Sing Aloud Harmonious Spheres: Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony (Warwick Series in the Humanities)

"This is the first volume to explore the reception of the Pythagorean doctrine of cosmic harmony within a variety of contexts, ranging chronologically from Plato to 18th-century England. This original collection of essays engages with contemporary debates concerning the relationship between music, philosophy, and science, and challenges the view that Renaissance discussions on cosmic harmony are either mere repetitions of ancient music theory or pre-figurations of the 'Scientific Revolution'. Utilizing this interdisciplinary approach, Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony offers a new perspective on the reception of an important classical theme in various cultural, sequential and geographical contexts, underlying the continuities and changes between Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This project will be of particular interest within these emerging disciplines as they continue to explore the ideological significance of the various ways in which we appropriate the past."--Provided by publisher Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- PART I: Ancient and Medieval Sources -- 1 Eight Singing Sirens: Heavenly Harmonies in Plato and the Neoplatonists -- 2 Harmonic and Acoustic theory: Latin and Arabic Ideas of Sympathetic Vibration as the Causes of Effects between Heaven and Earth -- 3 Theory of Heavenly Harmony and Angelic Song in Jewish and Islamic Sources -- 4 Medieval Variations on a Cosmic Theme -- 5 'Therout com so gret a noyse': The Harmony of the Spheres and Chaucerian Poetics -- PART II: The Revival of the Doctrine of the Pythagorean Harmony of the Universe in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Italy and Germany -- 6 Cosmic Harmony, Demons, and the Mnemonic Power of Music in Renaissance Florence: The Case of Marsilio Ficino -- 7 Francesco Giorgi on the Harmony of Creation and the Catholic Censorship of His Views -- 8 Francesco Patrizi and the 'Weakest Echo of the Harmony of the Spheres' -- 9 The Reception of Ficino's Theory of World Harmony in Germany -- PART III: The Tradition of the Harmony of the Spheres in Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century Europe and New Spain -- 10 Andrea Torelli and His Orphic Lyre -- 11 Cosmic Play in a Symbolic Harmonic Universe: the Reception of Cusanus and Kircher in Seventeenth-Century New Spain -- 12 The Harmony of the Spheres in English Musical Mathematics, 1650-1750 -- 13 William Stukeley's 'Music of the Spheres' Manuscript: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Newtonianism, c. 1720 -- Bibliography -- List of Contributors -- Index This is the first volume to explore the reception of the Pythagorean doctrine of cosmic harmony within a variety of contexts, ranging chronologically from Plato to 18th-century England. This original collection of essays engages with contemporary debates concerning the relationship between music, philosophy, and science, and challenges the view that Renaissance discussions on cosmic harmony are either mere repetitions of ancient music theory or pre-figurations of the 'Scientific Revolution'. Utilizing this interdisciplinary approach, Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony offers a new perspective on the reception of an important classical theme in various cultural, sequential and geographical contexts, undiferlying the continuities and changes between Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This project will be of particular interest within these emerging disciplines as they continue to explore the ideological significance of the various ways in which we appropriate the past Gives accurate and reliable summaries of the current state of research. It includes entries on philosophers, problems, terms, historical periods, subjects and the cultural context of Renaissance Philosophy. Furthermore, it covers Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Byzantine and vernacular philosophy, and includes entries on the cross-fertilization of these philosophical traditions. A unique feature of this encyclopedia is that it does not aim to define what Renaissance philosophy is, rather simply to cover the philosophy of the period between 1300 and 1650