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46:. It was a compendium of ancient and contemporary thinking about music, its production and its effects. It explored, in particular, the relationship between the mathematical properties of music (e.g. harmony and dissonance) with health and rhetoric. The work complements two of Kircher's other books:
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was one of
Kircher's largest books. The work was published in two volumes with a total of 1,112 pages and many illustrations. It was one of the most influential books on music theory in the seventeenth century, and of the 1,500 copies known to have been published, 266 are still recorded in various
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Each of the work's two volumes had its own frontispiece. For volume one this followed the design common to many of
Kircher's works, depicting a threefold universe with the divine at the top, the celestial in the middle and the earthly below. At the top the eye of God overlooks all from within a
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he likens the creation of the world to the building of a great organ with six registers corresponding to the six days of creation on which God plays, creating harmony. The illustration shows the elaborately-decorated organ with small circular panels illustrating each of the days of creation.
174:
many years previously. This method had great appeal for
Jesuits working as missionaries, who sought to use the power of music to draw converts to the Catholic faith by composing hymns in the languages of the people where they were working. Accompanying this method was a description of the
78:
Kircher compiled all the musical knowledge available in his day, making this the first encyclopedia of music. Since its publication it has been a valuable source of information to musicologists about baroque concepts of style and composition. It provides the earliest account of the
375:. On the right there is an illustration of an echo, a topic discussed in the work, with a shepherd reciting a line from Virgil ("pascite, ut ante, boves") and a listener mishearing only the last part of the final word. The echo rebounds from the side of
22:
182:
After providing the reader with many explanations of physical phenomena and their explanation, as in many of his other works
Kircher used the final book to expound the spiritual dimension of everything he has revealed. In
179:, a kind of calculating machine that allowed users to apply Kircher's rules on composition and actually create music. A number of these machines were built and distributed to distinguished patrons together with the book.
169:
Book eight explained a method for composition and writing harmony that
Kircher maintained any person could use, whether they knew anything about music or not. He had invented this system while teaching mathematics at
205:
Book one: on physiology, dealing with the structure of the ear, anatomy of the vocal organs, and the sounds made by animals, birds and insects, including the death-song of the swan
95:, and others. Kircher had a number of collaborators who assisted his research with their expertise, and by providing him with examples of different types of music. These included
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and carried back to many different lands. In 1656 a Jesuit mission to China took two dozen copies with it when it departed. A second edition was published in
Amsterdam in 1662.
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126:
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402:. The motto around his pedestal reads 'Apollo's right hand holds the lyre of the world, his left fits high to low; thus good things are mingled with ill.'
282:, the principles of harmony exemplified in the proportions of the human body and the affections of the mind, together with practical description of the
114:
collections. Three hundred copies of the first edition were distributed to Jesuit missionaries who gathered in Rome in 1650 for the election of the new
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43:
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Levenburg, Jeffrey (2016). "Worth the price of the "Musurgia universalis": Athanasius
Kircher on the secret of the "metabolic style"".
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as a 'Canon angelicus 36 vocum... in 9 choros distributus' ('a 36-voice canon of angels, divided into nine choirs'). Beneath this sits
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Books eight: on wonders, including a mathematical method (‘musarithmica’) that allows the most inexperienced to compose with perfection
553:
363:
striking metal is said to have first given him the notion of the mathematical basis of harmony. In the centre are a ring of dancing
351:(38:37): 'Quis concentum coeli dormire faciet?' ('Who shall make the concert of heaven to sleep?'). At the bottom left of the image
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475:"Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680): Jesuit scholar : an exhibition of his works in the Harold B. Lee Library collections"
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contained, through its exploration of dissonance within harmony, was an explanation of the presence of evil in the world.
48:
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162:
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156:
154:). There was a detailed discussion of the phenomenon of the echo and its similarity to the reflection of light (
54:
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419:
Knobloch, E. (1979). "Musurgia
Universalis: Unknown Combinatorial Studies in the Age of Baroque Absolutism".
87:, Kircher reproduced many musical pieces to illustrate the styles he described, thereby preserving pieces by
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171:
96:
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triangle which bathes choirs of angels in divine light. Two angels hold aloft a banner proclaiming the
311:
An engraved portrait of
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm faces the frontispiece of volume one, was designed by
166:, concerning his installation of trumpets that broadcast a call to prayer at the shrine of Mentorella.
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Book nine: on the magic of consonance and dissonance and their effects on the mind and body including
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34:("The Universal Musical Art, of the Great Art of Consonance and Dissonance") is a 1650 work by the
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John W. O'Malley; Gauvin
Alexander Bailey; Steven J. Harris; T. Frank Kennedy (1 January 1999).
