Abstract
Boethian arithmetic formed the basis of music theory for the medieval
encyclopedist, Jacobus. His monumental Speculum musicae shows us how
people around 1300, and particularly in the University of Paris, were slowly
accommodating themselves to the newly rediscovered works of Aristotle,
while the long-known works of Euclid and Boethius still gave a definitive
theoretical basis to music. Not without effort Jacobus reworked Boethius
and went further, though still using Boethian techniques. One difficulty
he encountered was the problem of dividing the tone into two equal parts.
Publisher
Amsterdam University Press