Middle AgesCulture & Arts Musical notation (Guido of Arezzo) c. 1025Major A system of staff lines and note names that lets music be written and read. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → First fired clay figures → First pottery → Potter's wheel → The wheel → Spoke-wheeled chariot → Hittite Empire → Iron Age begins → Rome founded (traditional date) → Roman Republic founded → Caesar crosses the Rubicon → Roman Empire begins → Jesus of Nazareth crucified → Paul spreads Christianity → Edict of Milan → Christianity becomes Rome's state religion → Benedictine monasteries → Musical notation (Guido of Arezzo) Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentbritannica.comGuido d'Arezzo (Britannica) ↗Editor's pickDocumentmetmuseum.orgThe Guidonian Hand (Met Museum) ↗Editor's pickBookMargot FasslerMusic in the Medieval West ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeGuido of Arezzo musical notation history ↗Editor's pick