Pythagoras discovering the consonances of the octave

Unknown (French)

Item type:

print

Technique / Medium:

engraving

Additional titles

Description

The upper left illustration depicts Jubal, the biblical father of music, and six blacksmiths with differing size hammers striking an anvil. This relates to the story that the young Pythagoras was first moved to investigate musical intervals on hearing the notes produced by different size hammers at a blacksmith's shop. The upper right illustration depicts Pythagoras testing the interval of an octave between bells of size 16 and 8 and between glasses filled in the proportion 16 and 8. The lower left illustration shows Pythagoras testing intervals on a stringed instrument (monochord depicted with multiple strings) and the lower right illustration shows Pythagoras and his pupil Philolaus testing intervals by means of flutes.

People as subjects

Pythagoras (ca. 570 BCE–ca. 495 BCE)
Philolaus (born ca. 470 BCE)
Jubal (Biblical figure)

Iconclass

98B(PYTHAGORAS)
Pythagoras, the philosopher

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Bell [2381]
Musical glasses [2364]
Transverse flute [4093]
End-blown flute [3940]
Double flute [3930]
Monochord [3518]
Anvil [4544]

Image URLs

image link 1

Notes

This engraved illustration from 'Revue de l'Histoire du Theatre' (1959) is copied from the original woodcut in 'Theorica Musicae' by Franchino Gaffurio, first published in 1480.

RIdIM record id

3843