Marcus Meibomius (c. 1630, Tönningen – 1710/1711,

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

) was a DanishOr possibly German, from

Holstein Holstein (; ; ; ; ) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider (river), Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost States of Germany, state of Germany. Holstein once existed as the German County of Holstein (; 8 ...

. scholar. He is best known as a historian of music, as an antiquarian, and as the first librarian at the Denmark's Royal Library. He was also a philologist and mathematician.

Work

Meibomius is best known for his work ''Antiquae musicae auctores septem'' of 1652, on

ancient Greek music Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. This played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greeks. ...

. It printed works, in Greek originals with Latin translation, by

Aristoxenos Aristoxenus of Tarentum (; born 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been lost, but one musical treatise, ''Elements of Harmony ...

Cleonides Cleonides () is the author of a Greek treatise on music theory titled Εἰσαγωγὴ ἁρμονική ''Eisagōgē harmonikē'' (Introduction to Harmonics). The date of the treatise, based on internal evidence, can be established only to the b ...

(though attributed to

Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...

), anonymous ''Sectio canonis'' (also attributed to

), Gaudentius,

Nicomachus Nicomachus of Gerasa (; ) was an Ancient Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from Gerasa, in the Roman province of Syria (now Jerash, Jordan). Like many Pythagoreans, Nicomachus wrote about the mystical properties of numbers, best known for his ...

, Alypius,

Bacchius A bacchius () is a metrical foot of three syllables, consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by two stressed ones. In accentual-syllabic verse we could describe a bacchius as a foot that goes like this: Example: When day breaks the fis ...

, and

Aristides Quintilianus Aristides Quintilianus (Greek: Ἀριστείδης Κοϊντιλιανός) was the Greek author of an ancient musical treatise, ''Perì Musikês'' (Περὶ Μουσικῆς, i.e. ''On Music''; Latin: ''De Musica'') According to Theodore Kar ...

(supported by

Martianus Capella Martianus Minneus Felix Capella () was a jurist, polymath and Latin literature, Latin prose writer of late antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education. He was a native ...

). It is now seen as pioneer scholarship, not supplanted until the twentieth century, and largely comprehensive on the topic. He attempted concert performances reconstructing Greek music. He wrote also on the Bible and classical

trireme A trireme ( ; ; cf. ) was an ancient navies and vessels, ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greece, ancient Greeks and ancient R ...

s (''Fabrica Triremium'', 1671). A well-known figure and intellectual of his times, he was considered a polemicist and a somewhat eccentric figure, about whom anecdotes circulated.

Bibliography

* ''Antiquae Musicae Auctores Septem. Graece et Latine'' (1652) * ''De Proportionibus'' (1655), a work attacked by

John Wallis John Wallis (; ; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 Wallis served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. ...

in ''Adversus Meibomium, de proportionibus dialogus'' (1657) * ''Liber de Fabrica Triremium'' (1671) * ''Davidis psalmi X'' (1690) * ''

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...

'' (1692) * ''Davidis Psalmi duodecim, & totidem Sacrae Scripturae Veteris Testamenti integra capita'' (1698) Rerum Germanicarum Tom I (some old histories about Germany) found cited in Anton Gottfried Schlichthaber, "Mindische Kirchengeschichte" 1753 III. Theil 3. Stück S. 230 weist auf den Fundations-Brief der Kirche zu Lahde hin.

Notes

Sources

under Maybaum, gives his birth date as 1630, place of birth Tönningen,

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

p. 264, gives him as born 1620, and Danish.

gives dates 1630-1711, gives some career details (work for Christina of Sweden, Queen Christina in Sweden, and in Copenhagen 1653-1663 as librarian). It also implies family relationship to Heinrich Meibom. Similar dates in th
Leibniz-Edition's Persons' database
(1630-1710/11) and Gail Ewald Scala: An Index of Proper Names in Thomas Birch, 'The History of the Royal Society'
Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 28, No. 2, 1974, pp. 263-329
here p. 302 (1630-1711).

External links

Article ''Meibomius (Marcus)''
in

Charles Hutton Charles Hutton FRS FRSE LLD (14 August 1737 – 27 January 1823) was an English mathematician and surveyor. He was professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich from 1773 to 1807. He is remembered for his calculation of th ...

's ''Mathematical and philosophical dictionary'' (1795) 1710 deaths Year of birth uncertain Danish musicologists Danish music historians {{Denmark-historian-stub