[3] He shortly was a lecturer at the University of Pavia for a few months in 1515, but returned to Basel due to the Battle of Marignano[2] between Switzerland and France.
In the early stages of the reformation, Glarean, like Erasmus, had considerable sympathy with Martin Luther's criticisms of church abuses and scholastic teaching methods.
[4] Glarean's first publication on music, a modest volume entitled Isagoge in musicen, was printed in 1515 by Johann Froben.
[7] The most significant feature of the Dodecachordon (literally, "12-stringed instrument") is Glarean's proposal that there are actually twelve modes, not eight, as had long been assumed, for instance in the works of the contemporary theorist Pietro Aron.
[citation needed] Glarean's most important published work on geography was De Geographia Liber (Basel, 1527).
[9] This gives a representation of the universe derived from Ptolemy's system, with the spherical earth at the centre and concentric spheres surrounding it carrying the celestial bodies.
Then follow chapters on different regions of the world, starting with Ireland (Hibernia) and ending with America, which is named along with its discovers, Columbus of Genoa, and Americus Vesputius.