La musica nei "Discours des Spectres" (1605-1608) di Pierre Le Loyer

In the "Discours des spectres", Pierre Le Loyer defends the legacy of Humanism on magic and the occult from the attacks of scientific progress. Analyzing the extensive chapter devoted to music, this essay analyzes some aspects of the relationship between sounds and diabolical diseases : the possibility of exorcising with music; the importance of singing in the medical theories of the Renaissance; ethical problems related to musical affections. The "Discours" are examined in light of the works of Girolamo Menghi and Jean Bodin and of some sixteenth and seventeenth-century texts on preaching.