Harmonicorum Elementorum libri III … Venice 1562

Aristoxeni musici antiquiss. Harmonicorum Elementorum libri III. 

Cl. Ptolomaei Harmonicorum, seu de Musica libri III. 

Aristotelis de obiecto auditus fragmentum ex Porphyrij commentarijs. 

Omnia nunc primum latine conscripta & edita ab Ant. Gogavino Graviensi. 

Venetijs, apud Vincentium Valgrisium, 1562 [Venice, Valgrisi, 1562].

First edition

4to (182 x 136 mm). A-X⁴ (X₄ blank): 165, (1) pp. Woodcut diagrams. Margins cut short. Wormtrack to outer blank margin of the beginning twelve leaves. Late 17th or early 18th century calf, restored. Looks like a recased copy. The editio princeps was published in Leiden in 1616. – Hoffmann I 375; Adams A-1973.

¶ „The theoretical discussion of music naturally occured in the context of other Greek philosophical inquiry and was influenced by it. Aristoxenus of Tarentum took part in this discussion on all levels, but most importantly in the context of music theory. His contribution was to turn musical science – almost single-handedly – from an exploration of the relationship of numbers into an investigation of the way in which sound could be arranged and understood as music. His vindictive nature was infamous, yet his musical knowledge was so extensive and his authority on the subject so unchallenged in antiquity that he earned the title ὁ Μουσικός. This reputation was justly founded both on the breadth of his musical research and on the depth of his investigation into harmonics and other specific areas … Arguably, Aristoxenus can be seen as the founder of musicology and as the person who established music theory as an independent subject.“ (S. Gibson, Aristoxenus of Tarentum and The Birth of Musicology, NY 2005, pp. 1f.)