Robert Hooke's Trinity College ‘Musick Scripts’, his music theory and the role of music in his cosmology

Summary

This article consists of a short introduction and three parts. Part I contains a transcription and interpretation of Robert Hooke's Trinity College, Cambridge, ‘Musick Scripts’. In Part II a summary is provided of Hooke's music theory from the fragmentary evidence of records of Hooke's experiments and lectures at Gresham College as well as from the writings of Hooke and some of his associates. In Part III an assessment is made of the relationship of Hooke's musical knowledge to the broader domains of his scientific and philosophic thought. Until recently, historians of science have formed their conception of Hooke's position on the basis of his published work only. The manuscript evidence examined in this paper suggests that received views about Hooke may need to be revised.