Intellectual currents in thirteenth century Paris: A translation and commentary on Jerome of Moravia's 'Tractatus de musica'

This dissertation is a study of Jerome of Moravia's Tractatus de musica, a thirteenth-century compendium on music written by a Dominican friar in Paris. It includes the first translation into a modern language of the entirety of Jerome's text and a commentary on that text that investigates it from several angles. First, because much of the treatise is a compilation, I explore the manner in which Jerome used his source material to create an entirely new document that reflects a unique point of view. In chapters one through three I examine in detail Jerome's borrowings from his two most important sources, Boethius' De institutione musica and John of St. Gall's De musica. In the process of excerpting from these two works, Jerome rearranged his source material and juxtaposed it with the writings of other authors to create a new conception of music as a discipline that was influenced by intellectual developments in thirteenth-century Paris. In chapter four I expand my scope to examine Jerome's borrowings from a number of other authorities, with a particular focus on excerpts from and allusions to the works of Thomas Aquinas, a fellow Dominican and intellectual model for Jerome. Thomas' influence was largely responsible for Jerome's incorporation of Aristotelian concepts into the treatise, culled from the latter's works on philosophy, logic, and the natural sciences---many of which had been recently rediscovered by the Latin West and were avidly studied and commented upon during the thirteenth century.Because several lengthy portions of the treatise appear to have been composed for the Tractatus de musica, I turn my attention in chapters five and six to the treatise's unique contributions to medieval music theory. In chapter five I examine Jerome's treatment of topics of elementary music theory, including a theory of consonance, methods for dividing the gamut, and hexachord mutation. Jerome's innovations in these matters, once again, clearly reflect contemporary concerns, including how best to define music as a discipline. The focus in chapter six is on Jerome's discussions of the modal system and singing and composing chant, all of which are unusually detailed.