1 8 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



dedicated to him a book on the Art of Memory. 

 Henry III. was the son of an Italian mother, and had 

 a keen, if uncritical and dilettante, love of learning. 

 At the time Bruno arrived in Paris philosophy was one 

 of the king's chief hobbies, and the fact had a great 

 Works pub- influence on Bruno's future. During his stay in Paris 

 Pads. m Bruno published several works, of which the first 

 DC Umbrit. perhaps was the " Shadows of Ideas " (De Umbris 

 Idearum\ 1582, dedicated to Henry III., along with 

 which, but without a separate frontispiece, was the 

 Ar * . Art of Memory (Ars Memorise Jordani Brunt) ; there 

 followed "The Incantation of Circe" (Cant us Circle us), 

 i$8 2y dedicated to Prince Henry of Angouleme, and 

 edited by Regnault. The De Umbris gives the 

 metaphysical basis of the art of memory, the Ars 

 Memorise a psychological analysis of the faculty, and 

 an account of the theory of the art itself, while the 

 Cantus Circteus offers first a practical application, and 

 secondly a more elementary account of the theory and 

 practice of the system. Obscurity was, in those days 

 of pedantry, one of the safest ways of securing a 

 hearing : there is nothing of value in Bruno's art except 

 the philosophy by which he sought to support it a 

 renovated Neoplatonism. It has been pointed out, 

 however, "that the art was a convenient means of 

 introducing Bruno to strange universities, gaining him 

 favour with the great, or helping him out of pressing 

 money troubles. It was his exoteric philosophy with 

 which he could carefully drape his philosophy of religion 

 hostile to the Church, and ride as a hobby horse in his 

 unfruitful humours." 1 There can be no question of 

 Bruno's own belief in it ; it was not, for example, a 

 cipher language by which he covered his real thoughts : 



1 Brunnhofcr's Giordano Bruno, etc., p. 25. 



