Varietas metryczna „Musicorum libri quattuor” (1512) Václava Philomathesa
Variety within the metre of “Musicorum libri quattuor” (1512) by Václav Philomathes

Summary/Abstract: This paper concerns a Latin treatise on the theory of music entitled Musico­rum libri quattuor [Four Books about Music], written in the form of didactic poem by a Czech humanist, Václav Philomathes, and printed in Vienna in 1512. The treatise, although written solely in dactylic hexameter, shows a certain degree of variety within the metre that can be thoroughly examined. The pa­per offers a collection and analysis of such data, which includes: distribution of spondees in each line of the poem, frequency of occurrence of particu­lar metric patterns within the treatise, deviations from the norms of verse composition, and occurrences of rare metric patterns. The analysis reveals a noticeable variety in the metre of the piece in question — and one that seems to be deliberate. Furthermore, it can be observed that the author pre­ferred patterns with a spondee in the second foot over the other and avoided using more than two metrically identical verses in a row. Whilst the treatise does not employ many poetic devices and contains a limited technical vocab­ulary, the variety within the poem’s metre is significant.

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