Aldrovandi’s Musical Legacy: not just Aristoxenus. Towards New Research Horizons

Abstract

Aldrovandi’s focus on music as culture, as a means of understanding the world and its inhabitants, as irreplaceable nourishment for the scientist’s intellectual curiosity, is a page yet to be written in the history of the relationship between music and science in the 16th and early 17th century. Focusing on the printed edition of the Latin translation of Aristoxenus’ musical treatise in his library, this article outlines some further directions of a research project on Aldrovandi’s musical legacy that intends to explore ancient and contemporary musical treatises, as well as the sounds and music of the natives, as narrated by travellers and explorers of the “New World”.