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Source Description

The idea of the harmony of spheres – that numerical proportions corresponding to musical harmonies governed both the movement of the seven heavenly bodies and their distance from the Earth – was taken up by medieval writers from ancient thought. In the illustration of the harmony of the spheres in the upper part of the page, the Sun, the Moon, and the five known planets are depicted as seven discs of equal size. Between them are written musical intervals -- a tone (tonus), a semitone (semitonium), or three semitones (tria semitonia). The diagram below shows the Earth at center. The names of the zodiac are written in the outer frame. The names of the planetary bodies are written above their orbits, shown as red rings. Because each of these heavenly bodies has its own, eccentric orbit, the rings representing their orbits are not concentric.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
28605
label
The Harmony of the Spheres and the Planetary Orbits
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
28605
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
The Harmony of the Spheres and the Planetary Orbits
description
The idea of the harmony of spheres – that numerical proportions corresponding to musical harmonies governed both the movement of the seven heavenly bodies and their distance from the Earth – was taken up by medieval writers from ancient thought. In the illustration of the harmony of the spheres in the upper part of the page, the Sun, the Moon, and the five known planets are depicted as seven discs of equal size. Between them are written musical intervals -- a tone (tonus), a semitone (semitonium), or three semitones (tria semitonia). The diagram below shows the Earth at center. The names of the zodiac are written in the outer frame. The names of the planetary bodies are written above their orbits, shown as red rings. Because each of these heavenly bodies has its own, eccentric orbit, the rings representing their orbits are not concentric.
provenance
Gruel and Englemann Collection, Paris [1]; acquired by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1903; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.[1] no. 131, bookplate on inside upper board
date
late 12th century
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
illuminated manuscripts
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
26.7
height
15.5
dimensionsRaw
H: 10 1/2 × W: 6 1/8 in. (26.7 × 15.5 cm)
Source extras
style
Romanesque
med
ink and pigments on medium-weight parchment
creator_ids
8737
6197
collection_ids
MSS
exhibition_ids
none
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
4af6e33d341b7f0d