Timeline

[DonRocks]

1500c The Rhind Papyrus - "Directions For Knowing All Dark Things" (Ahmes)
  530c Pythagoras forms cult at Croton
  458   "Agamemnon" (Aeschylus)
  250c Philo of Byzantium uses a circle and a secant to determine string proportions
    75c "De Rerum Natura" (Lucretius)
    25c Didymus uses syntonic comma to correct Pythagoras
    15c "De Architectura" (Vitruvius) discusses the mesolabium (error on p. 119 attributes this book to the 9th century)
-------
  100c Clement (Alexandria) inserts image of Christ into music
  126   Pantheon rebuilt by Hadrian
  150c "Harmonics" (Claudius Ptolemy) introduces elements of "Just Intonation"
  400c Ammianus (Rome) observes that 'music has displaced philosophy'
  520c "Di Instituzione Musica" (Boethius) gives early implication that Equal Temperament goes against the laws of nature
  745c Charlemagne (814)
  757   Emperor Constantine Copronymus (Byzantine Empire) gifts organ To King Pepin (Franks)
  812   King of Constantinople gifts organ to Charlemagne (Franks)
  814   (Charlemagne, 745c)
  826   Georgius builds organ at Aachen for Louis the Pious (Aquitaine)
  900c Pope John VIII advocates Church Organs for teaching the science of music
1000c Organistrum invented (attributed to Odo of Cluny, note date discrepancy with Odo's birth date)
1030c Guido de Arezzo Develops Six-Note Ascending Scale (Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La) From "Ut Queant Laxis"
1079   Peter Abelard, (1142)
1093   Winchester Cathedral Opens
1132   Statute Of The Cistercian Order Tries To Regulate Singing
1141   Saint Aelred (Cistercian Rievaulx Abbey) Expresses Concern About Excessive Use Of Organs
1142   (Peter Abelard, 1079)
1163   Construction begins on Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris (1345)
1190c "The Guide for the Perplexed" (Maimonides)
1195   "Saigyo Monogatari Emaki" depicts dwarfed potted trees, bonsai (Kamakura period, Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya)
1200c Arab Palace (whereabouts unknown) Gifts 90-Pipe Organ To Emperor Of China (hilariously, during the Song Dynasty)
1211   Construction begins on Cathédral de Notre Dame de Reims (1275)
1250c Melody Written Which Reversed Itself (Dominus - Nusmido)
1266   Giotto di Bondone (1337)
1274c "Summa Theologica" (Thomas Aquinas)
1275   (Cathédral de Notre Dame de Reims Opens, 1211)
1280c Anonymous IV (English commentator) describes thirds and sixths as "the most agreeable of all [harmonies]"
           "Perspectiva Communis" (John Peckham)
1300   First Jubilee Year, depicted in "The Inferno" by Dante as "a traffic jam in Hell"
1309   Avignon Papacy, 1378)
1310   Roman de Fauvel I (Gervais de Bus and Chaillou de Pesstain)
1314   Roman de Fauvel II (Gervais de Bus and Chaillou de Pesstain)
1320   "Feast of Herod" (Giotto)
1321   "The Inferno" (Dante)
1324   First Papal Bull Issued that was devoted entirely to music
1328   House of Valois (1589)
1330c Francesco Landini (1397)
1337   (Giotto di Bondone, 1266)
1342   "Presentation at the Temple" (Ambrogio Lorenzetti)
1345   (Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris Opens, 1163)
1350   Costumes (mens and womens) became more revealing
1352   Construction begins On Strasburg Clock
1353   "The Decameron" (Boccaccio)
1355   Johannes Boen (Dutch Priest and Music Theorist) predicted heightened musical skills
1360c Robertsbridge Manuscript includes thirds in parallel motion (earliest surviving music written for keyboard)
1363   King John II (not Charles V - error on p. 69) grants Duchy of Burgundy as an appanage to Philip The Bold, (1404)
1364   Reign of King Charles V (1380)
------    Links are all completed before this point
1367   King John I (Aragon) Sought A Player For An Early, Primitive Clavicembalum
1370   Petrarch bequeaths a Giotto Madonna to his friend, the ruler of Padua
1377   Filippo Brunelleschi (1446)
1378   Lorenzo Ghiberti (1455)
           Papal Schism (1418)
           (Avignon Papacy, 1309)
1380   (King Charles V, 1364)
1382   Guild of Saint Luke (in Antwerp) began accepting tradesmen
1385   Roman Pope Urban VI Fled From Naples To Nocerina
1386   Donatello di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (1466)
1389   Year Depicted In Giovanni da Prato's "Paradiso degli Alberti"
1390c John Dunstable (1453)
1395   Parisian Police Forbade Minstrels To Mention Unity Or Disunity Of The Church In Their Songs
1397   Guillaume Dufay (1474)
           Giovanni Lambertacci (Padua) Informs Son-In-Law (University Of Pavia) That The Clavicembalum Had Been Invented

