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On Magic
Published only posthumously,, Giordano Bruno’s essays collected here present a window into late 16th century thinking about natural philosophy as an emerging discipline that would eventually give rise to the Scientific Revolution. Bruno is currently most well known for his cosmological theories, theological heresies, and philosophical controversies.
In these six works, however, we see a complete magical curriculum, grounded in reason rather than speculation, and touching on topics ranging from natural wonders to theory of matter and mind. As with the memory works, one of Bruno’s strongest interests is in the field that would later be called psychology. To be a magician is to have better understanding of the world and everything in it.
In these six works, however, we see a complete magical curriculum, grounded in reason rather than speculation, and touching on topics ranging from natural wonders to theory of matter and mind. As with the memory works, one of Bruno’s strongest interests is in the field that would later be called psychology. To be a magician is to have better understanding of the world and everything in it.
293 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1588
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About the author
Giordano Bruno
486 books288 followersGiordano Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, who is best known as a proponent of the infinity of the universe. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in identifying the Sun as just one of an infinite number of independently moving heavenly bodies: he is the first European man to have conceptualized the universe as a continuum where the stars we see at night are identical in nature to the Sun. He was burned at the stake by authorities in 1600 after the Roman Inquisition found him guilty of heresy. After his death he gained considerable fame; in the 19th and early 20th centuries, commentators focusing on his astronomical beliefs regarded him as a martyr for free thought and modern scientific ideas. Recent assessments suggest that his ideas about the universe played a smaller role in his trial than his pantheist beliefs, which differed from the interpretations and scope of God held by Catholicism.[1][2] In addition to his cosmological writings, Bruno also wrote extensive works on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. More recent assessments, beginning with the pioneering work of Frances Yates, suggest that Bruno was deeply influenced by the astronomical facts of the universe inherited from Arab astrology, Neoplatonism and Renaissance Hermeticism.[3] Other recent studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial paradigms of geometry to language.[4]
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 15, 2024
3.5/5
Me parece bastante oportuno la manera en la que ambos tratados fueron incluidos en esta edición, pues deben leerse los dos para entender por completo lo que el autor quiso expresar.
Si bien aún no termina de desprenderse de ese pensamiento esotérico y mágico (casi alquímico) en cuanto al entendimiento de la materia y energía, sí nos abre las puertas a las diversas comprensiones sobre la belleza y las razones por las que los seres humanos tienen éxito o fracasan en sus vínculos; todo un revolucionario de su época.
Me parece bastante oportuno la manera en la que ambos tratados fueron incluidos en esta edición, pues deben leerse los dos para entender por completo lo que el autor quiso expresar.
Si bien aún no termina de desprenderse de ese pensamiento esotérico y mágico (casi alquímico) en cuanto al entendimiento de la materia y energía, sí nos abre las puertas a las diversas comprensiones sobre la belleza y las razones por las que los seres humanos tienen éxito o fracasan en sus vínculos; todo un revolucionario de su época.
January 12, 2017
" (...) toda a alma e todo o espírito se encontram numa certa continuidade com o espírito do universo: e bem se vê que este se encontra não apenas lá, onde sente e se vivifica, mas que está também espalhado pela imensidão, por sua essência e substância (...). "
"É verdade que a alma abandona o corpo que ela ocupava em vida, mas não pode abandonar o corpo universal (...). A alma está então indissoluvelmente ligada à matéria universal; eis porque, como a sua natureza particular é universalmente inteira e contínua, reconhece em todo o lado a matéria corporal que com ela coexiste. (...) o vazio não é um espaço sem corpos, mas um espaço no qual diversos corpos se sucedem e movem; (...), através de um espaço contínuo, não interrompido (...)."
" (...) nada existe que esteja privado de espírito, de inteligência - nem o espírito destinou para si morada eterna em lugar algum. A matéria flutua de espírito em espírito, de natureza em natureza ou composição, e o espírito flutua de matéria em matéria. Sucedem-se a alteração, a mutação, a paixão e, por fim, a corrupção, quer dizer, a separação de determinadas partículas e a sua composição com outras. A morte não é mais do que uma dissolução. Nenhum espírito ou corpo desaparece: há somente uma contínua mutação de combinações e actualizações."
