The Origins of the Mensural System and Mensuration Signs
Anna Maria Busse Berger · 1993
Abstract There are many questions to raise about the evolution of these signs, questions so basic they have yet to be asked. Why, for instance, was there such a confusion with regard to mode signs, but not for tempus, prolatio, and sesquitertia signs? It would seem that three strokes to indicate perfect mode are less ambiguous than the circle as a sign of perfect time. And, more to the point, why did musicians use these particular signs to indicate mensurations in the first place? The use of the three strokes to show perfection does not require any explana tion, especially if the strokes correspond to rests. But the circle, semicircle, and inverted semicircle do. It is not enough to say that the circle is round and therefore perfect, or that the semicircle is half of the circle and therefore imperfect.