i LATIN WORKS 65 



months in Frankfort (Doc. 9). It was a second period 

 of six months after his return from the Zurich visit, of 

 which he omitted all mention no doubt he had good 

 reason for that. 1 At the autumn book-market his De 

 Monade, De Immense, and De Imag. Compositione, were 

 ready 2 the last works that he published. About the 

 same time, on an evil day for himself, he responded to 

 the invitation of a young Venetian patrician, and crossed 

 over to his fatherland, the last of his free journeyings. 

 The Frankfort works are fully dealt with in the 

 chapters on Bruno's philosophy that follow : in their 

 order they were ( i ) the De triplici Minimo et Mensura : D 

 " On the threefold minimum and measurement, being 

 the elements of three speculative and of many practical 

 sciences " : dedicated to Duke Henry of Brunswick. It 

 is the first of three Latin poems, written somewhat after 

 the manner of Lucretius, but with prose notes to each 

 chapter or section. The style unfortunately seldom 

 approaches that of Lucretius, either in Latinity or in 

 poetic imagery, but the works are full of vigorous verse, 

 and the force of the ideas suffers little from the fact 

 that they are pressed into the Procrustean bed of rhyme 

 and rhythm. The others were (2) the De Monade, 

 Numero et Figura : " On the Monad, number and 

 figure, being the elements of a more esoteric (secret, or 

 perhaps inward} Physics, Mathematics, and Meta- 

 physics"; and (3) the De Immenso et Innumerabilibus : 

 " On the Immeasurable and the Innumerable, or on 

 the universe and the worlds." Both are dedicated to 

 Duke Henry. The three works together contain 

 Bruno's finished philosophy of God and of Nature, of 

 the universe and of the worlds within it, as well as a 



1 Sigwart, and Op. Lat. vol. iii. introd. p. xxix. 



2 Bassaus Catalogue of Frankfort Books from 1564-1592, printed 1592 (Sigwart). 



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