Magic And Memory In Giordano Bruno: The Art Of A Heroic Spirit

263 Pages·2018·1 MB·English

by  Manuel Mertens

Magic and Memory in Giordano Bruno
Brill’s Studies in
Intellectual History
General Editor
Han van Ruler (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Founded by
Arjo Vanderjagt
Editorial Board
C.S. Celenza (Georgetown University, Washington DC)
M. Colish (Yale University, New Haven)
J.I. Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
A. Koba (University of Tokyo)
M. Mugnai (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
W. Otten (University of Chicago)
VOLUME 283
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsih
Magic and Memory in
Giordano Bruno
The Art of a Heroic Spirit
By
Manuel Mertens
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: A woodcut from Bruno’s Cantus Circaeus, courtesy of the National Library of the
Netherlands (The Hague). This figure is taken from the mnemonic treatise Cantus Circaeus, which takes
a central position in this book. The figure symbolizes well the way in which magic and mnemonics were
intricated. The pig, referring to the sorceress Circe’s magic, is enclosed in a mnemonic wheel containing the
initials of characteristics of the pig that the students in the art of memory had to memorise.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mertens, Manuel, author.
Title: Magic and memory in Giordano Bruno : the art of a heroic spirit / by
Manuel Mertens.
Description: Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Brill’s studies in intellectual
history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; VOLUME 283 | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018022245 (print) | LCCN 2018023947 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004372672 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004358928 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bruno, Giordano, 1548–1600. | Magic. | Memory.
Classification: LCC B783.Z7 (ebook) | LCC B783.Z7 M475 2018 (print) | DDC
195—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022245
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0920-8607
isbn 978-90-04-35892-8 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-37267-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense and Hotei Publishing.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
To my beloved children Vif, Renée, and Cyriel
∵

