeenth-century music. Influenced by his interest in the then emerging science of acoustics, the inclusion of instruments in this scientific work reflects Mersenne’s conception of them as a new means through which to explore the principles underlying music. Here we see an illustration of a recorder together with accompanying music and tablature (a form of music notation).
Author: Marin Mersenne
Title: Cogitata physico-mathematica [Physico-mathematical thoughts] (Paris, 1644)
Shelfmark: C.14.3
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