150 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



different metals and the body of man, that 

 Paracelsus proposed to reform the art of medicine. 

 Bruno, in the Causa, 1 praises Paracelsus for his " philo- 

 sophical " treatment of medicine, that he did not 

 rest content with the three chemical principles alone for 

 explanation of the different vital phenomena, but 

 sought the true principle of life everywhere in a spirit 

 or soul. He is one of the builders of the temple 

 of wisdom, ad miraculum medicus? In his magical 

 writings and in the De Monade, Bruno is largely 

 indebted for materials to Paracelsus. The same 

 general tendency, the desire for a return to nature and 

 to sense-observation as opposed to the authority of 

 Aristotle, and to the cult of logical or grammatical 



Cardanus. subtleties, is found also in Cardan. 3 In his work 

 there is the same mixture of mathematics and physical 

 science with theology, magic, and Neoplatonism, and 

 to him Bruno owes many of his superstitions. The 



Teiesio. more profound Telesio also (who before Bruno " made 

 honourable war upon Aristotle ") 4 attempted, in- 

 dependently of all authority, from sense - knowledge 

 and induction alone, to penetrate the mysteries of 

 nature. ' 



Copernicus. Only one name remains with which that of Bruno 

 is indelibly associated that of Copernicus, whose De 

 orbium coelestium Revolutionibus was published in 

 1543. It was his theory of the solar system, coinciding 

 as it seemed with that of the most ancient philosophers, 



1 Lag. 247. 



2 i. i. 17. In the Sig. Sig. ii. 2. 181, he is put forward as an example of the 

 value of the life of solitude : " Paracelsus, who glories more in the title of hermit 

 than in that of doctor or master, became a leader and author among physicians, 

 second to none " ; a reference to the title of Ercmita, which Paracelsus took, how- 

 ever, from his birthplace Einsiedeln, and to his well known and strongly expressed 

 contempt for the learning of books. 3 1501-1576 A.D. 



4 The first two books of the Denatura rerum were published in 1565. 



