back when people believed music governed the universe
The Harmony of Spheres (late 12th-century)
This diagram is found in a late 12th-century manuscript born in England. The manuscript, consisting of nine folios and a series of other diagrams, is housed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The folios were a sort-of scientific textbook for Christian monks, and drew from thinkers Bede, Isodere, and Pliny the Elder.
The diagram above as described by the Walters Art Museum:
The idea of the harmony of spheres – that numerical proportions corresponding to musical harmonies governed both the movement of the seven heavenly bodies and their distance from the Earth – was taken up by medieval writers from ancient thought. In the illustration of the harmony of the spheres in the upper part of the page, the Sun, the Moon, and the five known planets are depicted as seven discs of equal size. Between them are written musical intervals -- a tone (tonus), a semitone (semitonium), or three semitones (tria semitonia).
public domain
Creative materials and intellectual property the public owns due to waived or expired copyrights. For more throwbacks from the public domain, check out Throwbacks in The Family Room. The cosmographic diagram in Volume 4 was found at The Public Domain Review. Support them if you can! They are amazing!