M U tl I S. 
226 
Of other writings upon various fubjecls by John de 
Muris, that are Hill prefcrve'd among the manufcripts of 
the Bodieian and Mhfeuin libraries, an account given in 
Tanner’s Bibliotheca Britannica, p. 537. All the trails 
in the lift of his writings which concern nuific were care¬ 
fully examined by Dr. Burney, who has given an anal-yfis 
of their content's. 
The trait which begins “ Quoniam Mufica eft de Sono 
relato ad Numeros,” is now marked Bodl. 300. It is a 
treatife of Harmonics, in which the circular and conical 
diagrams and divilions of the fcale are innumerable. The 
author is as fond of the circle in this work, as Tartini 
■was four hundred years after. The tranfcriber has, how¬ 
ever, omitted many of thefe illuftrntions of his dodtrines, 
by which* perhaps, the injury to muiical ftudents of the 
prefent age is not very con'fid'erabl'e. 
In the trail beginning “ Quilibet in arte,” which was 
unexpectedly found in Bene’t college, Cambridge, the 
notes are divided into five dalles : “ Quinque funt partes 
prolationis ; videlicet, maxima, longa, brevis, fembrevis, 
et minima ;” and here, likewife, his doctrine agrees With 
that in his other treatife, where he Teems to call the triple 
proportions imperfeil, and the dual perfect. This is the 
molt ancient mamilcript in which we have found the 
ligns of the modes, C C O (D> and the “ pundtum per- 
fedlionis.” Here it plainly appears that the pundtum, 
or point, in John de Muris, operates in the fame manner 
as that already defcribed in Franco, p. 187, where it 
makes the note to which it is prefixed perfeB, that is, 
ol three times ; and the calling it “ point of perfection,” 
proves its power of making a double quantity triple, as at 
prefent. At the bottom of fob 6. is written, “ Explicit 
traCtatus Joannis de Muris:” however, it goes on for 
fifteen pages more. Here, too, we fir'll faw an open or 
white minim, and a half-lozenge note. The ink is pale, 
and the writing very bad, and difficult to decipher; but 
the manufcript, which is written on paper of a coarfe 
texture, feems entire, and correfponds in every particular 
with that in the Vatican library, No. 5321. It was this 
treatife which Profdocimo de Beldemandis of Padua, a 
voluminous writer on raufic in the beginning of the fif¬ 
teenth century, thought of fufficient importance to merit 
a commentary, which is now in the poffeffion of Padre 
Martini of Bologna. “ PraClica Menfurabilis Cantus, 
Mag. Joan, de Muris, de Normandia, alias Pariiienfis, cum 
expofit. Profdocimo de Beldemandis Patav. MS. an. 1404. 
The traCl in the Bodleian library, upon the Meafures 
and Proportions of Organ-pipes, according to Guido, 
beginning “ Omne inftrumentum mufice,” is very fhort, 
and contains nothing very important to mulic at prefent. 
It is not known that Guido ever wrote on the fame fub- 
j'edl, and de Muris only means,by “fecundum Guidonem,” 
to fay that he has followed the fame proportions which 
Guido ellablifhed in his divifion of the monochord. 
Among the MSS. which W'ere bequeathed to the Vatican 
library by the queen of Sweden, there is a “ Compendium 
of PraClical Mulic,” by John de Muris, in which he treats 
of mitfical cbaraClers for time; but introduces the fubjeCl 
with a Ihort chronological lift of anterior muficians who 
had merited the title of Inventors: beginning, as ufual, 
with Tubal; and, after naming Pythagoras and Boethius, 
he proceeds to Guido, the monk, “ who conftrudled the 
gammut, or fcale for the monochord, and placed notes 
upon lines and fpaces; after whom came Magfter Franco, 
who invented the figures, or notes, of the Cantus Menfnra- 
hilis.’''' Thus the queftion is fet at reft by his own con- 
fefiion. 
With refpedt to the difpute concerning the place of his 
nativity, though Tanner, copying Pits and Bale, calls 
him an Englilhman, yet we find that, in the title of one 
of the manufcripts of the Bodleian library, in Tanner’s 
lift, lie is called a Norman, and in another a Parilian. 
