TEXTS ON MUSIC IN ENGLISH
School of Music
University of Nebraska--Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0100
(phone: [402] 472-2507; Internet: plefferts1@unl.edu)

Data entry: Cindy Rogers
Checked by: Peter M. Lefferts
Approved by: Peter M. Lefferts

Fn and Ft: HIGPOTRE_TEXT
Author: Higden, Ranulph
Title: Musical Portions of Ranulph Higden's Polychronicon (1357), in John Trevisa's 1387 translation
Source: Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon Ranulph Higden Monachi Cestrensis: Together with the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century, 9 vols., ed. Churchill Babinton and Joseph Rawson Lumby, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, 41 (London: Longman, 1869-71), 2:229, 375, 377 and 3:203, 205, 207, 209, 211.
Graphics: HIGPOTRE 01GF

[-2:229-] [from Book 2, chapter 5] Petrus. Tubalcain fonde first smythes craft and grauynge, and whan Tubalcain wrou3te in his smethes craft, Tubal hadde grete likynge to hire the hameres sowne, and he fonde proporciouns and acorde of melodye by wy3te in the hameres, and so they vsed hym moche in the acorde of melodye, but he was nou3t fyndere of the instrumentis of musik, ffor they were i-founde longe afterward. Ranulphus. Here wise men telleth that they Tubal vsede first musyk for to releue hym self while he was an herde, and kepte bestes, ffor all that he was nou3t the firste that fonde the resoun of acorde in musyk by wi3tes, but Pittagoras fonde that; therof loke with ynne, in the thridde book, of Pittagoras.

[from Book 2, Chapter 11] [-2:375-] Petrus. In Ayoth his tyme the lattre Apollo, that was Latona his sone, as the Grees telleth, fond vth the art of phisik and made harpe. Ranulphus. Notheles Isidorus, libro tertio, Ethymologiarum, seith that Mercurius [-2:377-] afterward in Gedeon his tyme putte seuene strenges to the harpe, that was to fore honde i-founde; and they putte to the strenges and streyned hem in this manere. The ryuer Nilus had be vppe and byflowe the lond and was a falle into the chanel a3en, than lay many beestes dede on the feeldes, and among othere lay a dede snayle. Whan this snayl was i-roted, the senewes were i-streyned with ynne the skyn of the snayles hous, and sownede as the wynde blewe therynne esiliche and softeliche. Than Mercurius took hede therto and made an harpe to the liknesse therof, and took hit to Orpheus the harpour. Trevisa. I rede among the wondres of Ynde, that snayles beeth there so grete and so huge that a man may be herborwed in a snayles hous. Petrus. Also that tyme the forseide Mercurius fonde vp an instrument of musyk that hatte Syringa []by the name of that woman Syringa] that was Cadmus his wif. She wente away from hire housbonde for loue of musyk and melodie. It is vncerteynte whiche Mercurius this was; whether Mercurius Hermes, other Mercurius Trimegistus the philosofre, other the [grete] Mercurius; for Iosephus speketh of thre, of the whiche eueriche heet Mercurius. Isidorus, libro quinto. Also that tyme in Gres [-2:379-] was i-founde vp an instrument of musyk that hatte chorus. Petrus. Strabus seith that that instrument is a skynne with tweie pipes; by oon pipe the ayer gooth yn, and by the other the soun gooth out.

[from Book 3, Chapter 11] [-3:203-] Ysidre, libro secundo, capitulo vicesimo quarto. They menede that Tubal of Caym is lynage was fyndere of consonancie and of musyk to fore Noe is flood; notheles me redeth among the Grees that Pictagoras fonde the craft of musyk by soun of hameres, and by strecchynge of cordes and of strenges. Martianus, libro secundo. Hit happede that Pictagoras passede forth openliche [-3:205-] and herde smethes bete with hameres on hoot iren, and euerich hamer to other accordeth in certeyn ordre of soun, [for the sharpe soun] acorded to the grete; and he made the smethes chaunge hameres, but the same acorde of sownynge folowed alwey. Thanne he took heede that the hameres were of dyuers wei3tes, and hete hem make grettere hameres: and from hameres he tornede hym to examyne strenges, and streyned guttes and senewes of schepe and of retheren i-fastned to dyuers wi3tes, such wi3tes as he hadde i-founde in the hamer; and hadde suche song and acorde as the rather acordinge of hameres, made with swetnesse of kyndeliche soun of strenges. Than whan he was konnynge of so grete priuete, he gan to fynde noumbres by the whiche sownes accordeth, and so he spedde to make the craft of musyk. Ranulphus. Therfore Tullius de Tusculanis quæstionibus, libro quarto, speketh of hym, and seith that Pictagoras scoleres couthe brynge here mynde out of strif of thow3tes to reste, by song and soun of strenges. Augustinus, Epistola quinta, contra Iulianum. [-3:207-] When 3ong men were wyndronken, and wolde breke the 3ates of a chast womman, Pictagoras hi3te pipers to pipe a song i-made by the enditynge of spondeus, and whanne thei dede so, tho the bestialte of leccherie stynte by the sleuthe of the manere of tunes. Seneka, libro tertio, de ira. Pictagoras with harpe and strenges cessede the destourbaunce of wittes. Ranulphus. Here wise men telleth that Pictagoras passede som tyme by a smethis hous, and herde a swete soun, and accordynge and the smy3tynge of foure hamers [uppon an anuelt, and therefore he lete weie the hameres,] and fond that oon of the hameres weiede tweie so moche as another; that other weyed other half so moche as that other, [and] another weyed other half so moche as an other, and the thridde deel of another; as they the firste hamer were of sixe pound, the secounde of twelue, the thridde of eyghte, the fourthe of nyne, as this figure scheweth that is here nex folowynge. Whanne [-3:209-] [Higden, Polychronicon, 3:209; text: dyapason. diapente. dyatesseron. duplex diapason. double. other half. al and the thridde. al and the ey3tethe, vi. viii, ix, xii.] [HIGPOTRE 01GF]

these acordes were i-founde Pictagoras 3af hem names, and so that he cleped in noumbre double, he clepeth [dyapason and that he clepeth in nombre other half he clepeth] in sownes dyapente; that hatte in noumbres al and the thridde deel hatte in sownes dyatesseron, [and that hatte in noumbris al and the ei3te del, hatte in sownes tonus] and that hatte in noumbres foure sithes al hatte in sownes double dyapasoun; as in [-3:211-] melodie of oon streng 3if the streng is i-stran3t endelonges uppon the holownesse of a tree and departede evene a two by a brugge i-sette there under [in either party of the streng the soun schal be diapason 3if the streng is y-streyned and touched, and 3if the streng is departed euene a thre and the brygge y-sett under] so that he departede by [twene the] tweie deles and the thridde, thanne the lenger del of the streng if it is touched schal 3eue a sown that hatte diatesseroun, and 3if he is departed in nyne, and the brugge y-sette under bytwene the laste partie and the other deel, thanne the lenger deel of the streng if it is i-touched schal 3eue a soun that hatte tonus, for nyne conteyneth ei3te and the ei3tethe partie of ey3te, as in this figure that foloweth. [Higden, Polychronicon, 3:211] [HIGPOTRE 01GF]