ABSTRACT
The sole surviving manuscript of the Scientia artis musice is without any doubt the original presentation copy offered to Pope Gregory X in the late spring or summer of 1274. The statement confirms the Ambrosiana manuscript as the presentation copy, for it would have made little sense to duplicate the line in a later copy of the treatise. That the Ambrosiana manuscript might be an autograph is less certain, but if Helie Salomon were a scribe in the employ of the Curia, he could have produced the manuscript himself. The manuscript remained unnoticed in the library until Baldassare Oltrocchi, historian and librarian of the Ambrosiana, brought its existence to the attention of Abbot Martin Gerbert (1720–1793). Following its publication by Gerbert, the Scientia artis musice attracted little attention, even with the renewed interest in medieval music theory during the late twentieth century.
