A Further Arabic-Latin Writing on Music

Henry George Farmer

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00074840

A Further Arabic-Latin Writing on Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Henry George Farmer

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Besides De scientiis, there is another treatise attributed to Al-Fārābī known in Latin which contains references to music. This is De ortu scientiarum. At the same time it must be pointed out that, unlike De scientiis, we do not possess irrefutable proof of authorship, as we shall see. In its Latin dress, however, it appears to have been widely disseminated throughout the great culture centres of Medieval Europe, and for that reason it attracts more than passing interest.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 1933 , pp. 307 - 322

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00074840 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1933

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References

^{page 307 note 1} Leclerc, , Hist, de la médecine, ii, 420Google Scholar. Baeumker, , Alfarabi Über den Ursprung der Wissenschaften, 7Google Scholar. There is, however, a work by al-Fārābī catalogued by Ibn al-Qiftl (d. 1248) entitled the Marātib dl-'ulūm (Grades of the Sciences), a name suspiciously akin to De ortu scientiarum.

^{page 308 note 1} Farmer, , Arabian Influence on Musical Theory, 14, 16Google Scholar; History of Arabian Music, 177; Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence, 30, 160, 219; Legacy of Islam,369.

^{page 308 note 2} Hoefer, , Histoire de la chimie (1842), i, 326Google Scholar.

^{page 308 note 3} Steinschneider, , Al-Fārābī … (1869), 89, 255Google Scholar; Die europäischen Übersetzungen aus dem arabischen, No. 68, g.

^{page 308 note 4} Brockelmann, , Gesch. d. arab. Litt. (1898–1902), i, 212Google Scholar.

^{page 308 note 5} Baeumker, , Alfarabi Über den Ursprung der Wissenschaften (Beit. z. Gesch. d. Philos. des M.-A.s., xix, 1916)Google Scholar.

^{page 308 note 6} Thorndike, , A Hist of Magic and Experimental Science (1923), ii, 80Google Scholar.

^{page 308 note 7} Sarton, , Intro. to the History of Science (1927–1931), ii, i, 171Google Scholar. His reference to Baeumker in ii, i, 340, is erroneous.

^{page 308 note 8} Jourdain, , Recherches critiques sur l'age et l'origine des traductions latines d'Aristote (1819), 116–17Google Scholar.

^{page 308 note 9} Hauréau, , Hist. de la phil. scolastique (1880), ii, i, 56Google Scholar.

^{page 308 note 10} Correns, , Die dem Boethius fälschlich zugeschriebene Abhandlungen des Dominicus Gundisalvi de imitate (Beit. z. Gesch. d. Philos. des M.-A.s., i, 1891), 34Google Scholar.

^{page 308 note 11} See ante JRAS. 1932, 576–7.

^{page 308 note 12} Al-Fārābī is mentioned twice by name, but not the work quoted from. It is, however, De Scientis.

^{page 309 note 1} Antonio, N., Bibliotheca Hispana Vetus (1788), ii, 108Google Scholar.

^{page 309 note 2} Not Gondisalvus as Jourdain writes.

^{page 309 note 3} Wallensis, Joannes, Florilegium de vita et dictis illustrium philosophorum, ed. Wadding, Luke (1665), pars, i, cap. iGoogle Scholar. See Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS. 16613.

^{page 309 note 4} On fol. 186 we read “Auicenna”, but the Explicit on fol. 186 v. reads “Abinsenus”.

^{page 309 note 5} Steinschneider, , Al-Fārābi, 85Google Scholar.

^{page 309 note 6} Oxford, Bodl. Lib., 3623; Paris, Bibl. Nat., 14700. Hauréau (op. cit., ii, i, 56) has Copula instead of Epistola.

^{page 309 note 7} British Museum MS., Arundel, 377, fol. 96Google Scholar.

^{page 309 note 8} Hermes, viii, 331. Cf. Baeumker, , Der Platonismus im Mittelalter (1916), 33Google Scholar.

^{page 309 note 9} Vienna, , Bibl. Dom., 121Google Scholar, and Paris, Bibl. Nat., 6298.

^{page 310 note 1} Speculum doctrinale, i, xvii, xix. “Alpharabius in libro De ortu scientiarum.”.

^{page 310 note 2} Opus tertium, cap. lix.

