Abstract

The aim of my research is that of determining the meaning of the musica practica, that is the music performed in opposition to the theoric knowledge of liberal arts within young S. Augustin's texts. The interpretational key of the work has been the distinction of two paradigms, mathematical and linguistical, to which, respectively, the musica practica and the quadrivial ars musica have been reconduced. On the light of that, the investigation on the linguistical essence of the former has been conduced by developing a comparison to another liberal art, the ars rethorica, with which music shares a technical knowledge endowed with psycagogical power. By the close examination of the connection between the two disciplines, I have tried to explain the oscillating attitude manifested by S. Augustin towards sacred chants. With such elements at hand, I have finally extended the comparison to the later declination of the project of the encyclopedic knowledge that takes shape in the De Doctrina Christiana with the proposal of a christian eloquence, trying to set a relation between the revaluation of the arts of the word and the radical thought of the omnipotence of God