Girolamo Mei’s Interpretation of Tragic Katharsis as Culmination of His Aesthetic Thought

Abstract

Girolamo Mei (1519–94) is known in the history of Western music as a humanist who stimulated the birth of the operatic form by his description of ancient tragedy. According to him, it was a wholly musical drama, with all the words sung from beginning to end. However, scholars have been silent about the details of his thought, including the way he conceived tragedy. As a result, the birth of opera has often been considered to be a product of a misunderstanding. However, his interpretation of the form of tragedy is firmly based on the words of Aristotle’s Poetics. It follows from this that his picture of ancient tragedy is a proper one. This paper deals with Mei’s intepretation of tragic katharsis, which corroborates and also is corroborated by his view of ancient tragedy and music, and which at the same time is the culmination of his aesthetic thought.