On "Timaeus", se e Klibanskv. op. c i t . . pp. 28-9 j "This dialogue, o r rather i t s f i r s t p a r t , was stu d ied and quoted throughout the Middle Ages, and there was h a rd ly a mediaeval lib r a r y o f any standing which had not a copy o f C h a lcid iu s' version and sometimes a lso a copy o f the fragment tran slated by C icero. Although these fa c t s are w ell known, th e ir
sig n ific a n c e fo r the h is t o r y o f ideas has perhaps n o t been s u f f i c ie n t l y grasped by h is t o r ia n s . The "Timaeuanw i t h i t s attempted syn th esis o f the r e lig io u s t e le o lo g ic a l j u s t i f i c a t i o n o f the world and the r a tio n a l e x p osition o f crea tion was, throughout the e a r lie r Middle Ages, the sta r tin g p o in t and guide f o r the f i r s t groping e f f o r t s towards a s c i e n t i f i c cosm ology." and < "But apart from t h e ir value f o r the development o f sc ie n c e , the Tiraacus and the l it e r a t u r e to which i t gave r i s e preserved, through the cen tu ries in which an a ttitu d e o f contempt towards the v is i b l e world was prevalent in the a ccep ted Church d o ctrin e , the memory o f the H e llen ic appreciation o f the r a tio n a l beauty o f the u n iv e rse . I t was p r e c is e ly t h is fu sion o f the ration al-m a th em atical, the a e sth e tic and the r e lig io u s
elements in the contem plation o f the u n iverse, th is g l o r i f i c a t i o n o f the cosmos, th at appealed to the ph ilosop h ers o f the Renaissance and deeply in flu en ced t h e ir cosm ological o u t lo o k ." See also "Timaeus", s e c s . 40 & 42-43.
(Sensation, fo r example, is explained as irregu lar motion caused by welding together the soul and the elements o f the body). Idibanslcy has already mentioned the influence o f "Timenus" on Renaissance thought.
In t h is con text, i t i s worthwhile mentioning the a ss o cia tio n o f each o f the fou r elements w ith the regu la r s o l i d s . (The f a c t that there {.re f iv e regu lar s o lid s was t o cause some d i f f i c u l t y to the p r a c t it io n e r s o f number sym bolism .). The s o l i d s , a ll based on the iso se le s o r scalene tr ia n g le , correspond to the elem ents : the cube - earth , the octahedron - a ir , the icosahedron - water, the pyramid - f i r e , and the dodecahedron - the cosmos. The f i f t h con stru ction i s mentioned almost as an afterth ou gh t by Timaeua(So e .5 ^
122
but as the f i f t h essence ( quinta essentia) i t i s the very highest, the quintessence, though i t s elemental nature i s in evitably unknowable. The geometric structure o f these so lid s forms the basis fo r the plane geometry upon which many great paintings o f the quattrocento aro rea lised , though the c i r c l e i s also very important in th is respect, fo r the sphere i s associated with the soul ( Tim, s e c .44) and so the soul i s s ite d in the head, most nearly spherical o f the parts o f the body.
The lin k in g o f f i r e with vision has enormous mystical importance; there i a a further lin k , however, o f equally great importance fo r the present work, between these and imagination. So fa r , th is mystical tria d has been found to be im p licit in A r is t o t le 's elemental science and partly
in P lotin u s, but only through an understanding o f the B ib lic a l, Pythagorean, and m ystical ingredients which combine and complement each other in th is tria d can the concept o f imagination, even in i t s modem usage, be fu lly elu cidated. As already intimated in the manic route to the Platonic eid os, and in passages o f the "Ehneads" o f P lotinus, the ecstasy o f the mystic
v isio n comes, as we shall see, to be the apogee o f imagination; hut, in e ffa b le and in a rticu la b le , the v is io n 's aptest metaphor i s lig h t . Thus, from Book VI o f "Bepublic" where the sun symbolises the Good, through the entire b is to r y o f mysticism, the brigh test things have been used to symbolise the v is io n , and hence the importance o f the sun, moon, and f i r e fo r the mystic and the shaman. Perhaps the most moving i s P asca l's account o f h is vision : "From about h a lf past ten in the evening u n til h a lf past midnight.
