But there already is a "Camera Van" with hunderds of cameras that has been touring the country taking pictures for almost a decade! This would be Harrod Blank's art car.
Yes, I too think that Yates books (I would also include the Art of Memory) are a must read. Also, I recommend the English translation of Lo Spaccio by Arthur D. Imerti "Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast" (Rutgers University Press, 1964).
I recently read "The Acentric Universe" by Ramon G Mendoza and was very disappointed with it. He paints a completely different picture of Yates than one gets from actually reading her books. He distorts what she says and then seems to revel in putting her down. He seem to think that Yates was belittling Bruno, and then berates her for that. As an example, Mendoza writes:
"In conclusion, it is possible to acknowledge that Bruno was a magus, provided we understand this word in the sense that Bruno himself understood it. However, Bruno was much more than 'just' a Renaissance magus. This is precisely what Frances Yates never could or would understand".
In my view, this quote from Mendoza speaks more about his apparent desire to be "better" than Yates, than about his scholarship. In other places, Mendoza dismisses Bruno's memory techniques as merely Lullian, without even hinting at the wondrous ideas that Bruno's art of memory encompasses. Mendoza also simplifies drastically the role of mathematics in the Renaissance.
But one quote of Mendoza's rings true to me:
"Thus to communicate with the Divinity implies not only to understand the language it speaks through nature, but also to follow the infinite unfolding of its relentless transformations. Thus watching the waves roll on a sandy beach and deliver their inexhaustible bounty of exquisitely patterned shells - all of them showing the unmistakable imprint of the cosmic mind - can become a profoundly religious experience..."
Certainly he was "well-versed in the Gnostic teachings" but I think his philosophy was more Hermetic. He felt that the universe itself was divine, and that only by learning how the world works we hope to communicate with God. Bruno's world was alive with divine energy, and an individual could, through learning and study, work with these energies for the benefit of all. I think he leaned more towards Neo-Platonism and theurgy than the Gnostics.
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But there already is a "Camera Van" with hunderds of cameras that has been touring the country taking pictures for almost a decade! This would be Harrod Blank's art car.
I hate me too posts, but yet I am making one now.
Yes, I too think that Yates books (I would also include the Art of Memory) are a must read. Also, I recommend the English translation of Lo Spaccio by Arthur D. Imerti "Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast" (Rutgers University Press, 1964).
I recently read "The Acentric Universe" by Ramon G Mendoza and was very disappointed with it. He paints a completely different picture of Yates than one gets from actually reading her books. He distorts what she says and then seems to revel in putting her down. He seem to think that Yates was belittling Bruno, and then berates her for that. As an example, Mendoza writes:
"In conclusion, it is possible to acknowledge that Bruno was a magus, provided we understand this word in the sense that Bruno himself understood it. However, Bruno was much more than 'just' a Renaissance magus. This is precisely what Frances Yates never could or would understand".
In my view, this quote from Mendoza speaks more about his apparent desire to be "better" than Yates, than about his scholarship. In other places, Mendoza dismisses Bruno's memory techniques as merely Lullian, without even hinting at the wondrous ideas that Bruno's art of memory encompasses. Mendoza also simplifies drastically the role of mathematics in the Renaissance.
But one quote of Mendoza's rings true to me:
"Thus to communicate with the Divinity implies not only to understand the language it speaks through nature, but also to follow the infinite unfolding of its relentless transformations. Thus watching the waves roll on a sandy beach and deliver their inexhaustible bounty of exquisitely patterned shells - all of them showing the unmistakable imprint of the cosmic mind - can become a profoundly religious experience..."
Certainly he was "well-versed in the Gnostic teachings" but I think his philosophy was more Hermetic. He felt that the universe itself was divine, and that only by learning how the world works we hope to communicate with God. Bruno's world was alive with divine energy, and an individual could, through learning and study, work with these energies for the benefit of all. I think he leaned more towards Neo-Platonism and theurgy than the Gnostics.