 

 

           (Francesco Landini, 1330c)

 

 

1400c Advanced Motets Written

 

 

           "Il Libro Dell'Arte" (Cennino Cennini)

 

 

           "Geographia" (Ptolemy) becomes available in Florence

 

 

1400   Dr. Hermannus Poll (Inventor Of Clavicembalum) Becomes Physician Of King Ruprecht Of The Palatinate (Southwestern Germany)

 

 

1401   Dr. Hermannus Poll Executed At Nuremburg For Treason Against The King

 

 

1402   Gian Galeazzo Visconti (Duke of Milan) dies of fever while invading Tuscanye

 

 

1404   Leon Battista Alberti (1472)

 

 

           Reign of John The Fearless (1419)

 

 

           (Philip the Bold)

 

 

1407c Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello journey to Rome to study Classical Art

 

 

1408   "Sculpture of David" (Donatello)

 

 

1409   Council of Pisa attempts to install third Pope

 

 

1410c Conrad Paumann (1478)

 

 

1414   Council of Constance installed to eliminate Papal Schism

 

 

1417   Pope Martin V unifies papacy (1431)

 

 

1418   (Papal Schism, 1378)

 

 

1419   Reign of Philip The Good (1467)

 

 

           (Reign of John The Fearless, 1404)

 

 

1420   Filippo Brunelleschi begins work on Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore (1436)

 

 

1420c Filippo Brunelleschi (re-)discovers vanishing point, thus linear perspective with 1) Florentine Baptistery 2) Palazzo Vecchio

 

 

1425c Filippo Brunelleschi and Giovanni di Gherado da Prato exchange insulting sonnets

 

 

1425   "Gates of Paradise" (Lorenzo Ghiberti, east doors, second commission)

 

 

1426   "The Trinity" (Masaccio)

 

 

1435   "On Painting" (Leon Battista Alberti) repeats Protagoras that "Perception is truth."

 

 

1436   Pope Eugenius IV Consecrates Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore completed by Filippo Brunelleschi 

 

 

           Guillaume Dufay performs motet Nuper rosarum flores at Dome's dedication

 

 

1439   Florentine Academy founded and led by Marsilio Ficino, supported by Cosimo de' Medici

 

 

1440   First attestation of the Dulce Melos (Henri-Arnault de Zwolle)

 

 

1445c Domenico da Piacenza publishes treatise on The Dance (not much is written about it)

 

 

1446   (Filippo Brunelleschi, 1377)

 

 

1447   Papacy of Pope Nicholas V (1455, error on page 109 stating his inauguration was on Christmas Day, 1449)

 

 

1449   Lorenzo de' Medici (1492)

 

 

1450c Antonio Squarcialupi most famous Italian organist in mid-15th century

 

 

           Movable-type printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg

 

 

1451   Franchinus Gaffurius (1522) - index (and text) error by referring to him by both Franchino Gaffori and Franchinus Gaffurius

 

 

1452   Leonardo da Vinci (1519)

 

 

           "De Re Aedificatoria" (Treatise on Architecture, Leon Battista Alberti)

 

 

           (Gates of Paradise, 1425)

 

 

1452c Josquin des Prez (1521)

 

 

1453   Paolo Uccello weds, lays awake at night pondering perspective

 

 

           (John Dunstable, 1390c)

 

 

1453c First Gutenberg Bible printed (about 48 copies still exist)

 

 

1455   (Papacy of Pope Nicholas V, 1447)

 

 

           (Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1378)

 

 

1463   "Corpus Hermeticum" translated into Latin by Ficino

 

 

1466   Desiderius Erasmus (1536)

 

 

           Leonardo da Vinci apprentices in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop (1476)

 

 

           (Donatello di Niccolí² di Betto Bardi, 1386)

 

 

1467   Reign of Charles The Bold (1477)

 

 

           (Reign of Philip The Good, 1419)

 

 

1468   Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli draws meridian of sun's rays on the floor of Santa Maria del Fiore to determine Easter

 

 