Fire
'God o f Abraham, God o f Isaac, God o f J a cob ,' not o f philosophers and sch ola rs. Certainty, certain ty, h e a r tfe lt, jo y , p ea ce." e t c . . The
Christians o f the Middle Ages would not have fa ile d to see the sig n ifica n ce o f ( e . g . ) God's appearing to Moses as f i r e , and o f the p a ra la te's coming,
«I rcauMwuii, aa iougues vil lire.
Thus f i r e , the fin e s t o f the Pythagorean elements and the vehicle o f d iv in ity in both the o ld and new testaments, becomes an obvious symbol f o r P a sca l's v is io n . But the modem notion o f the symbol hardly does ju s t ic e
to the unity o f id e n tifica tio n which the four elements in d ica te, fo r as knowledge i s o f lik e by lik e , so f i r e ( f o r Moses as fo r P ascal), the sun,
the One ( f o r Plotinus and fo r num erologists), are not simply "seen as" God, but are God, in a unity o f states o f bein g.
t f f f l f f l m i a
Numbers have a great symbolic sig n ifica n ce fo r Dante, as fo r many o f h is contemporaries, ond so any numbers occurring in h is works, as well as the very numbering o f Cantos e t c . , have a wealth o f importance which h is contemporary readers would have understood but which i s l o s t to the modem reader. V.F. Hopper's "Medieaval Number Symbolism" i s an absorbing account o f th is l o s t language o f number, and he t e l l s o f the " ..s t r ik in g unanimity o f a ll ages and climates in regard to the meanings o f a certain few number symbols." And, "An examination o f these e a r lie s t number symbols in dicates that numbers o r ig in a lly carried concrete a ssociation s, as a resu lt o f man's early in a b ilit y to comprehend a b stra ction ." ( o p . c i t . . n .3 ) In pp.4-8 o f th is work Hopper recounts the sign ifica n ce o f the number 3 and i t s m u ltiples, which are p a rticu la rly relevant to our present study o f Dante's conception o f imagination. So : "The idea o f 3 as implying the superlative, or the a l l , was never l o s t . I t appears in such common phrases as te r f e lix and trism egistus. in the use o f the trid en t and t r i p l e thunderbolt as symbols o f greatness and power, in the Egyptian hieroglyphs where a single bar marking the picture o f an o b je ct indicates but 1, a double bar 2, but 3 lin e s in dicate 3 or an in d e fin ite number o f o b je c t s . As A ristotle put i t , 'Of two things, or men, we say 'b oth ' but not ' a l l ' . Three is the
f i r s t number to which the term ' a l l ' has been a ppropriated'." ( o p . c i t . . pp.*t-5: the A r is to tle quotation i s from De Caelo. I . i . ) In th is way, " . . . the a l l - embracing 3 became the most universal number o f d e it y ." ( o p . c i t . . p .3 ) The occurrence o f groupings o f 3 i s common in fo lk lo r e , as Hopper says, where one fin d s , c . g . , 3 wishes, 3 applies, 3 s u ito rs ; 'everything happens in th rees' as i s sometimes said. Dante's passing o f 3 days and nights in
I
Purgatoi r i s therefore not to be token l i t e r a l l y : i t means he spent a very long time. That he has 3 dreams moons they are divinely sig n ifica n t,
a fa c t which i s underlined by the numbers o f the Cantos o f "Purgatorio", wherein the dreams occur. As thrice three, nine i s also a most important number, and in part XXIX o f the "Vita Nuova" Dante explains i t s meaning : "..th in k in g more deeply and guided by in fa llib le truth, 1 say that eke h e rse lf was th is number nine; I mean th is as an analogy, as 1 w ill explain. The number three
i s the root o f n in e, because, independent o f any other number, m ultiplied by i t s e l f alone, i t makes n in e ... therefore i f three is the sole fa cto r o f nine, and the so le fa ctor o f miracles i s th ree, that i s , Father, Son and Holy Ghost, who are three and once, then t h is lady was accompanied by the number nine, that i s , a m iracle, o f which tha root, that i s , o f the m iracle,
i s nothing other than the miraculous T rin ity i t s e l f . " Thus, as Hopper says : "With the adoption o f 10 as a complete cy cle, the number 9 comes into prominence as 'alm ost complete*• Troy was besieged fo r 9 years and f e l l on the tenth. Odysseus wandered 9 years and arrived home on the tenth. The 9-10 r e la tio n s h ip i s very common in th e " I l i a d " and the "Odyssey", which both in d ic a te a mush e a r lie r stage o f number symbolism than the most ancient o f Babylonian t a b l e t s ." ( o p . c i t . , p .1 0 ).
