Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia universalis (1650) was one of the largest and most widely circulated works of music theory in the seventeenth century. Although his reputation has waned over the centuries, Kircher was a leading intellectual figure of his day, authoring dozens of treatises on a multitude of topics and corresponding with scholars from around the world. Kircher’s central place within the world of learning resulted in a unique perspective on music theory and musical practice within the seventeenth century. The present study investigates a number of topics from Kircher’s music treatise and provides context from within the intellectual discourse of the time. The first chapter explores the seventeenth-century conception of encyclopedias, as well as the possible meanings associated with an encyclopedia musica, a novel term Kircher uses in his preface to describe Musurgia. Kircher’s attempt to describe all that was known about music, from highly speculative theories to the most utilitarian compositional tools, results in a complex blend of philosophical and practical elements. The middle chapters disentangle a few strands from this web of ideas, tracing the development of Pythagorean traditions and speculative music theory, as well as changing attitudes regarding empirical and occult methodologies in the early modern period. The final chapter concerns Kircher’s central goal for Musurgia, an algorithmic method based on the ars combinatoria and the emerging mathematical field of combinatorics that would allow anyone to compose musical settings, including the setting of texts in any poetic meter and in any language. Kircher’s arca musurgica—a device that contained tables to generate music—was in effect a distillation of the rules of harmony and counterpoint in the seventeenth century. Its underlying syntax of standard four-part progressions stands at the juncture between old and new ideologies of music theory and composition. / Music

Zwischen 1630 und 1650 vollzog sich ein Wandel in Athanasius Kirchers Vermittlung des musikalischen Wissens: Musik konzipierte er im Zusammenhang der Universalwissenschaft immer mehr als Zeichen des Weltbildes im Kontext einer christlich-neuplatonischen Pansemiose. Die Studie arbeitet dies am Beispiel der "Institutiones mathematicae" (ca. 1630), der "Mathematica curiosa" (ca. 1640) und der "Musurgia universalis" (1650) heraus. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt Kirchers Umgang mit seinen Quellen, insbesondere Nikolaus von Kues, Robert Fludd und der Tradition der Philosophia perennis. / Between 1630 and 1650, a change in Athanasius Kircher's way to communicate the knowledge of music took place: Within the context of universal science, he conceptualised music increasingly as a symbol for his world view and its Christian-Neoplatonic pansemiosis. This study discusses these issues based on Kircher's "Institutiones mathematicae" (c1630), "Mathematica curiosa" (c1640), and "Musurgia universalis" (1650). Special emphasis lies on Kircher's use of his sources, particularly Nicholas of Cusa, Robert Fludd, and the tradition of Perennial philosophy.

Zwischen 1630 und 1650 vollzog sich ein Wandel in Athanasius Kirchers Vermittlung des musikalischen Wissens: Musik konzipierte er im Zusammenhang der Universalwissenschaft immer mehr als Zeichen des Weltbildes im Kontext einer christlich-neuplatonischen Pansemiose. Die Studie arbeitet dies am Beispiel der "Institutiones mathematicae" (ca. 1630), der "Mathematica curiosa" (ca. 1640) und der "Musurgia universalis" (1650) heraus. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt Kirchers Umgang mit seinen Quellen, insbesondere Nikolaus von Kues, Robert Fludd und der Tradition der Philosophia perennis. / Between 1630 and 1650, a change in Athanasius Kircher's way to communicate the knowledge of music took place: Within the context of universal science, he conceptualised music increasingly as a symbol for his world view and its Christian-Neoplatonic pansemiosis. This study discusses these issues based on Kircher's "Institutiones mathematicae" (c1630), "Mathematica curiosa" (c1640), and "Musurgia universalis" (1650). Special emphasis lies on Kircher's use of his sources, particularly Nicholas of Cusa, Robert Fludd, and the tradition of Perennial philosophy.

Zwischen 1630 und 1650 vollzog sich ein Wandel in Athanasius Kirchers Vermittlung des musikalischen Wissens: Musik konzipierte er im Zusammenhang der Universalwissenschaft immer mehr als Zeichen des Weltbildes im Kontext einer christlich-neuplatonischen Pansemiose. Die Studie arbeitet dies am Beispiel der 'Institutiones mathematicae' (ca. 1630), der 'Mathematica curiosa' (ca. 1640) und der 'Musurgia universalis' (1650) heraus. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt Kirchers Umgang mit seinen Quellen, insbesondere Nikolaus von Kues, Robert Fludd und der Tradition der Philosophia perennis. / Between 1630 and 1650, a change in Athanasius Kircher''s way to communicate the knowledge of music took place: Within the context of universal science, he conceptualised music increasingly as a symbol for his world view and its Christian-Neoplatonic pansemiosis. This study discusses these issues based on Kircher''s 'Institutiones mathematicae' (c1630), 'Mathematica curiosa' (c1640), and 'Musurgia universalis' (1650). Special emphasis lies on Kircher''s use of his sources, particularly Nicholas of Cusa, Robert Fludd, and the tradition of Perennial philosophy.

Zwischen 1630 und 1650 vollzog sich ein Wandel in Athanasius Kirchers Vermittlung des musikalischen Wissens: Musik konzipierte er im Zusammenhang der Universalwissenschaft immer mehr als Zeichen des Weltbildes im Kontext einer christlich-neuplatonischen Pansemiose. Die Studie arbeitet dies am Beispiel der 'Institutiones mathematicae' (ca. 1630), der 'Mathematica curiosa' (ca. 1640) und der 'Musurgia universalis' (1650) heraus. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt Kirchers Umgang mit seinen Quellen, insbesondere Nikolaus von Kues, Robert Fludd und der Tradition der Philosophia perennis. / Between 1630 and 1650, a change in Athanasius Kircher''s way to communicate the knowledge of music took place: Within the context of universal science, he conceptualised music increasingly as a symbol for his world view and its Christian-Neoplatonic pansemiosis. This study discusses these issues based on Kircher''s 'Institutiones mathematicae' (c1630), 'Mathematica curiosa' (c1640), and 'Musurgia universalis' (1650). Special emphasis lies on Kircher''s use of his sources, particularly Nicholas of Cusa, Robert Fludd, and the tradition of Perennial philosophy.