1471   Papacy of Pope Sixtus IV (1484)

 

 

1472   (Leon Battista Alberti, 1404)

 

 

1473   Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)

 

 

1474   Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli writes Fernam Martins and asserts viability of reaching the Orient by sailing west

 

 

           (Guillaume Dufay, 1397)

 

 

1475   Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1564)

 

 

1475c Johannes Tinctorus Chronicles English Musical Condition, In Which Composer John Dunstable Stood Forth

 

 

1476   Pope Sixtus IV announces offering of Indulgences for souls suffering in Purgatory

 

 

           (Leonardo da Vinci finishes apprenticeship in Andrea del Verrocchio's workship, 1466)

 

 

1477   (Reign of Charles The Bold, 1467)

 

 

1478   (Conrad Paumann, 1410c)

 

 

1480   Contract for organ at Lucca calls for both sharp and flat keys installed as options for the performer

 

 

1481c  da Vinci leaves for Milan to present Ludovico Sforza with a lira da braccio from Lorenzo de' Medici

 

 

1482   "Musica Practica" (Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareja) supports Just Intonation.

 

 

           Euclid's "Elements" translated, uses geometry as a solution to irrational numbers

 

 

1482c Fazio Cardano translates John Peckham's "Perspectiva Communis" (1280c) and shares it with da Vinci

 

 

1483   Martin Luther (1546)

 

 

1484   Papacy of Pope Innocent VIIII (1492)

 

 

           (Papacy of Pope Sixtus IV, 1471)

 

 

1486   "Oration on the Dignity of Man" (Giovanni Pico della Mirandola) - 900 theses defended publiclyas the basis for all knowledge

 

 

           Pope Innocent VIII mortgages Papal Tiara to pay for his illegitimate son's (Franceschetto Cybo) lavish wedding to Lorenzo de' Medici's daughter

 

 

1486c Pope Innocent VIII establishes Papal bureau to sell favors and pardons at exorbitant prices (believe it or not)

 

 

1487   "Musices Opusculum" (Nicolaus Burtius) criticizes "Musica Practica" (page 9, e.g.)

 

 

1488c  Viola Organista invented by da Vinci

 

 

1489c  Plotinus translated into Latin by Ficino, who also publishes "De Vita Libri Tres"

 

 

1490c "Vitruvian Man" (da Vinci) accompanied by notes on the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius

 

 

           Adrian Willaert (Venezia, 1562)

 

 

1491   Henry VIIII (1547)

 

 

1492   "Theorica Musicae" (Gaffurius)

 

 

           Papacy of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, 1503)

 

 

           (Papacy of Pope Innocent VIII, 1484)

 

 

           (Lorenzo de' Medici, 1449)

 

 

1496   "Practica Musicae" (Gaffurius) makes possible refererence to Meantone Temperament - date error on page 101

 

 

1498   "The Last Supper" (da Vinci), Refrectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan

 

 

1501   Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI) holds "Ballet of the Chestnuts" in the Papal Palace

 

 

1503   (Papacy of Pope Alexander VI, 1492)

 

 

1506   "Mona Lisa" (da Vinci), La Louvre

 

 

1509   John Calvin (1564)

 

 

           Johannes Pfefferkorn publishes "Mirror of the Jews," ordering Jewish books destroyed (1553)

 

 

1511   Nicola Vicentino (Vicenza, c1576)

 

 

           Lira da Braccio (Giovanni d'Andrea (no biographical information found), Verona), Kunsthistorische Museum, Wien

 

 

1513   Machiavelli's first copy of "The Prince"

 

 

           Papacy of Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, son of Lorenzo The Great <--- deserved for arrogance, 1521)

 

 

1514   Copernicus circulates manuscript among friends saying the Earth was not at the center of the cosmos

 

 

           Fra Bartolomeo's nude San Sebastian removed from the Convent of San Marco (Florence) due to women lusting after it

 

 

1517   Leo X names Johann Tetzel Commissioner of Indulgences for all of Germany

 

 

           Martin Luther nails The 95 Theses onto the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, beginning the Protestant Reformation

 

 

           Erasmus marvels that "splendid talents are forming all over the world"

 

 

1518   "What a century! What literature! How good it is to be alive!" (Letter written by Ulrich von Hí¼teen)

 

 

1519   "Quid Non Ebrietas" (Adrian Willaert) exposes flaws in Pythagorean Tuning and Just Intonation by an octave-leap after traveling the Circle of Fifths

 

 

           Ferdinand Magellan's crew sets sail around the world (1523)

 

 

           (Leonardo da Vinci, 1452)

 

 

1520   A French Instrument-Makers Guild claimed the right to make their own inlays and marquetry, incensing furniture makers

 

 

1521   (Josquin des Pres, 1452c)

 

 

1522   Pope Adrian VI wanted the Sistine Chapel ceiling stripped of nudes

 

 

           (Papacy of Pope Leo X, 1513)

 

 

           (Franchinus Gaffurius, 1451)

 

 

1523   "Toscanello In Musica" (Pietro Aron, Florence) makes definitive reference to Meantone Temperament

 

 

           Andreas Karlstadt (a Lutheran) sets aside church music, supports clerical matrimony, rejects baptism, and denounces education

 

 

           (Papacy of Pope Adrian VI, 1522)

 

 

           (4 of the original 55 on Magellan's Trinidad reach Spain, Tidore being the starting point of the final leg of the journey)

 

 

1531   "Avodat Hakkodesh" (Meir ben Ezekiel ibn Gabbai) says music creates "a magical resonance between earth and Heaven"

 

 

1533   Alfonso II d'Este (1597)

 

 

           First citation of the Lira da Braccio

 

 

           Giovanni Maria Lanfranco proposes equal temperament (flat fifths, sharp thirds) in "Scintille de Musica"

 

 

1534   John Calvin embraces Protestantism, forced to leave France

 

 

           Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy confiscated all lands belonging to the Holy See between 1536 and 1541, Church of England established

 

 

1535   Jan Beukelsz murders one of his (several) wives (error on page 123 says year was 1534)

 

 

1535c  Silvio Cosini makes jerkin from human skin

 

 

1536    In "The Education of Children," also titled "On Civility in Children," Desiderius Erasmus (1466) calls this period "the worst age in history."

 

 

1538   Martin Luther praises complexity in music, calling anyone who does not understand it a "clodhopper."

 

 

1540   Jesuits (Society of Jesus) formed by Ignatius Loyola

 

 

1543   "On The Revolutions Of The Celestial Spheres" (Copernicus)

 

 

           (Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473)

 

 

1545   Council of Trent (1563)

 

 

1545c "Arezzo" (Bartolomeo Torri (spelling error on page 86))

 

 

1546   (Martin Luther, 1483)

 

 

1547   (Henry VIII, 1491)

 

 

1550   "The Lives Of The Most Excellent Artists ...." (Vasari, 1st Edition)

 

 

           Theories of Temperament-to Music in 16th-Century Europe became much like Theories of Cartography-to-Mapmaking

 

 

           "De Subtilitate" (Girolamo Cardano) recommended scholars read love stories (et al) to rekindle their animal spirits

 

 

1551   Vicente Lusitano debates Nicola Vicentino before a court in Rome, over traditional musical views vs. radical ones

 

 

1553   Pope Julius III orders a burning of all copies of The Talmud

 

 

1555   Archicembolo, with six rows of keys, invented by Nicola Vicentino

 

 

           John Calvin turns Switzerland into an authoritarian state (1564)

 

 

1558   Gioseffo Zarlino describes tuning a lute using the mesolabium (attributed to Archimedes)

 

 

1562   Council of Trent urges ban on anything impure or lascivious in music

 

 

           (Adraen Willaert, 1490c)

 

 

1562c Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (Milan) induced composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Palestrina) to write "Missa Papa Marcelli" to win support of counterpoint

 

 

1563   (Council of Trent, 1545)

 

 

1563c Convocation of 1562/3 eliminated organs from churches (Protestants taking over Catholicism)

 

 

1564   Galileo Galilei (1642)

 

 

           (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, 1564))

 

 

           (John Calvin, 1509)

 

 

1566   Carlo Gesualdo, Venosa (1613)

 

 

1568   "The Lives Of The Most Excellent Artists ...." (Vasari, 2nd Edition)

 

 

1570   Regnans in Excelsis (by Pope Pius V) declares Queen Elizabeth I a Heretic

 

 

           Giorgio Vasari covers up "The Trinity" (1426)

 

 

1576   Bubonic Plague kills nearly one-third (appr. 50,000) of Venezia (1577)

 

 

1576c Nicola Vicentino (1511)

 

 

1577   (Bubonic Plague in Venezia)

 

 

1581   Vincenzo Galilei mentions that the Viola Organista sounds like an ensemble of Viols

 

 

1589   (House of Valois, 1328)

 

 