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Book two: on philology, the origin of sound, the music of the Hebrews, and the ancient Greeks
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Organ of the world's creation from Book ten of "Musurgia universalis", Wellcome L0025813
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Book seven: on discernment, covering the difference between ancient and modern music
83:
in music. As well as including a three-part fantasy of his own and a composition by
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283:
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228:
160:). His account of speaking tubes and amplification was developed in his later work
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347:. Together with the signs of the zodiac, the sphere carries a quotation from the
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Frontispiece, volume one of "Musurgia Universalis" by Athanasius Kircher, 1650
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The Instrumental Music of Schmeltzer, Biber, Muffat and their Contemporaries
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Frontispiece, volume two, "Musurgia Universalis" by Athanasius Kircher, 1650
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The frontispiece for volume two was designed by Pierre Miotte. It depicts
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overlap with Kircher's other works - they include musical cryptography (
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and the other pointing towards a group of smiths, the sound of whose
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35:
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Athanasius Kircher, Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Knowledge
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Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music
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Book five: on organology, based book xii of the Harmonicorum by
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had set out the secret underlying coherence of the universe and
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with his lyre and the three-headed guardian of the underworld,
42:. It was printed in Rome by Ludovico Grignani and dedicated to
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that can be sung by twelve million two hundred thousand voices
383:
strikes the rock with his hoof, bringing forth the stream of
58:
had explored the ways of knowledge and enlightenment. What
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Adkins, Cecil (1967). "The Technique of the Monochord".
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The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773
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671:
31:
Musurgia Universalis, sive Ars Magna Consoni et Dissoni
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Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man who Knew Everything
255:, and other branches of composition, containing a
899:translation of the section on musical instruments
244:, containing a dissertation on instrumental music
211:Book three: on arithmetic, with the theory of
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641:
484:. Friends of Brigham Young University Library
339:that symbolises harmony and pushing away the
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233:Book four: on geometry, discussion of the
595:Athanasius Kircher's Theatre of the World
508:Professor Charles E Brewer (2013-01-28).
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597:. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions.
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335:on the celestial sphere, holding the
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274:Book ten: on analogy, discusses the
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798:Ernesto De Martino (20 June 2013).
391:surrounded by musical instruments.
355:sits, with one arm resting on this
44:Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
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387:that flows down to the figure of
219:, the Greek scales, the Scale of
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832:Rockstro, William Smyth (1900).
756:. London: Macmillan – via
684:. University of Toronto Press.
542:Dietrich Bartel (1 July 1997).
367:on land, and to their right, a
323:. It is dated 'Antwerp 1649'.
16:1650 work by Athanasius Kircher
804:. Il Saggiatore. p. 302.
1:
151:Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica
49:Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica
929:Obsolete scientific theories
835:"Musurgia Universalis"
215:, proportion, the ratios of
101:Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger
747:Grove, George, ed. (1900).
514:. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
66:Composition and publication
950:
482:fondazioneintorcetta.info/
441:10.1177/007327537901700402
371:dancing in the water with
343:associated with his rival
247:Book six: on composition,
163:Historia Eustachio Mariana
134:The concepts presented in
81:doctrine of the affections
74:Kircher-musurgia-bird-song
624:. Shambhala. p. 67.
593:Godwin, Joscelyn (2015).
157:Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae
55:Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae
618:Joscelyn Godwin (1979).
848:. Vol. 2. London:
548:. U of Nebraska Press.
891:German translation of
648:Paula Findlen (2004).
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893:Musurgia Universalis
880:Musurgia Universalis
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873:Musurgia Universalis
801:La terra del rimorso
654:. Psychology Press.
185:Musurgia Universalis
136:Musurgia Universalis
111:Musurgia Universalis
60:Musurgia Universalis
852:. pp. 438–439.
433:1979HisSc..17..258K
361:Pythagorean hammers
237:, and its divisions
229:ancient Greek modes
172:Würzburg University
934:Athanasius Kircher
473:Merrill, Brian L.
421:History of Science
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406:References
385:Hippocrene
353:Pythagoras
227:, and the
773:Recercare
449:160522206
270:tarantism
235:monochord
217:intervals
213:harmonics
192:Structure
146:tarantism
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886:Volume 2
883:Volume 1
878:Scan of
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488:17 April
400:Cerberus
379:, where
373:mermaids
341:panpipes
225:Boethius
122:Concepts
38:scholar
25:Musurgia
842:(ed.).
817:26 July
697:31 July
561:28 July
527:26 July
429:Bibcode
396:Orpheus
381:Pegasus
357:theorem
345:Marsyas
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838:. In
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445:S2CID
389:Muses
257:canon
819:2020
806:ISBN
699:2020
686:ISBN
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