![]() Wednesday is Mercury-day ( mercredi, miércoles, mercoledì). ![]() Tuesday is Mars-day ( mardi, martes, martedì). Monday is moon day, and moon in Latin is luna, from which we get lundi (French), lunes (Spanish), and lunedì (Italian). Even the language for the days of the week shows this influence, with Latin-based names derived from planets: See astrophysicist and musician Matt Russo’s brilliant TEDx talk, “ What Does the Universe Sound Like? A Musical Tour” for a captivating demonstration of this long history.) The Influence of the StarsĪll year round, from sunrise to sunset, people in medieval Europe regulated their lives based on the position and movement of heavenly luminaries (the sun and moon), the planets, and the stars that constitute the signs of the zodiac. (The movement of the celestial spheres has inspired composers and musicians to the present, from Palestrina to Beyoncé, and from Franz Joseph Haydn to Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, and Ariana Grande. An illumination in an early-15th-century copy of the text shows Boethius explaining his method to a group: a hovering golden orb indicates a musical tone, the diatessaron (a fourth above the tone), and diapente (a fifth above). The basic scale begins with the Moon, followed by Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In a scheme known as “the music of the spheres,” Boethius assigned musical value to each of the known planets based on their positions in the sky relative to the Earth, similar to a musical scale. The last personification is Astronomy, who gazes up at the sun and moon while holding an armillary sphere, a model of the celestial universe.Īnother example from Boethius proposes a relationship between music and astronomy. By looking at a range of manuscripts containing texts from astronomy and astrology, the exhibition shows the close relationship between the two.Ī cutting from the manuscript The Consolation of Philosophy, written by the fifth- to sixth-century writer Boethius, depicts the author speaking to Philosophy, who leads personifications of each of the aforementioned subjects. ![]() As the study of the physics of cosmic orbs and other astral phenomena, astronomy was the foundation for astrology, which seeks to correlate these celestial events with happenings on Earth and individual human affairs. Universities across Europe organized their courses and bookshelves around the seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic, music, geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy. Astronomy and Astrologyįaith and science-or the humanities and the sciences-were closely aligned in the Middle Ages. The illuminated manuscripts show how astronomy and astrology infused everyday life in the Middle Ages, from medicine to religion and beyond. The Getty Center’s exhibition The Wondrous Cosmos in Medieval Manuscripts (April 30 to July 21, 2019) invites you to marvel at the complexity of the celestial realm in European faith and science traditions, with a glimpse at how similar beliefs held sway in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Indeed, peoples of many religions believed that the radiant sun, full moon, twinkling stars, and distant planets held great power over their lives, the seasons, and daily activities. From London to Baghdad and beyond, students of medicine, philosophy, and even theology carefully observed the astrological relationship between the 12 signs of the zodiac and one’s physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. In the medieval world, from about 500 to 1500, astronomy was a required field of study. Eclipses, comets, and star and planet sightings mesmerize us and inspire awe.
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