- State Library of Victoria
- > Mirror of the World
- Home >
- Inspiration >
- Manuscripts >
- De Musica
De Musica
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Late 10th century
This Italian manuscript is the oldest book in the State Library of Victoria’s collection. It provides an example of the Carolingian script which was devised at the time of King Charlemagne in the late 8th and early 9th centuries.
Originally written in 500CE by Boethius (c475–524), a Roman scholar and statesman, the work consists primarily of diagrams and explanations about the relationship of music to mathematics. This reflected medieval thinking that music was a mathematical discipline.
De Musica became the standard textbook on the theory of music throughout the Middle Ages, and was still prescribed reading at Oxford University in the 18th century.
