rose

Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Naples


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of which only four have been rendered
intelligible, these are Greek. One upon
the Epicurean philosophy, one upon rhe-
toric, one upon morality, and one upon
music; each volume appears to be only
a black cinder. I saw two pages, opened
and framed, of the MS. upon music,
written by Philodemus; but it is not a
poem on music, as Mr. de la Lande says,
nor a satire against it, as others say; but a
confutation of the system of Aristoxenus,
who, being a practical musician, preferred
the judgment of the ear to the Pythago-
rean numbers, or the arithmetical pro-
portions of mere theorists. Ptolemy did
the same afterwards. I conversed with
Padre Antonio Pioggi about this MS. it [sic]
was he who opened and explained it; and
he is now superintending, at a foundery,
the casting of a new set of Greek cha-
racters, exactly resembling those in which
it was written, and in which it is to
be published.

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