Girolamo Cardano on Music as a Remedy ‘for the Troubles that Result from the Misery of Human Misfortune’

This chapter explores the Renaissance debate on the relationship between music, mind, soul and well-being. At the center of Renaissance theories of auditory perception and sensory cognition lies the concept of mental representation, because most operations of the mind were understood as a process of creating visual and aural images. The process of creating mental images of musical sounds was also associated with the arousal and control of the “passions of the mind” (later reconceptualized in terms of “emotions”). Using examples from Girolamo Cardano's (1501–1576) writings on music, I will argue that during the Renaissance a new view on the pursuit of happiness came into being, which focused on the manipulation of mental images by using certain kinds of music. In so doing, Cardano was able to present his view of music therapy as an alternative to the psychological care offered by the religious and medical establishment of his day.