Padre Martini likewife quotes a manufcript of the year 
J404, in which lie is called the “ Great John de Muris, 
de Normandia, alias Parifienfis.” Having taken fome 
pains to trace the opinion of his being an EngliiTiman to 
its fource, we have been able to find no luch title given 
to him in any of his numerous writings that have been 
preferved in manufcript throughout Europe. The afier- 
fion refts entirely on Robert Record, a phylician at 
Cambridge, and one of the firft writers upon fcience in 
the Englifh language. Pits calls him an Englilh mathe¬ 
matician, and fays, “ he wras a man of tome genius, but 
poffefled of too daring a curiollty; for, while he was Undy¬ 
ing philofophy, he addidlerl himfelf to mathematics, and 
to that more iubiime part of aftronomy which contem¬ 
plates the heavens; and, in the exercife of his genius for 
calculation, he had theinfolence to predict future events; 
thus perfuading the ignorant and vulgar, that by the 
afpedl of the liars he could penetrate the decrees of Pro¬ 
vidence. He dared to publiih celeftial lecrets, under the 
title of Prophetiarum, prophecies.” Thefe particulars, 
and many more, he fays, were colledled from Robert 
Record. But neither from him nor any one elfe was he 
able to (lifeover at what time he lived. Bale, who calls 
him a mathematician and a conjurer, (mathcrnaticus et 
rates,) gives the lame authority for his being an Englilh- 
nvan. This bare aftertion, made at a time when it was 
not fo cufiomary to give or expedt proofs and critical ex- 
adtr.efs in fupport of fadls as at prefent, has not only 
been copied, without farther inquiry, by Pits, Bale, and 
Tanner, at home, but by Fabricius and other refpectable 
writers on the continent. A Latin diftich, by an anony¬ 
mous writer, which has been quoted in favour of this 
opinion, can add but little to its weight, when it is 
known to come from the molt ignorant and monkifh of 
writers, the author of a treatife “ De Origine et Effectu 
Muiice,” written 1451 ; who tells us that “ Cyrus lived 
foon after the deluge; that one king Enchiridias was 
a writer on mulic,” miftaking, I fuppofe, lome Enchiridion 
which he had feen, for the name of a royal author; and 
that “ Timbal kept a blackfmith’s lliop, at which Pytha¬ 
goras adjufted the confonances by the found of his ham¬ 
mers.” But fuch authority will be found no more to 
prove J. de Muris an Englilhman, than Guido or Franco, 
as both thole writers equally contributed to the progrefis 
of mulic in this- kingdom. 
That monks and perfons of learning, for many centu¬ 
ries before the reformation, were more frequently dillin- 
guilhed by the name of the place which gave them birth, 
joined to their baptifmal appellation, than by their family- 
name, is molt certain : as Guido Aretinus, Geoffroy of 
Monmouth, Henry of Huntingdon, William of Malmf- 
bury, John of Salifbury, Matthew of Weftrninfter, &c> 
who have been always l’uppofed natives, or, at l'eaft, in¬ 
habitants, of the feveral places by which they were called. 
Now, though no town in Normandy of the name of Meurs. 
can be found, either in maps or geographical books, yet, 
as there are feveral places fo called in France, particularly 
one in Touraine, and another in Anjou, near Angers, 
which, by giving birth to our John, ferved to diftinguilh. 
him from his innumerable namefakes of other kingdoms, 
cities, and profellions ; and, as no fatisfadlory or probable 
reafon has been alfigned forfuppofing him an Englilhman,. 
nor can any one be now fuggefied, except a patriotic 
delire of appropriating to our own country a man whole 
learning and talents have been long celebrated fit is but 
juft to reftore him to that country which feems to have- 
the fairefc claim to him. 
John de Muris, though not the inventor of the “ Cantus. 
Menfurabilis,” feems, by his numerous writings, greatly 
to have improved it. Indeed, every fpecies of note to be 
found m his tradls, except the minim, is defcribed in 
Franco, as well as ufed in compolitions anterior to Ilia 
time, and mentioned by authors who wrote upon mufic 
before him. Nor is it poffible to imagine that this art; 
was invented, and received by all Europe at once; like 
others, it had its beginning, improvements', and per- 
fedtion, in different periods of time. His “ Art of Coun¬ 
terpoint,” ol which we procured a copy at Rome, though 
a compriied 
