Boethius (jan 1, 477 – jan 1, 524)

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Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. Roman statesman, educational reformer, philosopher. Wrote "De institutione musica" (on the organization of music), which inherited ideas from Greek philosophy, specifically of music as an art of measurement. Contains translations of earlier Greek-influenced writers, and was the main Medieval source on Greek music theory.

Note "Music" is distinct from "Musica". Musica refers to music more as measurement (of durations, harmonic proportions. Musica is kind of the embodiment of Greek cosmology, in that it mirroed "the essential harmony of the cosmos and that it therefore had a decisive influence on human health and behavior. This was known as the doctrine of ethos.

Compare Musicas Mundana, humana, and instrumentalis. Mundana refers to the harmonic order of the cosmos, and the balance of the four elements. Humana refers to the harmony of the four humors in people (choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic). The human harmony is a function of the celestial, as it mirrors the four elements. Musica instrumentalis is the music we actually hear, and it was considered somewhat profane.

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