De magia

«First, the term ‘magician’ means a wise man; for example, the trismegistes among the Egyptians, the druids among the Gauls, the gymnosophists among the Indians, the cabalists among the Hebrews, the magi among the Persians (who were followers of Zoroaster), the sophists among the Greeks and the wise men among the Latins» — la primera de las nueve acepciones.

«or, if it is used without qualifications, it should be taken in its strongest and most worthy sense as dictated by the logicians, and especially by Aristotle in Book of the Topics.3 So as it is used by and among philosophers, ‘magician’ then means a wise man who has the power to act» — y la acepción que Bruno ELIGE, con la regla de lectura que toma de los Tópicos; la fuente imprime «Book v», no «Libro τ».

«Second, ‘magician’ refers to someone who does wondrous things merely by manipulating active and passive powers, as occurs in chemistry, medicine and such fields; this is commonly called ‘natural magic’» — la magia natural en sentido amplio.

«Fourth, magic refers to what happens as a result of the powers of attraction and repulsion between things, for example, the pushes, motions and attractions due to magnets and such things, when all these actions are due not to active and passive qualities but rather to the spirit or soul existing in things. This is called ‘natural magic’ in the proper sense» — y la magia natural en sentido propio, que no pasa por cualidades activas y pasivas sino por el espíritu o alma de las cosas.

«Third, magic involves circumstances such that the actions of nature or of a higher intelligence occur in such a way as to excite wonderment by their appearances; this type of magic is called ‘prestidigitation’» — la prestidigitación.

«The fifth meaning includes, in addition to these powers, the use of words, chants, calculations of numbers and times, images, figures, symbols, characters, or letters. This is a form of magic which is intermediate between the natural and the preternatural or the supernatural, and is properly called ‘mathematical magic’, or even more accurately ‘occult philosophy’» — la magia matemática, que llama con más exactitud filosofía oculta.

«The primary groups of such magicians use either the four material principles, fire, air, water and earth, and they are thus called ‘pyromancers’, ‘hydromancers’, and ‘geomancers’» — y la divinación elemental; el cuarto nombre implícito, «aeromancers», no está en el texto de Bruno sino en la nota de Blackwell.

«This is transnatural or metaphysical magic and is properly called ‘theurgy’» — la teurgia.

«then this type of magic is properly called ‘Pythian’, for, if I may say so, this was the usual meaning of ‘inspired’ at the temple of the Pythian Apollo» — y la magia pítica.

«and if they are used to untie, fasten, or weaken, then this constitutes the type of magic called ‘wicked’, if it leads to evil. If it leads to good, it is to be counted among the medicines belonging to a certain method and type of medical practice. If it leads to final destruction and death, then it is called ‘poisonous magic’» — la magia malvada, definida por su efecto y no por su técnica.

«magicians take it as axiomatic that, in all the panorama before our eyes, God acts on the gods; the gods act on the celestial or astral bodies, which are divine bodies; these act on the spirits who reside in and control the stars, one of which is the earth; the spirits act on the elements, the elements on the compounds, the compounds on the senses; the senses on the soul, and the soul on the whole animal. This is the descending scale» — la escala descendente.

«By contrast, the ascending scale is from the animal through the soul to the senses, through the senses to compounds, through compounds to the elements, through these to spirits, through the spirits in the elements to those in the stars, through these to the incorporeal gods who have an ethereal substance or body, through them to the soul of the world or the spirit of the universe; and through that to the contemplation of the one, most simple, best, greatest, incorporeal, absolute and self-sufficient being» — y la ascendente.

«Friendship and strife are located in the archetypal world, fire and water in the physical world, and light and darkness in the mathematical world» — los tres mundos.

«The will is threefold: human, spiritual and divine» — y la triple voluntad.

«like there is only one sun, one heat and one light, which by turning forward or backward, by approaching and receding, mediately and immediately causes the winter, the summer, and their different and contrary weather, and the ordering of the seasons» — el sol único, que por acercarse y alejarse produce las estaciones.

«even though the whole soul is in the whole body and in each of its parts» — el alma entera en cada parte del cuerpo.

«the whole soul is located in the whole body and in every part of the body» — y su formulación gemela, dos planas después.

«the soul of the world is in the whole world, and is everywhere so adapted to matter that, at each place, it produces the proper subject and causes the proper actions» — el alma del mundo.

«light penetrates and conquers darkness and overflows to infinity» — y la luz que vence a la oscuridad.

«in a circle, the attraction of love; when opposed, the descent into hate and separation» — las figuras como signos operativos.

«There are two kinds of motion, natural and preternatural» — los dos géneros de movimiento.

«There is also a third type of local motion, which is an inflow and an outflow found in all natural things when any of their parts are ejected in various ways and in every direction. For now, we will call this ‘spherical’ motion» — y el tercero, esférico.

«we conclude that the void does not exist in the sense of a space with no matter in it, but rather a void is a space in which different bodies move and succeed each other» — la negación del vacío.

«A continuous body is an unobservable body, that is, an airy or ethereal spirit» — y el cuerpo continuo como espíritu.

«but only to the outflow of atoms or parts, which occurs in all bodies» — el magnetismo por emisión de átomos.

«This is very hard to believe, but let us assume it anyhow. Then we ask why this attraction occurs at all distances from that place. We are not speaking here of active but of passive magnetic attraction. I have not yet experienced whether a magnet attracts another magnet. If there are such mountains, and if they exert their power at such great distances, then since they attract a compass needle at the equator and in the tropics, in our region of the earth they would attract men wearing armour. But this is completely ridiculous» — la objeción a las montañas magnéticas, por contradicción interna.

«There are those who explain these facts in terms of the pores being wide or narrow. I would readily grant this in some cases, but not in most cases» — y la objeción a la explicación por porosidad.

«There are also ethereal spirits which are pure and luminous. All agree that they are hostile to no one and are completely good and friendly to virtuous men» — los espíritus etéreos.

«The cabalists call them Fissim, Seraphim and Cherubim» — los de fuego; «Fissim» es lo que imprime la capa de texto, y la lectura restituida —Ishim, אישים— NO está cotejada contra el facsímil.

«Basil and Origen rightly argue that the angels are not completely incorporeal, but are spiritual substances; that is, they are animals with very subtle bodies, which divine revelation has said are» — y la corporeidad sutil de los ángeles, que Bruno adjudica a Basilio y Orígenes.

«Mark called these spirits ‘deaf and dumb’,13 i.e., they are without reason, since they recognize no commands, and they do not hear or perceive any threats or prayers. As a result, it has been declared that it is impossible to banish them, although it has also been said that they can be controlled and conquered by fasting or abstinence, and by prayer or lofty meditation» — los demonios sordos y mudos; «Mark» es el evangelio, y la nota de la misma plana imprime la cita.

«There is another type of demon which is fearful, suspicious and credulous. These hear and understand voices but do not distinguish the possible from the impossible, or the appropriate from the inappropriate. They are like humans who are dreaming and disturbed by fantasies. This type of demon is usually expelled by threats of death, prison, fire and other such things» — y los temerosos.

«all spiritual substances reduce to one, all material substances to three, there is one soul, one God, one first mind above all things and one soul of the universe» — la reducción de las sustancias.

«represented metaphorically by the three-headed Cerberus of Trivia, the doorkeeper of hell. This is the triple power which is needed by one who binds, i.e., by the magician: namely, physics, mathematics and metaphysics» — y el triple poder que exige del mago.

«three conditions are required: () an active power in the agent; () a passive power or disposition in a subject or patient, which is an aptitude in it not to resist or to render the action impossible (which reduces to one phrase, namely, the potency of matter); and () an appropriate application, which is subject to the circumstances of time, place and other conditions» — las tres condiciones de la acción.

«the chemist knows that nitric acid acts on hard things, such as iron, silver and bronze, but not on gold or lead. He also knows that quicksilver absorbs oil very rapidly, but gold completely rejects and repudiates it» — la química demostrativa.

«the seeds or juice of verbena plants are strong enough to break up stones in the bladder yet seem to do no damage to flesh, bones, membranes and other parts of the body» — y la verbena.

«oil will never mix with water because the parts of oil cohere and are glued together like lovers» — el aceite y el agua; la fuente lo imprime en minúscula, dentro de la frase.

«in a transmutation, these ashes of bronze are closer to the form of gold than is bronze» — la transmutación del bronce.

«the voices of the Marsi and the Psylli became such powerful voices when they were present in the serpent» — los encantadores de serpientes.

«In the notes left to us (which have been given the title De magia mathematica), he reconfirms, in a disagreement with Agrippa, his rejection of the traditional cosmic role attributed to the world-soul and to its ideas, and he rejects the physical action of» — Alfonso Ingegno consigna que Bruno reafirma, en desacuerdo con Agrippa, su rechazo de la función cósmica del alma del mundo.

«Whereas in De immenso he did not deny a symbolic value to the celestial bodies furthest away,17 in De rerum principiis (The Principles of Things) he seems to reject even this value, at least for particular cases» — y precisa dónde conserva y dónde rechaza el valor simbólico de los cuerpos celestes: la conservación es del De immenso, el rechazo del De rerum principiis.

«On Magic and Theses on Magic, Bruno posits two types of humanity, one superior and one inferior to the general level of mankind, who are distinguished by their ability (or lack thereof) to monitor and direct the processes of our consciousness and in particular its inevitably passive aspect» — Ingegno adjudica los dos tipos de humanidad.

«he argues against those ‘qui aguntur potius quam agant’ (who are acted on rather than act» — y la fórmula latina con que Bruno los separa.