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xviii
1 Magic and Memory in Giordano Bruno: Towards a More Encompassing
Perspective 1
1.1 Changing Perspectives on Magic and Memory 2
1.1.1 The Blind Spot in Tocco’s Perspective 2
1.1.2 The Focus in Yates’s Perspective 5
1.1.3 Rita Sturlese’s Interpretation of Bruno’s memoria
verborum 18
1.1.4 Post-Sturlesian Interpretations 21
1.1.5 Conclusion 25
1.2 Towards a Broader Perspective 25
2 Special Features of Magical and Mnemonic Writings in the Sixteenth
Century 28
2.1 Masked on the Literary Stage? 29
2.2 The Contradictions in the Mnemonic Works in View of Bruno’s
Conception of Magic 39
2.2.1 Magic and Censorship: Prints and Manuscripts 39
2.2.2 Bruno’s Reading, Writing, and Reception in Relation to
Censorship 54
2.2.3 Bruno’s Conception of Magic 61
2.2.4 Out of the Impasse 77
2.3 Writing on Memory: Cryptic Publications and Oral Teaching 78
2.3.1 The Art of Memory in an Age of Printing 78
2.3.2 Lambert Thomas Schenkel: Life and Career 80
2.3.3 Schenkel’s Mnemonics, Suspected of Magic 80
2.3.4 Cryptic Writings on the Art of Memory 83
2.3.5 Writing Strategy in Bruno’s Mnemonic Treatises 86
2.4 Conclusion 92
3 The Concept of Similitudo 95
3.1 Similitudo from Foucault to Sturlese 96
3.2 In Search of a Definition of Similitudo 100
3.2.1 Similitudo as an External Conformity? 100
3.2.2 “A qualification of similitudo should be pointed out” 109
viii CONTENTS
3.3 The Function of Similitudo 111
3.3.1 “An almost divine invention” 111
3.3.2 A More Contracted and a More General Form of the Art 117
3.3.3 The Banner 121
3.3.4 Laws of Psychic Association 127
3.3.5 “By a certain magical power similars are attracted through
similars” 131
3.4 The Aim Expressed by Similitudo 136
3.4.1 The God’s-Eye View 136
3.4.2 The Magical Writings 142
4 A Spirit-Regulating Art 150
4.1 Spirits in the Ventricles 151
4.1.1 Ventricles in the Brain 152
4.1.2 Personal and Universal Spirit 157
4.2 An Internal Art and Its Inner Tool 167
4.2.1 “An art of this kind inhabits the essence itself of the whole
soul” 167
4.2.2 The Inner Tool, or Scrutinium, and Its Five Actions 170
4.3 The Map of the Mind 181
4.4 Belief and Deceit 188
4.5 Deceiving Demons in the Early Mnemonic Treatises 207
4.5.1 De umbris idearum/Ars memoriae 207
4.5.2 Cantus Circaeus 210
Conclusion 218
Bibliographical Note 223
Major Editions 223
Bruno’s Works Used in This Book 223
Historical Documents 224
English Translations Used in This Book 225
Bibliography 226
Index of Modern Authors 237
Index of Subjects and Names 239
Preface
This book discusses the magical and mnemonic writings of Giordano Bruno, a
16th-century philosopher who was burnt at the stake. When I have presented
my research to laymen summarized thusly, it has often been welcomed with
great enthusiasm. Not only do magic and mnemonics excite general interest,
but his auto-da-fé on the Campo dei Fiori in Rome seems to make the whole
enterprise even more alluring.
In March 2016 a colleague and I guided a group of seventeen-year-old stu-
dents through Rome. On the first day, after visiting the Roman Forum and the
Palatine hill, we reached the Campo dei Fiori at sunset. The day had been long
and exhausting. Yet, despite their obvious fatigue, the faces of these boys and
girls lit up when we paused at Bruno’s statue and started to recount his life
story. Gazing into history, they could see how, on 17 February 1600, this cosy
little square had been the setting for a cruel episode. This man they were look-
ing at had opted to die rather than to renounce his own ideas. How crazy was
that? And then there were his ideas, which were even crazier: an infinite uni-
verse with an infinite number of worlds, the transmigration of souls, a reform
of magic; all these ideas well stored in fabulous mnemonic palaces. Who could
think of anything more spectacular? Whereas my voice might have betrayed
my admiration for this thinker, it was Bruno’s life story and his extraordinary
way of thinking that triggered their fascination.
It goes without saying that listing the heretical points for which he was con-
demned only provides a partial answer to the question as to why this thinker
was sentenced to death. Nowadays, one could fill many bookshelves with Bruno
studies, and many of these studies propose an interpretation of his execution
as a milestone in the history of thought, some more convincingly than others.
This book, in turn, sheds new light on this episode. It leads to a quite literal
reading of the words spoken by the philosopher himself on the day of his exe-
cution, showing that they were well balanced and rightly chosen. After having
stated that those who sentenced him to death were probably more fearful than
he who had to undergo the penalty, he proclaimed that “he died willingly, as
a martyr, and that his soul would go up with the smoke to paradise”.1 Whereas
his statement that “his soul would go up with the smoke to paradise” is
1  L. Firpo, Le Procès, BOeuC, 1:523: “Giovedì mattina in Campo di Fiore fu abbrugiato vivo
quello scelerato frate domenichino da Nola, di che si scrisse con le passate: heretico ostina-
tissimo, et havendo di suo capriccio formati diversi dogmi contro nostra fede, et in partico-
lare contro la Santissima Vergine et Santi, volse ostinatamente morir in quelli lo scelerato; et
x PREFACE
generally read as an expression of his heroism, I will argue that, in magical and
mnemonic terms, for Bruno a heroic state of mind could be described exactly
as a fiery spirit elevating the soul to a divine level. In other words, his last
words were uttered less metaphorically than they are usually read. However,
to understand how exactly Bruno believed this to be true, it is necessary to get
a grip on his magical and mnemonic ideas. And since a discussion of these
principal topics that does not include their Neoplatonic background makes no
sense, I shall briefly explain here what magic and mnemonics meant to Bruno,
and how they relate to philosophy. Thereafter I shall present my overall argu-
ment with a short description of my four chapters.
A magical revival took place at the end of the 15th century, in great part
thanks to Marsilio Ficino’s works, and his translations of Neoplatonic and
Hermetic sources. Thus, at the moment the witch-hunts began to intensify,
philosophical treatises emerged to offer a well-defined intellectual framework
for the magical practices then coming into prominence. The Neoplatonic view
of an animated world, in which similitudes linked the different levels of being,
explained why plants and stones could contain occult virtues. These virtues
were “occult” because their causes were hidden from human understanding.
Nevertheless, their marvellous effects could be experienced and were consid-
ered to be dependent on the natural powers of heaven. By means of this uni-
versal sympathy, physicians could cure their patients by invoking the celestial
powers with herbs, animals, and images associated with a given planet. The
similarities between specific herbs, animals, and images and their ruling plan-
ets were thought to explain their capacity, as a kind of “bait”, to attract the
desired planetary power and thus influence the lower world. Hence, the all-
encompassing similitudes led to a conception of “causality” far removed from
our present explanation of “why things happen”. Within this world view, a spe-
cial role was reserved for the universal spirit, a thin, airy substance believed to
mediate between the celestial and sublunary worlds and to facilitate the traffic
of higher powers with the world below. By virtue of this spirit the magician
was said to unite or “marry” heaven and earth. One could rightly argue that this
universal spirit was inherited from the pneumatic doctrine of the Stoics rather
than from the Neoplatonic school. A strict distinction between these philo-
sophical currents, however, was not yet in force, certainly not before Justus
Lipsius’s works on Stoicism. In brief, it was predominantly sources translated
by Ficino which offered a way of philosophically underpinning a range of
diceva che moriva martire et volentieri, et che se ne sarebbe la sua anima ascesa con quel
fumo in paradiso. Ma hora egli se ne avede se diceva la verità.”