Music.- Aristoxenus

Harmonicorum Elementorum libri III, FIRST EDITION, woodcut printer’s device to title and last verso, historiated initials, geometrical diagrams and tables in the text, lacking final blank f.?, A2 just shaved at foot, 2 paper flaws to title, slight worming, not affecting text, to first few gatherings, slightly later calf, spine gilt, a little rubbed, [Adams A1973; Hirsch, I, 32], 4to, Vincenzo Valgrisi, Venice, 1562.

*** The editio princeps of the most important source of information about ancient Greek music. Aristoxenus, of Tarentum (4th century B.C.), was a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm. This is the Latin version by Antonio Gogavino, comprising the ‘Elementa Harmonica’ by Aristoxenus, the ‘Harmonica’ by Ptolemy (the most complete treatise on music of the Pythagorean school), and two further treatises on music theory, one by Aristotle and one by Porphyry, a Neoplatonic philosopher who was a pupil of Plotinus.