i MOCENIGO AND BRUNO 67 



in his shop one day to buy a work of Bruno which 

 Ciotto in his deposition called at first the Heroici 

 Furori, but this name was cancelled, and De Minimo 

 mag no et mensura written in its stead ; in all probability 

 it was neither the Furori nor any of the Latin poems to 

 which the second (erroneous) title might refer, but one 

 of the Lullian works. Mocenigo asked at the same 

 time whether Ciotto knew Bruno, and where he was ; 

 and on the reply that he was probably at Frankfort 

 (they had found lodging in the same monastery 

 there), Mocenigo expressed a wish that Bruno would 

 come to Venice to teach him the secrets of Memory, 

 and the others he professed, as shown by the book that 

 had just changed hands. Ciotto believed Bruno would 

 come if asked ; and accordingly, after a few days, 

 Mocenigo brought a letter for Bruno, which Ciotto 

 undertook to deliver, and in which he was besought to 

 come to Venice. The message must have been delivered 

 in the autumn of 1591, and Bruno seems to have replied 

 by immediate acceptance. 1 A previous letter, however, 

 had been written, probably before Mocenigo spoke with 

 Ciotto, and sent by another hand ; it may have been 

 the receipt of it which brought Bruno from Zurich to 

 Frankfort, to hasten the printing of his Latin works. 

 In both letters there were evidently specious promises 

 of protection. 2 



The motives of Mocenigo were more than question- 

 able. He was of the noblest blood of Venice, the Doge's 

 Chair having been seven times filled by members of his 

 family, and among the patrician youth there was a 

 fashionable craze for Lullism and kindred much-pro- 

 mising arts at this time. 3 De Valeriis, another Venetian 



1 Doc. 6 (Giotto's evidence). 2 Doc. 8 (Bruno's own statements). 



3 Sigwart, Kl. Schrifttn, i. p. 302. 



