Name Marcus Meibomius | ||
Died 1710, Utrecht, Netherlands | ||
Marcus Meibomius (c. 1630, Tönningen – 1710/1711, Utrecht) was a Danish general scholar. Best known now as a historian of music, he was an antiquarian and librarian, and also a philologist and mathematician.
Work
Meibomius is best known for his work Antiquae musicae auctores septem of 1652, on ancient Greek music. It printed works, in Greek originals with Latin translation, by Aristoxenos, Cleonides (though attributed to Euclid) Gaudentius, Nicomachus, Alypius, Bacchius, and Aristides Quintilianus (supported by Martianus Capella). It is now seen as pioneer scholarship, not supplanted until the twentieth century, and largely comprehensive on the topic. He attempted concert performances reconstructing Greek music.
He wrote also on the Bible and classical triremes (Fabrica Triremium, 1671). A well-known figure and intellectual of his times, he was considered a polemicist and a somewhat eccentric figure, about whom anecdotes circulated.