ADDITIONAL NOTES 359 



that essential addition. The first of the two dialogues suggests a 

 possible origin for some of Bruno's ideas on atomic geometry, as we 

 find, attributed to Mordentius, two ideas that were applied to some 

 purpose in Bruno's own mathematical works. They are (i) that of 

 the measurement of inappreciable subdivisions of continuous 

 quantities by integration, and (2) that of the impossibility of infinite 

 division, the continuous being composed of discrete minima, beyond 

 which no division can go, and the minima (like the maxima] being 

 relative, differing in different subjects, so that, for example, what in 

 astronomy is a minimal quantity may in geodesy be greater than the 

 diameter of the earth. 



