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The Concept of Contraction in Giordano Bruno’s Philosophy
double road to knowledge, one dependent on the body, another independent of the body. In sleep, the soul can pursue the latter, since then it is free from the bonds of the body and can comprehend the intelligible world. 31 In the Eroici furori Bruno says explicitly that Iamblichus’ idea of contemplation independent of the body is the model of the fifteen contractions in the Sigillus.32 Could it be that Bruno, in this fourth contraction, regards the human soul’s attentiveness, stimulating the soul to experience “divine dreams, visions and revelations”, as such a form of contemplation? I cannot say so definitively, but I think it is very probable. In the fifth to the ninth contraction Bruno moves on to psychological issues, dealing with the role of various emotions in noetic ascent. (v) Contraction produced by faith
A mental tension produced by faith can empower the soul to affect physical things.33 Bruno, ironically, illustrates this with mountains being moved by faith, an obvious allusion to Matthew 21.21-22: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” 34 In the Bible, the mountain is moved by Jesus because the disciples have faith in him. In Bruno’s fifth contraction faith cures the body and, Bruno adds ironically we may assume, moves mountains. No supernatural agent is needed. 35 Events caused by faith, as the mountain being moved by faith, occur, Bruno says, when a ‘passive principle’ is found together with an ‘active principle’. 36 By ‘passive principle’ he may mean the object towards which faith is directed, e.g. a mountain, and by ‘active
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IAMBLICHUS, De mysteriis Aegyptorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum, tr. Ficino, fol. b5v, line 37 to fol. b6 r , line 8 (= IAMBLICHUS , De mysteriis Aegyptorum , ed. des Places, iii 3, p. 101). BRUNO, Furori ii 1, p. 327: “È tanta la virtù della contemplazione (come nota Iamblico) che accade tal volta non solo che l’anima ripose da gli atti inferiori, ma et oltre lascie il corpo a fatto. Il che non voglio intendere altrimente che in tante maniere quali sono esplicate nel libro De’ trenta sigilli, dove son prodotti tanti modi di contrazzione.” By “ De’ trenta sigilli” Bruno means the Sigillus. See p. 8 n. 6 above. BRUNO, Sigillus i 39, pp. 183.12-184.7. Secundum Mattheum 21.21-22. As we shall see in Ch. 4, in 1624 the French philosopher, scientist and theologian Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) wrote, precisely in connection with the fifteen contractions advanced in the Sigillus, that Bruno “does not believe at all in the Christian faith”. See MERSENNE , L’impiété des déistes i 10, pp. 232-234, as quoted on p. 99 n. 53 below. For Mersenne’s strong rejection of Bruno’s treatment of faith in this paragraph of the Sigillus, see BUCCOLINI , ‘Contractiones in Bruno’, pp. 504, 509, 514, 517. BRUNO, Sigillus i 39, p. 183.15-17.