^{page 310 note 3} Paris, Bibl. Nat., 6298; Munich, Staatsbibl., 317.

^{page 310 note 4} Baeumker, , Alfarabi, Über den Ursprung der Wissenschaften, 17–24Google Scholar.

^{page 311 note 1} Baur, , Dominions GundissaMnus, 34–5Google Scholar. Seybold, Glossarium Latino Arabicum (eleventh century), has domed = . Schiaparelli, Vocabulista in Arabico (thirteenth century), has domare, exercitare = .

^{page 311 note 2} See Plato's Protagoras.

^{page 311 note 3} Steinschneider, , Die europ. Übers, aus dem Arab., as cited, cxlix, 44Google Scholar; cli, 95.

^{page 311 note 4} Ibid., cli, 90; 104–5.

^{page 311 note 5} Baur, , Dominions Gundissalinus, 160Google Scholar.

^{page 312 note 1} This can scarcely be painting or sculpture (Bildern) as Baeumker supposes. It more likely refers to magic glasses (miroirs merveilleux) such as we read of in the list of Greek sciences mentioned in the tenth century (?) Abrégé des merveilles (Mukhtaṣar al-'ajā'ib), ed. de Vaux, Carra, p. 117Google Scholar.

^{page 312 note 2} Baeumker, , Alfarabi, Uber den Ursprung der Wissenschaften. (Beit. z. Gesch. d. Phil, des M.-A.s, xix.)Google Scholar

^{page 313 note 1} This is in a later hand. “Explicit Abinsenus de ortu scientiarum.”

^{page 313 note 2} This is in a later hand.

^{page 313 note 3} Baur, , Dom. Gundissalinus (p. 159)Google Scholar, says that this is in a later hand. This is true enough of the title at the foot of fol. 186 v., but the original title may be found in a rather faint hand at the head of the same folio.

^{page 313 note 4} Steinschneider, , following the old Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (Oxford, 1697), gives the commencing folio as 173, which is wrongGoogle Scholar.

^{page 314 note 1} “etiam” in Baeumker.

^{page 314 note 2} Not in Baeumker.

^{page 315 note 1} Not in Baeumker.

^{page 315 note 2} “ergo” in Baeumker.

^{page 315 note 3} “est magna” in Baur.

^{page 315 note 4} “et” in Baur.

^{page 316 note 1} “utilis” in Baeumker.

^{page 317 note 1} “rationales” in Baur.

^{page 317 note 2} Not in Baeumker.

^{page 317 note 3} “inventum” in Baeumker.

^{page 317 note 4} Not in Baur.

^{page 317 note 5} “confirmandum” in Baur.

^{page 318 note 1} “domatrices quatuor” in Baeumker.

^{page 318 note 2} All the other texts have “iam”.

^{page 318 note 3} Cf. Baeumker.

^{page 320 note 1} See the translation by Ismail Alī and A. S. Fulton, M.A., in Steele's edition of Roger Bacon's Secretum secretorum.

^{page 320 note 2} See Farmer, The Influence of Music; from Arabic Sources.

^{page 320 note 3} “Ante infirmum dulcis sonitus fiat de musicorum generibus, sicut campanula, uidula, rota, & similibus: his enim anima condelcctatur, & ex delectatione excitatur natura.” De omnium morborum, cap. xvi, De stupor mentis. See also De melancholia, lib. ii. As for Haly (= ‘Alī ibn al-'Abbās) and Avicenna (= Ibn Sīnā) see ante JRAS. 1932, p. 590.

^{page 321 note 1} Migne, , Patr. Lat., clxxvi, 739Google Scholar.

^{page 321 note 2} Migne, , Patr. Lat., clxxvii, 191Google Scholar.

^{page 321 note 3} See ante JRAS. 1932, 577.

^{page 322 note 1} Thorndike, op. cit. ii, 177.

^{page 322 note 2} For these fragments see Baur, , Dom. Gundissalinus …, 398Google Scholar.

^{page 322 note 3} Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum doctrinale, lib. xvii, cap. xv et seq.

^{page 322 note 4} Bacon, , Opus tertium, lixGoogle Scholar. See also Opus maius.

^{page 322 note 5} Coussemaker, , Script., i (6)Google Scholar.

^{page 322 note 6} Ibid., iv (2).

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