Cantus Circaeus: The Incantations of Circe together with The Judiciary being The Art of Memory

by Giordano Bruno, Darius Klein (Translator)

First English Translation by Darius Klein. Black cloth with gilt title and printed dust jacket. Illustrated with woodcuts and diagrams for the Art of Memory. 138 pages.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2009

About the author

Giordano 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]

Reviews

[Todd Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one I will have to re-read. Translated from Latin, it is hard to follow in places and will need further study.

[Ernesto Priani saiso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es uno de los textos sobre arte de la memoria de Bruno menos complejos, aunque por supuesto hay partes y elementos que aún son de difícil comprensión. Sin embargo, es uno de los textos a través de los cuales se puede acceder a otros más complejos. Es interesante, por lo demás, observar que el texto promete un tratamiento práctico del arte de la memoria, lo que en efecto ocurre, pero no con la claridad con que se esperaría, es decir, con ejemplos y procedimientos pasó a paso, pero parte del valor del texto. Es justo este interés de Bruno por hacer de la obra un verdadero manual del arte de la memoria,