John Smith Gallery

Marin Mersenne (1588-1648). Harmonicorum Libri III, Graece et Latinei. Paris, 1636. [D.1.17]

Mersenne’s correspondence with Descartes, Galileo, Pascal, and Torricelli played an important role in the dissemination of important new scientific discoveries of the day. As a theologist, philosopher and mathematician Mersenne’s interests clearly cohered, to some degree, with those of Smith. In Harmonicorum Libri we see the important role played by music in Mersenne’s broader philosophy. Although this famous treatise says much about practical music of his day, Mersenne was motivated by the Platonic belief in the harmonic basis of the universe.

The important scientific revelation for which Mersenne is best known is his discovery of the mathematical laws governing the vibration of strings. This achievement, however, constituted part of Mersenne’s more general search for a universal measure that could be applied to nature as a whole.