Arca musarithmica

arca_musarithmica · procedural · validated

A box of tablets bearing numbered patterns, chosen by the syllable count and prosodic shape of a phrase, from which a setting is composed. Kircher's own use was musical; the transferable procedure is the one underneath — give a passage its prosodic profile, then draw from a pattern table indexed by that profile.

Provenance

• Source: Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis (Rome, 1650), book VIII
• Attribution: primary — a named author, work and year this catalogue stands behind
• Checkability: source — decidable against the source text it was made from
• Attested: author-stated — the originator set this rule down

Details

• Kind: both
• Languages: en
• Requires: tokens, syllables.heuristic
• Deterministic: yes
• Also known as: musarithmic ark
• In other languages: Arca musarithmica (de), Arca musarithmica (fr)

Notes

Kircher advertises that an amusos — someone with no musical training — can produce correct four-part settings in any language, which is the claim that makes the box interesting. What is implemented here is the indexing, not the counterpoint: a phrase is measured and a pattern drawn from the tablet for its length, and the patterns themselves are never read. Put Kircher's pitch numbers in and you get his machine; put stress patterns or rhyme schemes in and the same bones carry those. No tablet ships. Kircher's own runs to many pages of Musurgia Universalis book VIII and has not been transcribed into anything this project could verify.

Prompt hint

Count the syllables of the phrase, then take a pattern from the table indexed by that count.

Parameters

Name	Type	Default	Description
pinakes	string	—	The pattern tablets, as JSON.
source	string	—	The text this one was made from.
syntagma	string	1	Which tablet to draw from; Kircher's first is plain, his second florid.
tonus	—	None	The mode, if the table names any.

Examples

two-phrases-set-from-the-tablet

en — this text satisfies the procedure.

5 3 1 3
5 5 3 1 3 5

Parameters: source='the cat sat down\nthe dog ran home to eat', pinakes='{"tones": ["I", "II", "III"], "syntagmata": {"1": {"4": ["5 3 1 3", "1 3 5 3"], "6": ["5 5 3 1 3 5", "1 1 3 5 3 1"]}}}'

Source: constructed example with a synthetic tablet; the mechanism is Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650) book VIII, the patterns are not his

a-pattern-from-the-wrong-tablet

en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.

5 3 1 3
5 3 1 3

Parameters: source='the cat sat down\nthe dog ran home to eat', pinakes='{"tones": ["I", "II", "III"], "syntagmata": {"1": {"4": ["5 3 1 3", "1 3 5 3"], "6": ["5 5 3 1 3 5", "1 1 3 5 3 1"]}}}'

Source: constructed counterexample; the box is indexed by syllable count, so a four-syllable pattern will not set a six-syllable phrase

katze-und-hund-tablet

de — this text satisfies the procedure.

5 3 1 3
5 5 3 1 3 5

Parameters: source='die Katze schläft\nder Hund lief nach Hause', pinakes='{"tones": ["I", "II", "III"], "syntagmata": {"1": {"4": ["5 3 1 3", "1 3 5 3"], "6": ["5 5 3 1 3 5", "1 1 3 5 3 1"]}}}'

Source: constructed example with a synthetic tablet; the mechanism is Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650) book VIII, the patterns are not his

chat-et-chien-tablet

fr — this text satisfies the procedure.

5 3 1 3
5 5 3 1 3 5

Parameters: source='le soleil brille\nle chien court dans la rue', pinakes='{"tones": ["I", "II", "III"], "syntagmata": {"1": {"4": ["5 3 1 3", "1 3 5 3"], "6": ["5 5 3 1 3 5", "1 1 3 5 3 1"]}}}'

Source: constructed example with a synthetic tablet; the mechanism is Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650) book VIII, the patterns are not his

motif-du-mauvais-tableau

fr — this text does not satisfy the procedure.

5 3 1 3
5 3 1 3

Parameters: source='le soleil brille\nle chien court dans la rue', pinakes='{"tones": ["I", "II", "III"], "syntagmata": {"1": {"4": ["5 3 1 3", "1 3 5 3"], "6": ["5 5 3 1 3 5", "1 1 3 5 3 1"]}}}'

Source: constructed counterexample; the box is indexed by syllable count, so a four-syllable pattern will not set a six-syllable phrase