Ars musica (Juan Gil de Zamora)
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Ars musica (or Ars musicae) is a treatise on music theory by Juan Gil de Zamora, a polymath in the literary circle around King Alfonso X of Castile. It has been dated to as early as the 1250s or as late as the period 1296–1304. It is the only surviving work of music theory from medieval Castile.
The Ars musica was written in Latin, which may indicate that Gil intended to reach an international audience. It is dedicated to a certain John, either John of Parma or the Italian Franciscan Giovanni Mincio da Morrovalle. It is divided into a prologue and 17 chapters. The first two chapters deal with the origins of music and its emotional effects. In the following chapter, Gil integrates the ideas of Guido of Arezzo, John of Afflighem and Boethius. The final chapter is devoted to musical instruments, and relies heavily on the work of Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Gil held that of all instruments only the organ was appropriate to church services.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q138755378. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1296 and 1304.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ars musica (Juan Gil de Zamora)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.