- 90
Boethius, Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus
Description
Folio (12 ¼ x 8⅜ in.; 311 x 213 mm). Types 16:66G, 17:80Gb, 22:130G, 88 Greek, collation: aa-kk6, ll8= 68 leaves, woodcut printer's device on last page, 70 lines plus headline, two columns, numerous diagrams and tables, 2- to 5-line initial spaces with printed guide-letters; oval library stamp obscured on title and last page, worm punctures in first two leaves and last two quires touching a few letters but heavier in last two leaves, some marginal dampstains in first and last few leaves, a few contemporary marginalia. Modern vellum.
Literature
BMC V, 341; BSB-Ink. B-618; GW 4511; Goff B-767; H 3351; Klebs 192.1; PMM 34
Catalogue Note
First edition of de musica, the most important theoretical work on music in the Middle Ages, with the second edition of De Arithmetica.
Boethius' works on arithmetic, music and geometry made up the quadrivium (along with astronomy) in the curriculum of the medieval schools. Only his works on arithmetic and music have survived intact; the treatise on geometry is probably not his work. The Musica is a translation of Greek works by Nicomachus and Ptolemy, and it was chiefly through Boethius that these were known in the Middle Ages.
These texts form part of the first edition of the Opera (1491-1492) but have their own collective title-page and are found separately in approximately one quarter of the surviving copies.