i EARLY WORKS n 



four or five months, teaching grammar to boys, and 1576? 

 "the Sphere" that is, astronomy and cosmography, 

 with a dash of metaphysics, to certain gentlemen. 

 Thence he came to Savona, to Turin, 1 and to Venice. ^ avona> 



Turin. 



In Venice six weeks were spent, probably in the Venice. 

 vain attempt to find work the printing offices and 

 the schools were closed on account of the plague 

 which was carrying off thousands of the inhabitants ; 

 but the time was utilised in printing the first of 

 his books no longer extant on the Signs of the 

 Times? written, like so many other works of other 

 people, to put together a few " danari." It was shown 

 to a reverend Father Remigio of Florence, therefore 

 was probably orthodox, or its unorthodoxy was veiled. 

 This work may have been the first of Bruno's writings 

 on the art of memory or on Lully's art of knowing. 

 Another work belonging to this early period was the 

 Ark of Noah. It was probably written before he left 

 Naples, and was dedicated to Pope Pius V., but is not 

 known to have been published : its title is that of a 

 mystical writing of Hugo of St. Victor, but according 

 to the account in the Cena* it was an allegorical and 

 probably satirical work, somewhat after the fashion of 

 Bruno's Cabala : The animals had assembled to settle a 

 disputed question of rank, and the ass was in great danger 

 of losing his pre-eminent post, in the poop of the Ark, 

 because his power lay in hoofs rather than in horns ; 

 when we consider Bruno's frequent and bitter invoca- 

 tions of Asinity, we can hardly avoid seeing in the 

 work an allusion to the credulity and ignorance of the 

 monkhood. 



1 Tasso came about the same time, to be repulsed as plague-stricken from the 

 gates. 



2 Doc. 9. Berti, p. 393 (a line is omitted in the 2nd Edition). 



3 Lag. 147. 21. 



