Ptolemy Harmonics: Translation and Commentary (Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava Supplementum) - Hardcover

Solomon, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004115919 ISBN 13: 9789004115910

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub, 1999

Synopsis

Ptolemy's comprehensive treatises on astronomy and geography were influential for nearly two millennia. Equally influential was his treatise on harmonics, the ancient science which combined and brought to completion the study of philosophy and science. This volume offers a comprehensive English translation and commentary of Ptolemy's Harmonics.
The treatise begins with Ptolemy's study of pitches and intervals, for which he extracts both an idealized musical scale and a new acoustical tool. After discussing modulation, he expands his horizons by applying musical intervals to the human soul and celestial bodies, ultimately describing a cosmic harmony.
The English translation faithfully reproduces Ptolemy's style and includes all the charts surviving in the manuscript tradition. The commentary offers a full exegesis of the text, loci paralleli, and citations of modern scholarly sources.

About this title

About the Author:

Jon Solomon, Ph.D. (1980) in Classics, University of North Carolina, is Professor of Classics at the University of Arizona. He has published extensively on ancient Greek music and its influence in the Renaissance and modern eras.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 9004115919
• ISBN 13: 9789004115910
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232