MERSENNE le père Marin Harmonicorum instrumentorum Libri IV in quibus fuse satis agitur de monochordis, variisq. citharis, barbitis, lyris, tubis, clavichordiis, fistulis, tibiis, serpente, cornubus, organis, campanis, cymbalis, atque tympanis.

Lenoble, 17; RISM, B, VI; Eitner, VI, 444; Fétis, VI, 98; DSB, IX, 319.

First edition in Latin.

“By 1629 Mersenne had planned and soon afterward began writing simultaneously two sets of treasises, in French and in Latin, which together form his great systematic work, and were published as the two parts of Harmonie universelle, contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique (1636, 1637) and the eight books of Harmonicorum libri with Harmonicorum libri IV (1636)… Parallel discussions of light and vision, beginning in Quaestiones in Genesim and Mersenne’s correspondence from this time, run especially through Harmonie universelle and Harmonicorum libri, the Cogitata and Universae geometriae synopsis… Mersenne’s scientific analysis of sound and of its effects on the ear and the soul began with the fundamental demonstration that pitch is proportional to frequency and hence that the musical intervals (octave, fifth, fourth, and so on) are ratios of frequencies of vibrations, whatever instruments produces them… Mersenne gave an experimental proof by counting the slow vibrations of very long strings against time measured by pulse beats or a seconds pendulum. He then used the laws he had completed (now bearing his name), relating frequency to the length, tension, and specific gravity of strings, to calculate frequencies too rapid to count. Similar relations were established for wind and percussion instruments. The demonstration of these propositions made it possible to offer quantitative physical explanations of consonance, dissonance, and resonance” (DSB).

“Le père Mersenne travailla simultanément aux livres latins et aux livres français. On ne doit donc pas voir dans l’une de ces rédactions une traduction de l’autre, comme on le fait parfois par erreur” (Lenoble, p. XXI).

Profusely illustrated with copper- and wood- engravings depicting musical instruments and scores.

Last leaf restored in margin, one engraving with slight loss (p. 160).