Echoes of an Invisible World

Jacomien Prins, Ph.D., University of Warwick, is a global research fellow at the IAS (Institute of Advanced Study) and CSR (Centre for the Study of the Renaissance) at that university. She has published many articles and a volume (Harmonious labyrinth) on the Pythagorean tradition of world harmony.

“Groundbreaking … major contribution to the field of Renaissance and early modern science”. Penelope Gouk, University of Manchester. In: The British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 49, No. 1 (March 2016), pp. 119-120.

• List of figures, music examples, and tablesPrefaceChapter 1. Introduction1. Nature and scope of the book2. The tradition of the harmony of the spheres3. Status quaestionis4. Methodology5. Structure of the bookPART ONE. MARSILIO FICINO (1433-1499)Chapter 2. The universe as a musical creation 1. Introduction2. The Timaeus as a source of perennial harmonic wisdom2.1. Prisca theologia2.2. A hymn to the Creator of the cosmos3. A divine geometrical method for a philosophy of nature3.1. The divine Composer-Architect as First Cause of the universe3.2. Seven cosmic principles3.3. Number over matter4. Cosmic harmony in terms of the four mathematical disciplines 4.1. Arithmetic: Numbers bridging the conceptual and the physical world4.2. Music: Harmonies as intermediaries between the intelligible and the sensible realm 4.3. Geometry: Cosmic harmony expressed in terms of continuous quantity4.4. Astronomy: The planetary spheres as harmonic forms in motion5. A fifteenth-century dynamic interpretation of the music of the spheres5.1. The harmonic structure of the World-Soul5.2. Four cosmic harmonizing powers5.3. A magical-astrological interpretation of the music of the spheres6. ConclusionChapter 3. Man as a co-creator of his harmonic nature1. Introduction2. Man as a harmonic microcosm2.1. Man made in the image and likeness of God 2.2. Musical creativity3. Contemplative ascents3.1. The transmigration of the human soul: a true and likely story3.2. The soul’s journey through the heavenly spheres4. A fifteenth-century dynamic interpretation of musica humana4.1. The harmonic structure of the human body and soul4.2. A scientific model of the sense of hearing5. Music’s power to shape and condition the human body and soul5.1. Music as medicine5.2. Therapeutic planetary music6. ConclusionPART TWO. FRANCESCO PATRIZI (1529-1597)Chapter 4. From the music of the spheres to the mathematization of space1. Introduction2. The reception of Ficino’s interpretation of the notion of Pythagorean world harmony 2.1. An elaboration of the myth of the prisca theologia2.2. Critique of Ficino’s interpretation of the harmony of the spheres3. A revision of the traditional theory of the four mathematical disciplines3.1. Questioning the primacy of number3.2. The universe is not ordered by numerical ratios that produce musical consonances 3.3. A new geometry3.4. The harmony of the spheres as remedy for astronomical chaos4. A sixteenth-century interpretation of the harmony of the spheres4.1. The harmonic structure of the World-Soul4.2. Harmonizing powers explaining cosmic motion and dynamic interplay4.3. A debate with a member of the Index of Forbidden Books on the harmonic design of God’s creation5. ConclusionChapter 5. Man’s nostalgia for a lost musical paradise1. Introduction2. Questioning the belief in a harmonic design of the human soul2.1. Critique of Ficino’s Eros doctrine2.2. Man: just a special kind of animal or made in the image and likeness of God?2.3. Changes in the relationship between the intellect and the sense of hearing 3. A transformation of music from mathematical science into rhetorical art 3.1. The musical foundations of human and animal speech3.2. Towards a new musical semantics modelled after ancient Greek music4. A musical expression of the ineffable4.1. Critique of Aristotle’s theory of imitation4.2. The marvellous as the basis for a new theory of musical magic4.3. The harmony of the spheres as experience of the musical sublime5. Conclusion Chapter 6. Conclusion6.1. The rediscovery of ‘new’ ancient sources belonging to the tradition of the harmony of the spheres6.2. The development of new methodologies6.3. Intellectual history from an interdisciplinary perspectiveSelect BibliographyIndex