M. Mersenne. De la nature des sons, 1635

Mersenne, Marin

De la nature des sons, des mouvemens et de leurs proprietez. Ou il est traité de la voix, des chants, de l'art de bien chanter... & de toutes sortes d'instrumens harmoniques, Paris: Richard Charlemagne, 1635

folio (36.3 x 23cm), half-title, woodcut device on title-page, woodcut initials, woodcut diagrams, engraved and woodcut illustrations, typeset music, Dolmetsch Library stamp and pencil shelfmark ("II E 5"), numerous deckle edges, contemporary armorial calf panels and spine laid down on later binding and retaining original pastedowns, gilt arms of Guillaume Marescot [Olivier 620], some staining and occasional browning

Mersenne (1588-1648) was one of the most significant writers and thinkers of his time, embracing theology and mathematics as well as music theory. The present work became the first section of his significant treatise on music theory, Harmonie universelle (1636). "[It] focuses on the study, undertaken in a mechanistic spirit, of acoustic quantities, their physical nature and their effects on physiology and passions. Mersenne, drawing on Isaac Beeckman, establishes experimentally the laws connecting the vibration, the length and tension of the strings, making an important contribution to acoustic science" (Philippe Hamou in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2018 edition).

PROVENANCE:

Guillaume Marescot (c.1560-1640), conseiller du roi, arms on binding (he owned a substantial library of more than 6,000 volumes)