Historical Atlas of Medieval Music

Book excerpt: Music is rooted in the heart of Western culture. The absence of music from the usual publications of medieval history and history of art of the Middle Ages is understandable, considering the rarity of sources. And yet, throughout the last decades, an intense activity of historico-musicological research has been carried out internationally by a select group of specialized scholars. The ambitious goal of this work is to set medieval music within its historical and cultural context and to provide readers interested in different disciplines with an overall picture of music in the Middle Ages; multi-faceted, enjoyable, yet scientifically rigorous. To achieve this goal, the most prominent scholars of medieval musicology were invited to participate, along with archaeologists, experts of acoustics and architecture, historians and philosophers of medieval thought. The volume offers exceptional iconography and several maps, to accompany the reader in a fascinating journey through a network of places, cultural influences, rituals and themes.