In Regulae rhythmicae Guido reworked in poetic
form material he had covered for the most part in Micro-
logus; he also included one example in staff notation.
Writers of a much later date transposed the series ut
re mi fa sol la to pitches other than C and constructed
an interlocking array of such series spanning the entire
musical gamut. Although the “Guidonian hand”—a
representation of the left hand with the notes of the
musical gamut depicted on the various joints of the
fi ngers—was during the Middle Ages and later often
attributed to Guido of Arezzo, it is documented only
from the twelfth century.
Further Reading
Editions
Amelli, Ambrosio M., ed. Guidonis Monachi Aretini Microlo-
gus ad praestantiores codices mss. exactus. Rome: Desclèe,
Lefebvre, 1904.
Gerbert, Martin, ed. Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra
potissimum, Vol. 2. Includes Micrologus, 2–24; Prologus in
antiphonarium (Alie Guidonis regulae de ignoto cantu iden-
tidem in antiphonarii sui prologum prolatae), 34–37; Regule
rhythmice (Musicae Guidonis regulae rhythmicae, 25–33
(34?); Epistota de ignoto cantu , 43–50. Saint Blasien, 1784.
(Reprint, Hildesheim: Olms, 1963.)
——, and Schola Palaeographica Amstelodamensis, eds. Tres
tractatuli Guidonis Aretini: Guidonis Prologus in antiphonar-
ium. Divitiae Musicae Artis, A(3). Buren: Knuf, 1975.
——, and Eddie Vetter, eds. Guidonis Aretini Regulae rhythmicae.
Divitiae Musicae Artis, A(4). Buren: Knuf, 1985.
Pesce, Dolores, ed. Guido d’Arezzo’s Regulae rhythmicae, Pro-
logus antiphonarii, and Epistola ad Michahelem. Ottawa:
Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1999. (With translation.)
Smits van Waesberghe, Joseph, ed. Guidonis Aretini Micrologus.
Corpus Scriptorum de Musica, 4. N.p.: American Institute of
Musicology, 1955.
Translations
Babb, Warren, trans. Hucbald, Guido, and John on Music: Three
Medieval Treatises, ed. Claude V. Palisca. Music Theory
Translation Series, 3. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale
University Press, 1978.
Strunk, Oliver, ed. and trans. Source Readings in Music History
from Classical Antiquity through the Romantic Era. New
York: Norton, 1950. (See pp. 117–120 for Prologus in an-
tiphonarium and 121–125 for Epistola de ignoto cantu; the
latter is incomplete.)
Critical Studies
Brockett, Clyde W. “A Comparison of the Five Monochords
of Guido d’Arezzo.” Current Musicology, 32, 1981, pp.
29–42.
Kartsovnik, Viarcheslav. “Institutiones grammaticae and Mensura
monochordi: A New Source of Guido of Arezzo’s Microlo-
gus.” Musica Disciplina, 42, 1988, pp. 7–22.
Kiesewetter, Raphael Georg. Guido von Arezzo: Sein Leben und
Wirken. Leipzig: Breitkopf and Hartel, 1840.
Oesch, Hans. Guido von Arezzo: Biographisches und Theo-
retisches unter besonderer Beücksichtigung der sogenannten
odonischen Traktate. Publikationen der Schweizerischen
Musikforschenden Gesellschaft. Bern: Haupt, 1954.
Smits van Waesberghe, Joseph. “Guido of Arezzo and Musical
Improvisation.” Musica Disciplina, 5, 1951a, pp. 55–63.
——. “The Musical Notation of Guido of Arezzo.” Musica Dis-
ciplina, 5, 1951b, pp. 15–53.
——. De musico-paedagogico et theoretico Guidone Aretino
eiusque vita et moribus. Florence: Olschki, 1953.
——. Musikerziehung: Lehre und Theorie der Musik im Mittelal-
ter. Musikgeschichte in Bildern, 3(3). Leipzig: VEB Deutscher
Verlag für Musik, 1969.
Jan HerlingerGUIDO DELLE COLONNE (13th century)
The thirteenth-century judge Guido de (or da) le Col-
onne di Messina is referred to by Dante in De vulgari
eloquentia as Iudex de Columpnis de Messana or simply
as Iudex de Messana. Guido’s name appears in a total of
fi fteen documents, some of them bearing his signature,
issued in Messina between 1243 and 1280. This docu-
mentary evidence testifi es to his activity as a judge in
that city. Since he was acting in a professional capacity
as early as 1243, he must have been born c. 1210; this
date makes it rather unlikely he could be identical with
a Guido de Columna who was the author of a Latin ver-
sion of Historia destructionis Troiae, a prose rendition
of Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie, begun in
1272 but not fi nished until 1287. Bertoni (1947) accepts
this identity, however, thereby placing Guido’s poetic
activity during the Manfred era. Guido’s birthplace is
unknown; there is nothing to support Monaci’s claim
(1955) that Guido was descended from the Colonna
family in Rome, nor do we have any fi rm proof that
he was related to the other poet of the same name in
Messina, Odo delle Colonne. Nothing is known about
Guido’s personal life. His poetic legacy consists of
only fi ve canzoni, of which one—La mia vit’ è si fort’
e dura e fera (“My life is so harsh and fi erce”)—is of
uncertain attribution: it is described as anonymous in
the Vatican Codex (Vat. Lat. 3793) but is given to Guido
in the Palatine Codex (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale
Centrale, Banco Rari 217, formerly Palatino 418).
Included in this count is the poem Gioiosamente canto
(“Joyously I sing”), which scholars almost unanimously
assign to Guido on the strength of the attributions pro-
posed by the most reliable manuscripts (Vatican 3793
and Laurentian Rediano 9); but many other codices,
among them the Palatine, Chigiano L.VIII.308, and
Vatican 3214, concur in giving it to Mazzeo di Ricco,
who may simply have been the recipient rather than the
author of the poem.
Although Guido delle Colonne’s lyrical production
is thus very modest in scope, his poems rank among the
most technically elaborate of the Sicilian school. Guido
treats the traditional amorous themes with exceptional
rhetorical skill and has at his disposal an impressive fund
of abstract imagery that enables him to bring varietyGUIDO DELLE COLONNE