"É verdade que a alma abandona o corpo que ela ocupava em vida, mas não pode abandonar o corpo universal (...). A alma está então indissoluvelmente ligada à matéria universal; eis porque, como a sua natureza particular é universalmente inteira e contínua, reconhece em todo o lado a matéria corporal que com ela coexiste. (...) o vazio não é um espaço sem corpos, mas um espaço no qual diversos corpos se sucedem e movem; (...), através de um espaço contínuo, não interrompido (...)."
" (...) nada existe que esteja privado de espírito, de inteligência - nem o espírito destinou para si morada eterna em lugar algum. A matéria flutua de espírito em espírito, de natureza em natureza ou composição, e o espírito flutua de matéria em matéria. Sucedem-se a alteração, a mutação, a paixão e, por fim, a corrupção, quer dizer, a separação de determinadas partículas e a sua composição com outras. A morte não é mais do que uma dissolução. Nenhum espírito ou corpo desaparece: há somente uma contínua mutação de combinações e actualizações."
September 25, 2020
As always, Bruno's books are complicated and dense. But they are still interesting and I'm always glad to have had the opportunity to have read them (and for which I am eternally grateful for these series of translations into English.)
In this volume, I was especially interested in Elizabethan medicine and how they diagnose certain ailments. The parts were written about the soul were also fascinating. It was so interesting being able to see Elizabethan thought through a person (who I much admire) experienced it first hand.
In this volume, I was especially interested in Elizabethan medicine and how they diagnose certain ailments. The parts were written about the soul were also fascinating. It was so interesting being able to see Elizabethan thought through a person (who I much admire) experienced it first hand.
March 1, 2024
ενδιαφέρον αλλά κουραστικό ύφος
June 24, 2019
I used to kind of have the idea that Galileo was burned at the stake for his ideas about the planets going around the sun, but at the same time thought that's not quite right. I finally realized that I was confused with another guy called Giordano Bruno (who did get burned at the stake). Bruno was a key member of Rudolph II's collection of magicians in Prague, and is perhaps the most important character in the story of the Ars Memoria as Frances Yates tells it. I knew very little about him, so I tried reading one of his books.
This is the sort of thing you might find in an appendix to a fantasy novel: a well-thought out and systematic magic. He is trying to understand physics and chemistry, but his prior notions of the four elements, spirits, platonic ideals, sympathetic motion, and so forth have made it difficult to make much progress. One idea I found fascinating was his notion that "all things desire to preserve their own existence" and that things move in straight lines because "it goes faster to a greater distance through a straight line." It is true that most configurations of matter that persist long enough to be called a "thing," like a bubble or a tornado or a rock, is in a stable arrangement, and the forces conspire to keep it around when that stability is perturbed slightly (like blowing lightly on a bubble). Both this and the straight-line idea are examples of energy or action minimization phenomena. The weird thing is formulating this as what the object desires, but I wonder if animal desires are not themselves, at the lowest level, some kind of preservation of a stable state, in which case they are actually the same.
His notion that some demons are like animals reminded me of Japanese notions of kami and spirits. Angels "are not completely incorporeal, but are spiritual substances; that is, they are animals with very subtle bodies, which divine revelation has said are fire and flames of fire" and that like air and water, they are able to come together again after being cut so are much harder to destroy than people.
This is the sort of thing you might find in an appendix to a fantasy novel: a well-thought out and systematic magic. He is trying to understand physics and chemistry, but his prior notions of the four elements, spirits, platonic ideals, sympathetic motion, and so forth have made it difficult to make much progress. One idea I found fascinating was his notion that "all things desire to preserve their own existence" and that things move in straight lines because "it goes faster to a greater distance through a straight line." It is true that most configurations of matter that persist long enough to be called a "thing," like a bubble or a tornado or a rock, is in a stable arrangement, and the forces conspire to keep it around when that stability is perturbed slightly (like blowing lightly on a bubble). Both this and the straight-line idea are examples of energy or action minimization phenomena. The weird thing is formulating this as what the object desires, but I wonder if animal desires are not themselves, at the lowest level, some kind of preservation of a stable state, in which case they are actually the same.
His notion that some demons are like animals reminded me of Japanese notions of kami and spirits. Angels "are not completely incorporeal, but are spiritual substances; that is, they are animals with very subtle bodies, which divine revelation has said are fire and flames of fire" and that like air and water, they are able to come together again after being cut so are much harder to destroy than people.
April 1, 2017
An outdated philosophical system. There is a point in reading this for historical reasons only.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews