Amorem, Artem, Magiam, Mathesim. Brunian Images and He Domestication of the Soul

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there is far more to Renaissance magic than Yatess "Hermetic magus,"

and i t is possible that more nuanced understandings of the magical

tradi tion may help us to re-assess Bruno's mnemotechnics, not as a

theory of knowledge, a " true semioti cs," or a pedagogical tool for

memorising words and objects, but as an "art" whose perfect ion lay in

the highest imaginable forms of human action. Bruno's art, as Ri ta

Sturlese herself once noted, "opened the way for an art of transforminpnature and operat ing on the human mind," and as such might wel l have

been seen as "magic" in Bruno's own understanding of the term. IDS

108 R. STURLESE, Per un'interpretazione, cit., p. 968.

VI

Amorem, artem, magrarn, mathesim

Brunian Images and the Domestication of the Soul

In his f irst extant mnemotechnical work, the D e u mb r is i dea r um , published

in Paris in 1582, Bruno insisted that his treatment of the art took two forms.

His art had a »double aspect«, he said, the subsidiary aspect was a straight-

forward means of cultivating artificial memory ( ce r tu m m em o r ia e p er a r ti f ic i -

um compa r a n da e g en u s) , ' the primary aspect, was »higher and more general«,

because it was intended for »ordering all the operations of the soul«, or be-

cause it was »the centre of many methods«." In this paper I propose to consi-

der how Bruno thought his art might contribute to »ordering the operations

of the soul«, and to characterize his mnemonic works as a practice as well as

a theory of knowledge. My main focus wil l be on Bruno's thi rd mnemonicwork, the T r i g i n ta s i gi l l o r um , published in England in 1583, and its role as an

instrument of ethical reform, but I want to begin with a brief discussion of

Bruno's D e u mb r is, where he discusses the connections between the images

used in his art, and the nature of the affect ive and intel lectual faculties.

Bruno starts his disquisition on the »shadows of ideas« with an allusion to

two scriptural texts from the books of Solomon. He begins with the So n g o f

Songs (II, 3): »1 sat down under his shadow with great del ight and his f rui t

was sweet to my taste«, as an image of the »perfect ion of rnan«.' This is

juxtaposed with the f irst chapter of Ecclesiastes, wi th i ts descant on the

incapacities of human knowledge.' The delightful shadow of the beloved's

»apple tree« is then read as an epistemological parable. It is suff icient, he

IGiordano Bruno, De umbri s idearum ... Ad in ter nam sc ri pt ur am, non vul ga r es per memor i am

operationes explicatis (Paris 1582) ed. Rita Srurlese, De umbr is idearum (Florence 1991), P: 24.

2. Ibid., P.2 . 3 : »Arrem istarn sub dupl ici forma tracrarnus, atque via: quarum atea est at ior et

generais tum ad omnes animi operationes ordinandis, tum etiam est caput mulrarurn methode-rum,

3 Ibid., p. 25: »Horninis perfectionem, er meioris quod in hoc mundo haberi posst adeptionem

insnuans Hebraeorum sapicntissrnus, amicam suam ita loquenrern introducit: -Sub umbra

illius quem desderaveram sedi..«

4 !bid, p. 25: »Non enim est tanta haec nostra natura ur pro suacapicirare ipsum veriratis campum

lllcolat; dictum est enim: -Vaniras homo vivens., -Universa vaniras..«

Amorem, Artem, Magiam, Mathesim. Brunian Images and He Domestication of the Soul

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