What is "campanology"

Campanology \Cam`pa*nol"o*gy\, n. [LL. campana bell + -logy.] The art of ringing bells, or a treatise on the art. [1913 Webster] ||

n. The study of bells; their casting, tuning, and ringing.

Campanology (from Late Latin campana, "bell"; and Greek , -logia) is the study of bells. It encompasses the technology of bells – how they are cast, tuned and sounded – as well as the history, methods, and traditions of bell-ringing as an art.

It is common to collect together a set of tuned bells and treat the whole as one musical instrument. Such collections – such as a Flemish carillon, a Russian zvon, or an English "ring of bells" used for change ringing – have their own practices and challenges; and campanology is likewise the study of perfecting such instruments and composing and performing music for them.

In this sense, however, the word campanology is most often used in reference to relatively large bells, often hung in a tower. It is not usually applied to assemblages of smaller bells, such as a glockenspiel, a collection of tubular bells, or an Indonesian gamelan.