Girolamo Mei's Aesthetic Ideals reflected on His image of Ancient Music

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02289
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Aesthetics and studies on art
• Research Institution: Seijo University
• Principal Investigator: Tsugami Eske 成城大学, 文芸学部, 教授 (80197657)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: ジローラモ・メーイ / アリストテレース / 『詩学』 / 『古代旋法論』

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Girolamo Mei is known in the history of Western music as a person who theoretically stimulated the birth of opera toward the end of the sixteenth century. This project aimed instead at clarifying his thought on ancient music as such. From my four years' analysis of his writings it has been made clear that he sometimes projected his own aesthetic ideals even where he seemed to be objectively talking about ancient music. This result made a part of my English book: Girolamo Mei: A Belated Humanist and Premature Aesthetician, published by Keiso Shobo in 2021 with a JSPS grant.

Free Research Field

美学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

メーイはアリストテレース『詩学』の試作手段論とカタルシス概念について，現代から見ても優れた解釈を示している．また，芸術分類論や悲劇上演論において，彼は時代を数百年先駆ける思想を提示している．これは美学史内部に留まらず，広く人類の知的営為の歴史において注目されてよい事実である．それはとりもなおさず，同時代と後代の学者たちが，彼の先駆的思想を取り上げないという選択をしたことを意味するからである．