The original business of notaries was to make all kinds of legal instruments; they are often spoken of In former times as the persons Guido, early in the Ilth century, introduced, it is commonly sup posed, the use of points instead of letters, which be placed on parallel lines, giving names to the latter by means of letters, which have since been gradually transformed into those signs called clefs. [Gm°, in BIOG. Div.; GAMUT; CLIX.] The dots, however, of Guido only marked the degrees of high and low ; to Franco of Cologne we are indebted for characters which at once denoted both the tune and time of the sounds. [Music.] Of these he invented four, and their rests; namely, the— These were valued or measured by the semibreve. The breve was equal to two semibreves, the long to four, and the large to eight. [Lose, lee.] The invention of the minim, crotchet, quaver, and semi quaver, is ascribed to John de Muris, a doctor of the Sorbonne, who made this important addition to notation, and also originated certain characters determining the measure, in the year 133S. The demisemi quaver first appeared in the I7th century, and about the middle of the last was divided into halves. Latterly it has, been subdivided into quarters, and even into eighths, most unnecessarily, and greatly to the perplexity of the performer, and, consequently, to the detriment of the art, by wantonly, and with mischievous affectation, throwing (Fa culties in the way of its attainment.
We have not been able to ascertain at what time the sharp and fiat were brought into use. The sharp was at first square in form, accord ing to Butler (' Principles,' &e., 1636). The Hat was always a small G. The natural is, comparatively, of modern date. Till towards the close of the 17th century, the secondary use of the sharp was to contradict the flat, and of the flat to contradict the sharp. The natural, intro duced nt nearly the same time, relieved the two other characters from part of their duty. In the printed score of Lully's opera, ' Pers6e,' dated 1684, the natural does not appear ; nor even in his Armide,' published ill 1710. In Purcell's ' Diocletian' (1691) sharps and flats contradict each other ; but the natural is ocdasionally used. [Smote ; FLAT; NATURAL.) The grouping of quavers. &c., Ly means of liga tures, or ties, joining the stems, is also one of the improvements made in the latter half of the 17th century. It does not seem to have been practised in 1653, when Laws's printed his Ayres,' lee. In Lolly's ' Pronerpine ' (1680) we find quavers tied at the bottom of their stems, in groups of four, but emniquavers are all detached. The use of bars became general about the middle of the 17th century. though this mode of division was partially adopted much earlier. [Ban ; .A.B1ME VIATION9; DOT; NOTE; TIME]