Aristides Quintilianus

Aristides Quintilianus (flourished late 3rd–early 4th century ad) was a Greek author of the treatise Perì musikē (De musica, “On Music”). This three-volume work constitutes one of the principal sources of modern knowledge of ancient Greek music and its relationship to other disciplines. In the opening of book 1, the author compares music to other arts and sciences, such as grammar and literature, mathematics, and philosophy; book 1 also addresses the technical aspects of music. Book 2 treats the influence of music on the human character and the functions of music in life (e.g., its relationship to ethics, to the soul, and to the masculine and feminine). Book 3 concludes with a consideration of music and the cosmos. The treatise was regarded by Byzantine and Arab scholars as a basic work, and its importance is generally accepted by modern scholars. It was first published by Marcus Meibom in 1652 (reprinted 1977); a critical edition by Albert Jahn was published in 1882. It is available in an English translation, with commentary, by Thomas J. Mathiesen (1983).