In tr o ¿ a c tio n .
In t h is th ird p a rt I sh a ll con sider the theory o f im agination o f magical and alchemical p r a c t it io n e r s during the Renaissance and p o s t— Renaissance p e r io d . P a rticu la r refe re n ce w ill be made to the Hermetic t e x t s , M arsilio F ic in o , Giordano Bruno, P aracelsu s, and Jakob Boehme, fin d in g in the l a t t e r ’ s obscure m ystical w ritin g s a culm ination, in la r g e ly alchem ical language, o f the magical and quasi—s c i e n t i f i c b e l i e f s o f h is forerunners brought to the se r v ice a v is io n a r y m ysticism which i s rem iniscent o f Richard o f S t. V ic t o r . Before Pletho brought the ancien t Greek, N eoplaton ic, and G nostic te x ts to I t a l y , magic was frowned upon by the establishm ent though n ot a c tu a lly banned, but the Renaissance saw an upsurge o f in te r e s t in o c c u lt p r a c tic e s ? as P.A.Yatos says o f the m agician:
"Respectable people might sometimes employ him s u r r e p tic io u o ly and he ’./as much fe a re d . But he was c e r t a in ly n o t p u b lic ly admired as a r e lig io u s p h ilosop h er. Renaissance m agic, which was a reformed and learned magic, and always disclaim ed any connection with the o ld ign oran t, and e v i l , o r black magic, was a ft e r an adjunct o f an esteemed Renaissance p h ilosop h er. This new sta tu s o f magic was undoubtedly m ainly due to that g rea t flo o d o f lit e r a t u r e which came in from Byzantium, so much o f which deted from those e a rly cen tu ries a ft e r C hrist in which the reign in g p h ilo so p h ie s were tinged with o ccu ltism . The learn ed and assiduous reader o f such authors as Iam biichus, Porphyry, o r even o f P lo tin u s , cou ld no lon ger regard magic as the trade o f ignorant and i n f e r i o r p e r s o n s ." ("Giordano Bruno and The Hermetic T ra d itio n ", no. 1 7 -1 8 ).
Prominent and very in flu e n t ia l in the r i s e on Renaissance magic were a group o f G nostic t e x t s , tra n sla te d in to L atin by M arsilio F ic in o , known as tiie “corpus Jierme^ica** ¿ue uuuiojrtuixp o s u ic»e vrurjus vfuu iv r u u & jj
a ttrib u te d to Hermes Trism egistus, an a lle g e d contemporary o f Moses, who was id e n t if ie d v it h the Egyptian p r i e s t 'Thoth; Hermes T r isn e g is ta s, as Yates p o in ts ou t, was probably the most important sin g le fig u r e in the Renaissance re v iv a l o f magic ( O p .c i t ., p .1 8 ).
In conmon w ith th e Greeks, th e R en aissan ce humanists b e l ie v e d in the
value o f th in gs an cien t : the o ld e r a p ie c e o f work, the g re a te r
the lik e lih o o d o f i t s a u th e n ticity , sin ce i t was nearer the o r ig in o f a ll things and th e re fo re nearer the 'M aker'. I t was b eliev ed on very good au th ority, (th a t o f Augustine and L a cta n tiu s, see Yates, on. c i t . . pp. 6 & 6 7 ). that the works o f Hermes Trism egistus were o ld e r than the B ib le , and th at Egypt, the land o f t h e ir o r ig in , was the source o f many o f the b e l i e f s o f Pythagoras and P la to ; i t i s sa lu tory to n ote th a t the Medici ordered F ic in o to tra n sla te the "Hermética" b e fo re the works o f P lato ( l ) . But w ithin a hundred years o f F ic in o 's tra n sla tio n doubts were ra ise d about th e ir a n tiq u ity , and t h e ir f i n d dating o f the 3rd century A.D. o r thereabouts, by Casaubon in 1614,