Stewart Pollens. The Early Piano-forte. (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 158 pls. + xx + 297 pp. $ 84.95.

Abstract

REVIEWS 1269 material for comparative analysis. Also the discussion of older mathemat- ical sources is marginal. By contrast, Bonker frequently cites twentieth-cen- tury mathematical literature; however, most of these references are too short and enigmatic to be of any help. Bru- no's alleged anticipations of modern science are either too arbitrary (regard- ing the unity of method on 68 and 249) or not argued for (e.g. the relation with Leibniz in chap. 8). Surprisingly the author seems unacquainted with P. Rossi’s Clavis universalis and with S. R.icci's studies on the reception of Bru- no in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, the initial claim regarding Bruno's contribution to the development of mathematics — that it consisted of an essential impulse to- wards the analysis of the scope of ma- thematical logic through the attempt to assess the premises of mathematical thought and to understand the divine unity with mathematical means — re- mains unwarranted. LEEN Smturr University of Rome “La Sapienzaq Stewart Polleru. The Early Piano- forte. (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 158 pls. + xx + 297 pp. 5 84.95. The origins of most musical in- struments are obscure. Many are deri- vations and subspecies whose ancient origins cannot be traced. Equally problematic is the fact that throughout the ages there were constant changes of constructional details. resulting in the eventual reclassification into distinct instruments. Therefore, it is rare in the history of musical instruments that we should have access to the docu- ments which give the approximate date and circurmtance of the invention of an instrument, as well as the surviv- ing instruments that support those documents. Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) has been regarded as the inventor of the pianoforte. and his invention of the principle of striking the string marked the beginning of a continuum of developments that led to the modern piano. His contemporary also believed the pianoforte was a “nuova inventione” made in Florence around 1700 by Cristofori, then in the service of Prince Ferdinand de’ Medici. Contrary to the widely accepted theory on the invention of the piano, Stewart Pollens argues that the strik- ing mechanism that distinguishes the pianoforte from other stringed key- board instruments was known long before Cristofori, and that what Cris- tofori achieved was the ‘‘rediscovery'’ of the principle of striking the string and the adaptation of the hammer ac- tion to his instrument. The earliest written document Pollens examines is a treatise written ca. 1440 by Henri Arnaut of Zwolle. a physician and as- trologer to Philip the Good. Arnaut provides technical descriptions and drawings of several instruments. among them dulce melos. Pollens be- lieves that Arnaut's description of the dulce melos provides ample evidence for the existence of the striking action similar to the one employed on Cris- tolori's pianofortes and that Arnaut recorded the technique from an earlier source. The exchanges of musical in- struments and musicians between the court of Burgundy and the court of Ferrara provide tangible evidence that Arnaut’s dalce melos or the idea of striking action on a string keyboard instrument was exported to Italy in the fifteenth century. Indeed, the next reference to keyboard instruments with the facility for playing piano and