Prosdocimus de Beldemandis or Prosdocimo de’ Beldomandi
Prosdocimus de Beldemandis or Prosdocimo de’ Beldomandi
Prosdocimus de Beldemandis or Prosdocimo de’ Beldomandi , Italian music theorist; b. probably in Padua, date unknown; d. there, 1428. He was educated at the Univ. of Bologna, and at the Univ. of Padua (doctor in artibus, 1409; doctor in medicine, 1411), where he joined its faculty. In addition to his studies in music, he pursued studies in mathematics and astronomy. In his Tractatus musicae speculative (1425), he attacked Marchetto da Padova’s division of the whole tone into 5 equal parts. His Writings are an important source in the study of Italian music of the early 15th century.
Writings
Exposiciones tractatus pratice cantus mensurabilis magistri Johannis de Mûris (1404; 2nd version, c. 1411; ed. by F. Gallo, Bologna, 1966; rewritten, 1408, as Tractatus pratice cantus mensurabilis; 2nd version, c. 1411); Brevis summula proporcionum quantum ad musican pertinet (1409); Contrapunctus (1412; ed. and tr. by J. Herlinger, Lincoln, Nebr., 1984); Tractatus plane musice (1412); Tractatus pratice cantus mensurabilis ad modum ytalicorum (1412); Parvus tractatulus de modo monocordum dividendi (1413; ed. and tr. by J. Herlinger, Lincoln, Nebr., 1987); Tractatus musicae speculative (1425).
—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire