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Seneca's Neighbour, the Organ Tuner

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

James M. May
James M. May
Affiliation:
St Olaf College
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Extract

In one of his letters to Lucilius (Book 6,Ep.56), Seneca discusses the effects of noise and silence on study and contemplation.In the opening sections of the letter, he reveals that his current lodging is located above a bathhouse whence issue continually all sorts of irritating sounds. Seneca insists that such noises, despite their persistence, present no real distraction to one who possesses inner peace and a clear, untroubled mind (animum enim cogo sibi intentum esse nee avocari ad externa: omnia licet foris resonent, dum intus nihil tumultus sit,§5) and whose thoughts are ‘good, steadfast, and sure’ (nullus hominum aviumque concentus interrumpet cogitationes bonas solidasque iam et certas,§11).

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , May 1987 , pp. 240 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1987

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References

1 Cf. e.g. Otto Hense (Teubner, 1914), 171; Achilles Beltrami (Brescia, 1916), 179; Richard M. Gummere (Loeb, 1917), 374; Francois Prechac (Bude, 1958), 62; L. D. Reynolds (Oxford, 1965), 148.

2 See Oxford Latin Dictionary, edited by Glare, P.G.W.(Oxford,1982)Google Scholar

3 Cf., e.g., Ep. 90.26 in which Seneca writes per tubam ac tibiam.Google Scholar

4 Select Letters of Seneca (London, 1910, reprinted 1965), 62–n.Google Scholar

5 The name of this fountain is descriptive of its appearance, resembling a goal in the circus (meta),flowing, spraying, or ‘sweating’jets of water (sudans).The Meta Sudansin Rome stood between the Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum at the meeting point of the five regions of Augustus, I, II, III, IV, X. After thorough excavation in 1933, Mussolini removed the remains in 1936 to construct for his fascist parades the great street which passes through the imperial fora area.See SamuelPlatner, B. and Thomas Ashby,A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome(Oxford, 1929)Google Scholar,340–1;Ernest, Nash,Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome(New York, 1962)Google Scholar, n.61–3;DenAdel Raymond L.‘Seneca the Younger and the Meta Sudans’, CB 60(1984), 1–4;Coarelli, Filippo,Guida Archeologica di Roma(Milan, 1975),175.Google Scholar

6 Cf. Suetonius, Nero41:Ac ne tune quidem aut senatu aut populo coram appellato, quosdam e primoribus viris domum evocavit, transactaque raptim consultatione, reliquam diet partem per organa hydraulica novi et ignoti generis circumduxil, ostendensque singula, de ralione ac difficultate cuiusque disserens, iam se etiam prolaturum omnia in theatrum affirmavit, si per Vindicem liceat;54: voverat.proditurum se.ludis etiam hydraulam.Cf. also Cic. Tusc. Disp.3.43; Petronius, Satyricon36;Mountford, J.F., ‘Greek Music and Its Relation to Modern Times’, JHS 40 (1920), 38.Google Scholar

7 De Architectura10.8.3:Ex canalibus autem canon habet ordinata in transverso foramina respondentia naribus, quae sunt in tabula summa, quae tabula graece pinax dicitur.Google Scholar

8 See figures 124a and 124b, reproduced below as Figs. 1 and 2, in Wilhelm Schmidt′s edition, Heronis Alexandrini Opera quae supersunt Omnia(Leipzig, 1899), 1.498 and 500, which also includes Vitruvius' chapters on pneumatic inventions. The adjective, summa,implies the existence also of a tabula mediaand a tabula ima.The tabula mediawould appear to be that board containing (r)the openings (in transverso foramina)which correspond to (t)the openings in the tabula summa.The tabula imawould then be the bottom board below the canales (n),which contained the first set of openings through which air passed from the arcula (m),through the openings of the other two boards, and finally into the pipes. One of the most delicate and painstaking tasks of the organ builder/tuner would have been the adjustment of the action of the instrument, i.e. the adjustment of these planks and the holes in them (as well as the plinthides, s)so that they lined up precisely and accurately when each key of the organ was depressed.Google Scholar

9 Canlareappears to be the mot justefor making music on the water organ; cf. Petronius, Satyricon36:. ut putares essedarium hydraule cantate pugnare.Google Scholar

10 I would like to thank Professor Philip Stacker and an anonymous reader for their helpful suggestions