Phonurgia Nova: Geometrical Acoustics in the 17th Century

This paper concentrates on the shared experiments on optics, light and acoustics in the 16th century. Most of the scholars involved in this topic have considered the physical behavior of light diffusion to be similar to the sound. According to the direct, catoptric and dioptric observation, propagation of light was used to explain the phenomenon of visual perception and investigate the behavior of visual rays too. These researches were supported by the specific properties connected to the curves obtained by sectioning a cone: ellipse, parabola and hyperbole. Since the importance of religious aspects and the progress of sacred and secular music at the time, the use of geometry allowed the best diffusion of sound through the revolution of two-dimensional conical sections. This happened in order to create three-dimensional architectonical surfaces improved for the best acoustics. One of the most peculiar example can be identified in an unrealized project for a scientific villa arising from the collaboration between Borromini and the monk Emmanuel Maignan. Here some rooms were designed to stress the auditory perception of the visitors. Using digital tools dedicated to light and sound simulation it will be represented and demonstrated the relationship between sound and light.