Universal Music-making (Musurgia Universalis), Volume I

That which provides delight and creates harmony
Accords with the humors The "Four Humors" (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) were believed in the 17th century to determine a person's physical and emotional temperament. of the one who beholds it.
But to another, it must necessarily cause vexation,
If it disagrees with their own, and turns them to anger.

From this, that common proverb was born,
That beauty is only what seems so to another,
And natural beauty is worth very little,
If it is not esteemed as such by the eye.

Of colors, then, one is fond of Azure,
While another abhors it and invites the eye to green;
There is another to whom crimson original: "porpora" — purple or royal crimson. is pleasing,
While another disdains it and is satisfied with yellow.

Nature, Lord, wove within her womb
At first some principal colors,
In the likeness of which she grafted
The four humors into the human Creature.

Now, just as these humors, mixed in various ways,
Create infinite forms of different temperaments,
So also those colors of various forms
Gain new qualities from new mixtures.

And if, among those mixtures which they make,
A harmonic proportion The mathematical relationship between elements that creates a pleasing balance. is found,
The human eye agrees with those colors;
But if it is not found there, they are held in hatred.

Understand the same of odors and flavors:
When a scent brings annoyance to one
But delight to another, it leads you to contemplate,
And there you perceive a hidden music.

I know a man for whom, if by chance
He happens to smell a crimson rose,
He runs a near danger to his life;
Such a dissonance is hidden there within him This refers to "idiosyncrasies" or extreme allergic reactions, which Kircher and Colonna interpret as a literal musical "clash" between the person's internal tuning and the object's properties..