Meibom (Meiboom, Meybom, Meibomius), MarCUS

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Meibom (Meiboom, Meybom, Meibomius), MarCUS

Meibom (Meiboom, Meybom, Meibomius), MarCUS, erudite Danish scholar; b. Tönning, Schleswig, 1620 or 1621; d. Utrecht, Feb. 15, 1710. He studied law at the Univ. of Königsberg (1644) and medicine at the Univ. of Leiden (1645), but subsequently devoted himself to philology and mathematics. He was asst. royal librarian in Stockholm (1652–53) before serving King Frederik III of Denmark in Copenhagen (1653–64), where he held the title of consilarus regius. After serving as director of customs in Elsinore (1664–68), he lived in England (1674–77) before settling in Holland. His major contribution to music was his Antiquae musicae auctores septem, graece et latine, Marcus Meibomius restituit ac notis explicavit (2 vols., Amsterdam, 1652), which includes treatises on music by Aristoxenos, Cleonides, Nicomachus, Alypius, Gaudentius Philosophos, Bacchius, Aristides Quintilianus, and Martianus Capella.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire