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OF THE FIRST BOOK

CHAPTER I.

A large historiated woodcut initial 'M' depicting a man on the left playing a lute and a landscape scene on the right with figures and a tree.
Music is a generic name, extending very broadly and containing many species: such as celestial, terrestrial, natural, artificial, historical music, etc. In the 18th century, music was still often categorized into ancient divisions like musica mundana (the music of the universe/spheres) and musica humana (the harmony of the human body and soul). For my part, serving brevity and utility rather than curiosity, I have proposed to treat only artificial music original: "artificiali"; music created by human skill and artifice.. It is twofold: speculative original: "speculativa"; the theoretical study of mathematical ratios and musical laws. and practical. Regarding the first, namely the speculative, we shall speak in this Book, and I will briefly touch upon only those things which seem necessary for a fuller attainment of Practice; the second part, namely the practical, I shall leave to be treated more extensively in the Second Book. Since our Music is concerned with sound as its object, we must first deal with that. Let it be, therefore:

CHAPTER II.

Concerning Sound.

Mersenne Marin Mersenne (1588–1648), a French mathematician and music theorist known as the "father of acoustics.", in the first book of his Harmonie original: "Harmon." referring to his work Harmonie Universelle., proposition 2, following the mind of Aristotle, says that sound is the motion of the air. This certainly cannot be understood of just any air, because air left to itself undoubtedly moves, and yet according to the same Aristotle, cited by Mersenne in the same place: air is devoid of sound; from which it follows, what-