Ars Nova

Ars Nova, (Medieval Latin: “New Art”), in music history, period of the tremendous flowering of music in the 14th century, particularly in France. The designation Ars Nova, as opposed to the Ars Antiqua (q.v.) of 13th-century France, was the title of a treatise written about 1320 by the composer Philippe de Vitry. Philippe, the most enthusiastic proponent of the “New Art,” demonstrates in his treatise the innovations in rhythmic notation characteristic of the new music....