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

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

) was a DanishOr possibly German, from

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label= Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germ ...

. 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. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greek ...

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

Aristoxenos Aristoxenus of Tarentum ( el, Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος; 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 bee ...

Cleonides Cleonides ( el, Κλεονείδης) 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 e ...

(though attributed to

Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; 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 ...

), Gaudentius,

Nicomachus Nicomachus of Gerasa ( grc-gre, Νικόμαχος; c. 60 – c. 120 AD) was an important ancient mathematician and music theorist, best known for his works '' Introduction to Arithmetic'' and '' Manual of Harmonics'' in Greek. He was born ...

, Alypius, Bacchius, 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 (fl. c. 410–420) was a jurist, polymath and 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 nati ...

). 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( ; derived from Latin: ''trirēmis'' "with three banks of oars"; cf. Greek ''triērēs'', literally "three-rower") was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean ...

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 (; la, Wallisius; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the roya ...

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

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...

'' (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 ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

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 a British 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 the ...

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