Sing Aloud Harmonious Spheres: Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony

This is the first volume to explore the reception of the Pythagorean doctrine of cosmic harmony within a variety of contexts, ranging chronologically from Plato to 18th-century England. This original collection of essays engages with contemporary debates concerning the relationship between music, philosophy, and science, and challenges the view that Renaissance discussions on cosmic harmony are either mere repetitions of ancient music theory or pre-figurations of the ‘Scientific Revolution’. Utilizing this interdisciplinary approach, Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony offers a new perspective on the reception of an important classical theme in various cultural, sequential and geographical contexts, underlying the continuities and changes between Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This project will be of particular interest within these emerging disciplines as they continue to explore the ideological significance of the various ways in which we appropriate the past.

Jacomien Prins is a Global Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) and the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance (CSR) of the University of Warwick. She has worked extensively on the interaction between music theory and philosophy in the Renaissance. Her work includes Harmonisch labyrint (Hilversum: Verloren, 2007), Echoes of an Invisible World: Marsilio Ficino and Francesco Patrizi on Cosmic Order and Music Theory (Leiden: Brill, 2014), and Marsilio Ficino: Commentary on the Timaeus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, forthcoming). She is currently working on a book, titled A well-tempered Life: Music, Health and Happiness in Renaissance Learning.

Maude Vanhaelen is Associate Professor in the Departments of Classics and Italian at the University of Warwick. She has published articles on the reception of Platonism in 15th and 16th century Italy. she is the author of Marsilio Ficino: Commentary on the Parmenides (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012).