Muris, Johannes de

MURIS, JOHANNES de. - Astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and music theorist, b. in Normandy before 1300 and d. in 1351.

He was at the Sorbonne in Paris, of which it has been thought that he was rector (a Julianus de Muris appears there as rector in 1350); canon in 1344 at Mesières (Bourges); he took part in the work for the reform of the calendar, as an astronomer, under Clement VI, at Avignon. He was in correspondence with the other great French theorist, Philippe de Vitry, whose theories he defended. The Speculum musicae (recognized as being by Jacques de Liège) and the Summa musicae are not his. He is, however, the author of the Ars novae musicae (1319) and of Musica speculativa (1323), in which he reveals himself as a far-sighted and brilliant precursor of the new theories, with a pre-eminent position, especially in the field of the nascent polyphony. His works are edited in M. Gerbert, Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra, III, St. Blasien 1784, pp. 292-97, 300-301; and in E. de Coussemaker, Scriptores, III, Paris 1870, pp. 398-401 (Anonymus, VI), Conclusiones, III, pp. 109-13. The English translation of the Ars novae musicae is found in O. Strunk, Source readings in music history, New York 1950, pp. 172-79.

Luisa Cervelli