1590   Carlo Gesualdo murders Donna Maria d'Avalos after catching her in flagrante delicto

 

 

-------   End Dates Corrected To Here

 

 

1594   "Coelia" (William Percy)

 

 

1597   Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1679)

 

 

1598   Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1680)

 

 

1599   Queen Elizabeth gifts organ to Sultan Mehmet III of Constantinople (29 years after her excommunication)

 

 

1597   (Duke Alfonso II of Modena, 1533) - owned 52 harpsichords at his time of death

 

 

1606   Rene Descartes (1650)

 

 

1608   John Milton (1674)

 

 

1611   Woodcut of Josquin des Prez (copied from a lost oil painting)

 

 

1613   (Carlo Gesualdo, 1566)

 

 

1618   Fabio Colonna publishes "La Sambuca Lincea, Overo del'Musico Perfetto"

 

 

1698   "Eighth Sonnet" (William Shakespeare)

 

 

1618   "Temple Of Music" (Robert Fludd)

 

 

           Michael Praetorius calls the Hurdy-Gurdy 'the lyre of peasants and itinerant wenches'

 

 

1621   The Anatomy of Melancholy

 

 

1623   Blaise Pascal (1662)

 

 

           Pope Urban VIII Reign (1644)

 

 

1625   Charles I Reign (1649)

 

 

1637c "Harmonie Universelle" (Marin Mersenne) proposes 17-key, 19-key octaves to resolve wolf notes; uses intersecting triangles to determine string proportions

 

 

1640   Doni (mean) vs. Frescobaldi (equal)

 

 

1642   Issac Newton (1726)  

 

 

           (Gaileo Galilei, 1564)

 

 

1644   Lords and Commons Ordinance calls for demolition of organs, monuments to idolatry and superstition, etc.

 

 

1644   (Pope Urban VIII Reign)

 

 

1649   (Charles I Reign)

 

 

1650   (Rene Descartes)

 

 

1655   Bartolomeo Cristofori (1731)

 

 

1660   Charles II Reign (1685)                                                                                                  

 

 

1662   Royal Society Formed

 

 

           (Blaise Pascal)          

 

 

1667   Jonathan Swift (1745)

 

 

           Paradise Lost

 

 

1674   (John Milton)

 

 

1679   (Cardinal Francesco Barberini)

 

 

1680   (Gian Lorenzo Bernini)

 

 

1683   Jean-Philippe Rameau (1764)

 

 

1684   Bernard Smith (split keys) vs. Renatus Harris

 

 

1685   George Frideric Handel (1759)

 

 

           Domenico Scarlatti (1757)

 

 

           Johann Sebastian Bach (1750)

 

 

           (Charles II Reign)    

 

 

1687   "A Song for Saint Cecilia's Day" (John Dryden)

 

 

1700   Cristofori keeps and signs the musical inventory of the de Medici family - first hard evidence of a piano

 

 

1726   Gulliver's Travels (Grand Academy of Lagado)

 

 

           (Issac Newton)      

 

 

1731   (Bartolomeo Cristofori)

 

 

1745   (Jonathan Swift)    

 

 

1750   Handel buys split-key organ for Foundling Hospital (not 1768, error on page 19)

 

 

           (Johann Sebastian Bach)

 

 

1756   Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1827)

 

 

           Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1791)

 

 

1757   (Domenico Scarlatti)

 

 

1759   (George Frideric Handel)

 

 

1764   (Jean-Philippe Rameau)

 

 

1785   "Art du Faiseur d'Instruments de Musique et Lutherie" (Diderot et d'Alambert, Paris)

 

 

1787   "Discoveries in the Theory of Sound" (Chladni) - grains of sans form geometric patterns on a plate that is bowed

 

 

1791   (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

 

 

1819   "Ode On A Grecian Urn" (John Keats)

 

 

1822   "Hellas" (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

 

 

1827   (Ernst Florence Friedrich Chladni)

 

 

1857   "Les Fleurs du Mal" (Charles Baudelaire)

 

 

1874   John Ruskin impressed with Giotto's Frescoes

 

 

1914   Robert Frost writes to John Bartlett, "A sentence is a sound unto itself onto which other sounds called words may be strung."

 

 

1922   "Sonnets to Orpheus" (Rainer Maria Rilke, not "The Poet," error on page 58)

 

 

1942   "Notes Towards A Supreme Fiction" (Wallace Stevens)

 

 

1972   "The Thicket of Spring" (Paul Bowles)

 

 

1975   "The Painted Word" (Thomas Wolfe)