Jan Herlinger. The Lucidarium of Marchetto of Padua. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985 [MT5.5 .M3713 1985]

Book 5, chapter 6: "An investigation concerning dissonance"

207

4. The question arises why a dissonance compatible to the ear must lie at the smallest distance [per minorem distantiam] from the consonance 5. We answer that a dissonance is something imperfect [dissonantia sit quoddam imperfectum]; it requires something perfect by means of which it can be perfected [requirens perfectum, quo perfici possit]. 6. The consonance is its perfection [consonantia autem est perfectio ipsius]. 208 7. The less distant the dissonance lies from the consonance [quanto enim minus dissonantia distat a consonantia], the less distant it is from its perfection [tanto minus distat a sua perfectione] and the more it is assimilated to it [et magis assimilatur eidem], and thus the more agreeable it is to the ear [et ideo magis amicabilis est auditui], as if it partook of the nature of the consonance [tamquam plus habens de natura consonantiae]. 213 13. The dissonance must lie at the smallest distance from the consonance [Debet autem dissonantia distare ante consonantiam per minorem distantiam], and both notes must move for the reasons given, as here [et per motum utriusque, rationibus superius allegatis, ut hic]:

Soprano	d''	c#''	d''		e''	f#''	g''		d''	d#''	e''
Bass	d	e	d		e	d	c		d1	b	a