![[Search]](/static/images/search.gif){kind=small}
![[A-Z Index]](/static/images/az.gif){kind=small}
![[Contact]](/static/images/contact.gif){kind=small}
![[University of Cambridge]](/static/images/identifier2.gif){kind=small}
![[Talks.cam]](/static/images/talkslogosmall.gif)
Monday 15 May 2006, 13:00-14:15
The logarithmic ear: Pietro Mengoli, music, mathematics and anatomy in the late seventeenth century
- 👤 Speaker: Benjamin Wardhaugh, University of Oxford
- 📅 Date & Time: Monday 15 May 2006, 13:00 - 14:15
- 📍 Venue: Seminar Room 1, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Abstract
In 1670 the Bolognese mathematician Pietro Mengoli published his Speculationi di musica, a highly original work attempting to found the mathematical study of music on the anatomy of the ear. His anatomy was idiosyncratic and his mathematics complex beyond belief, leading him to assert for example that the soul computes a definite integral every time a sound is heard. He analysed in detail the supposed behaviour of the ear’s internal aura, and the patterns of strokes made on the eardrum by simultaneous sounds, and divided the musical octave into a continuous set of regions which he colour-coded to show their physiological effects.
The handful of scholars in and around the Royal Society who eagerly awaited its first appearance seem to have found the Speculationi baffling, as do its few modern readers. In the light of my Ph.D. research on mathematical music theories of the period I will attempt to illuminate some of the work’s obscurities and explain why I find it both fascinating and important.
Series This talk is part of the Cabinet of Natural History series.
Included in Lists
- All Talks (aka the CURE list)
- Cabinet of Natural History
- Cambridge talks
- Chris Davis' list
- custom
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science
- Featured lists
- Featured talks
- Guy Emerson's list
- hc446
- History and Philosophy of Science long list
- jer64's list
- ji247's list
- Philosophy and History of Science
- Philosophy Events
- Seminar Room 1, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
- Trust & Technology Initiative - interesting events
- Yishu's list
- yk449
Note: Ex-directory lists are not shown.