I love how a complex layout produces such a pretty page.manuscriptbook:
Can You Hear The Harmony of the Spheres?
The cliché that the medieval Church ruthlessly repressed all science can be quickly argued against with a ogle at this manuscript,a scientific text book for monks written in late twelfth-century England (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, or W. 73). It is a compendium of knowledge from early medieval Christian writers including Isidore of Seville,Venerable (respected because of age, distinguished) Bede and Abbo of Fleury. They adapted classical astronomy and astrology to accord with Christian beliefs. Most of the diagrams in this manuscript are so-called rotae: wheel-shaped schemata. The circle was considered the perfect shape, symbolic of God. The folio above (5r) is approximately the so-called ‘Harmony of the Spheres’. This is the idea that the seven heavenly bodies (the then-known planets, and plus the sun and moon) moved through space according to a musical harmony: the song of our solar system with God as its composer. Between the circles representing the heavenly bodies at the top of the page you can read the words ‘tonus’ and ‘semitiomium’,which are musical intervals known to us as tone and semitone! nowadays we know our solar system does not quite operate like this, but the way this manuscript brings harmony to the universe not only through God but also through science is truly moving.
- Koen Huigen
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