• Illo Humphrey | PhD (2004) | HDR (2014) : Université Paris X-Nanterre • • Mediævalist | Musicologist | Proto-Philologist | Concert-Baritone • • Trilingual Simultaneous Interpreter (French A • English A • German C) • • Research...
more• Illo Humphrey | PhD (2004) | HDR (2014) : Université Paris X-Nanterre •
• Mediævalist | Musicologist | Proto-Philologist | Concert-Baritone •
• Trilingual Simultaneous Interpreter (French A • English A • German C) •
• Research Associate | UR 24142 Plurielles-LaPRIL | Université Bordeaux Montaigne •
• BOETHIUS (Anicius Manlius [Torquatus] Severinus)
*Rome, ca. 480 – †Pavia, ca. 524: Powerful Bridge between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Tractatus maior in 3 volumes:
• Volume 1 - Commentary •
• Volume 2 - Complete Critical princeps Edition: Boethii De arithmetica •
• Volume 3 - Appendix •
• Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH | Nordhausen | Deutschland •
• À paraître | Forthcoming | Bevorstehend | 2023 •
• English Abstract •
• This forthcoming 3-volume publication in French is concentrated solely upon the scientific-philosophical works of the Platonist Anicius Manlius Torquatus Seuerinus Boethius, retracing the development of the influence of his teachings on the Carolingian and Post-Carolingian civilisation, and on the European Unity of Culture in general. The scientific-philosophical disciplines studied by Boethius, essentially of Pythagorean and Platonic origin, were called by Boethius himself “quadruvium” [sic]. In this 3-volume study, the following themes are developed:
• (1) The scientific-philosophical teachings of Boethius, which are preserved in his two treatises De institutione arithmetica libri duo et De institutione musica libri quinque, were destined not only for the future mathematicus, musicus, geometres, astronomus, but designed to be a part of the general curricula for all pupils and scholars, regardless of their chosen fields, during the period of the great “correctio” or “renovatio” instituted by Charlemagne’s well-known capitulary "Admonitio generalis", promulgated the 23rd of March 789 (ed. A. Boretius, M.G.H., Legum sectio II, tome I, p. 52-62) •
• (2) The iconographic and architectural arts and, to a certain extent, the art of manuscript binding of the same period, were all based on the same fundamental principle which determines the formation of musical intervals, that is to say the principle of the Octave Regime, characterised by the simple diapasonic, binary or dyadic ratio of 1 to 2, expressed here by the following algorithm: Given “ f ” being the function of the parameters: v going from + 0 to ∞ (v Є N) • n going from + 0 to ∞ (n Є N) • then f (v, n) = v / (2n) = 1: a p v • i. e. f (27 648, 14) = = 27 648 / 214 = = 1 to 1, 6875 • [Nota bene: v = value • a p v = absolute proportional value • i. inf. = immediately inferior] •
• (3) The fundamental concept of the Octave Regime is at the very heart of Epistemology, being the basis of the philosophy of numbers and proportions (ἡ ἀριθμητικὴ τέχνη | ars arithmetica), the basis of the essence of number (ἡ τοῦ ἀριθμοὺ οὐσία | substantia numeri), and consequently the basis of the philosophy of musical sounds and intervals (ἡ μουσικὴ τέχνη | ars musica) •
• (4) The primitive glosses, written in the 1st and 2nd person singular of the present indicative tense, which are found at the end of the Prohœmium [Prologue] of the Boethii De institutione arithmetica libri duo in five 9th century manuscripts, firstly in Latin stenography (i. e. tironian notes) in the two manuscripts Paris, BnF, Fonds latin 14064 (f. 2: 1-18) and Paris, BnF, Fonds latin 7183 (f. 2v: 4-25), then in normal Latin in the three manuscripts Paris, BnF, Fonds latin 13009 (f. 1v: 11-24), Paris, BnF, nouvelles acquisition latine 1614 (f. 2: 1-17), BnF, Fonds latin 6639 (f. 74r [71r]: 10-20 et f. 74v [71v]: 1-4); and finally, the key-gloss written in uncial script in the form of a subscriptio at the beginning of the De institutione arithmetica II, 1 (“…legi opusculum meum”: cf. Paris, BnF, Fonds latin 14064, f. 37: 10-12), lead one to affirm by deduction that these unique glosses apparently addressed to Symmachus (i. e. “probator”), were in fact written originally by Boethius himself (i. e. “auctor”) •
• (5) In conclusion, this new work on Boethius is not only a Tractatus maior on the his two scientific-philosophical treatises De institutione arithmetica libri duo and De institutione musica libri quinque, but is also a basic study on proto-philology, that is to say a non-normative critical edition which respects as far as possible all the essential and primary characteristics of the chosen manuscript sources, e. g. page layout, spelling, scribal errors, punctuation, etc., and its natural corollary: proto-philological palæography, that is to say an exhaustive critical study of cross-reference-correction-omission signs (notae sententiarum), tironian notes, punctuation signs, etc. In sum, this new proto-philological approach allows a more thorough and precise study on the textus receptus of the treatises Boethii De institutione arithmetica libri duo and De institutione musica libri quinque during the Carolingian renovatio of the 9th century •
• © IH | ih | PhD-HDR | Université Bordeaux Montaigne | 6-IV-2023 | explicit •
