Definitions for "Ars nova"
(Lat. for "the new art.") : Term used to describe the style of medieval music that succeeded the Ars antiqua. (It was the title of a famous treatise by Philippe de Vitry, c. 1322.) It is generally applied to music from the Roman de Fauvel (1316) and the next half century or so.
Latin for "New Art", now used as a synonym for French 14th-century polyphony. The term comes from Phillippe de Virty's title of his treatise, Ars nova Musical themes of the ars nova period became increasingly freer, and less religious. [JW
The "new art" of fourteenth-century France; refers to the stylistic innovations, especially rhythmic, of composers around 1320.