«Here Bruno echoes Ficino in his exemplification of various types of contraction; but instead of calling them ‘vacationes animi’, as Ficino had done, he gives them a name which allows him to incorporate this phenomenon into the metaphysical structure governing our consciousness» — y su relación con las «vacationes animi» de Ficino.

«Bruno scornfully challenges the very successful De occultis naturae miraculis (The Hidden Miracles of Nature) of Levinus Lemnius,20 and rejects a purely medical explanation of phenomena traditionally considered to be of demonic origin» — Ingegno sitúa el desacuerdo con Levinus Lemnius sobre la explicación puramente médica de los fenómenos demoníacos.

«Went to Prague, then to Helmstedt, where he remained until April , despite disputes with the Lutherans and a new excommunication. De Rerum Principiis (On the Principles of Things) was sketched or finished during this period, and the works on magic, De Magia; Theses de magia, De magia mathematica (On Magic; Theses on Magic; Mathematical Magic), were completed, together with De Vinculis in genere (A General Account of Bonding)» — la cronología del volumen sitúa en la estancia de Helmstedt la conclusión de las obras mágicas; es aparato, no voz de Bruno.

«The Tocco-Vitelli edition was based on the text of the Noroffcodex in Moscow, which was transcribed by Bruno’s disciple Girolamo Besler, or Bisler, of Nuremberg between» — Richard J. Blackwell consigna la cadena de transmisión, con la variante del apellido del copista.

«was very helpful, and was consulted throughout the preparation of these first English translations» — y declara que las suyas son las PRIMERAS traducciones inglesas de estas dos obras.

«Bruno wrote a commentary on this Aristotelian treatise under the title Explicatio rhetoricae Aristotelis ad Alexandrum» — y la tercera, el comentario a la retórica.

«But Aristotle has covered most of it in his Rhetorica ad Alexandrum» — que Bruno mismo remite al tratado aristotélico.

«Bruno’s reference to the Psalms is apparently an error» — y una corrección del editor a su autor: Blackwell señala que la remisión de Bruno a los Salmos es errónea.

«The authors of this book, first published c. , were Heinrich Kramer (Henricus Institoris) and James Sprenger» — el Malleus, con su año y sus autores, que la cuarentena de b2 daba por truncados.

«during the papacy of Julius» — y el papa que el digest daba con el ordinal truncado: es Julio III.

«The magical, animistic vision of everything which he adopted throughout all his writings, not just those of the last period of his life, is evident here.» — Alfonso Ingegno sostiene que la visión mágica y animista no es del último Bruno sino de toda su obra, y por eso lee De magia en continuidad con los diálogos y no como apéndice.

«Here he tried to elaborate an art of memory which was based on magical foundations» — y sitúa el arranque en De umbris idearum, donde el arte de la memoria se funda en la magia.

«he identified the heavenly models, the exemplars of every sensible reality which the human mind can know, with the images of the thirtysix heavenly deacons which tradition attributed to Teucer the Babylonian and which he borrowed from the classic text of Renaissance magic, Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia.» — Ingegno adjudica la fuente: los treinta y seis decanos que la tradición atribuye a Teucro el Babilonio los tomó Bruno del De occulta philosophia de Agrippa; la fuente parte thirty-six en el renglón y la herramienta lo devuelve unido.

«He also saw in doctrines of this type the theoretical basis for a distinctive kind of art of memory and the foundation for an authentic astral theology.» — y enlaza esas doctrinas con dos cosas a la vez: un arte de la memoria propio y una teología astral.

«In the same work he is critical of the astrological theory of aspects and of astrological books in general.» — Ingegno localiza en De rerum principiis la crítica de Bruno a la teoría astrológica de los aspectos y a los libros de astrología.

«He claims that the corruption which the magic arts have undergone with the passage of time has been due to the spread of error but also to a desire to keep the secrets of the arts out of the hands of the ignorant.» — y le adjudica dos causas para el deterioro de las artes mágicas, no una: la difusión del error y el propósito deliberado de guardar el secreto.

«Here Bruno, on the one hand, laments the extinction of that original and non-conventional hieroglyphic language in which signs designated things and apparently guaranteed communication with the divine» — Ingegno lee así uno de los dos movimientos de De magia: la queja por la lengua jeroglífica perdida, en que los signos designaban las cosas.

«he preserves on the magical level the operational value of those characters, seals and figures which, according to tradition, propitiated demonic influence – it seemed possible not only to use them but also in some sense to remould them according to the dictates of a higher reason.» — y el otro, que le resulta simultáneo: Bruno conserva el valor operativo de caracteres, sellos y figuras, y hasta se los permite remodelar.

«Bruno no longer accepts a separation between the natural, mathematical and divine worlds; therefore he can maintain a distinction between natural, mathematical and divine magic (or theurgy) only if he can posit the survival of a distinct object for each of these, without denying the possibility of a passage from one sphere to another.» — de qué depende, según Ingegno, que la triple partición de la magia siga en pie una vez caída la separación de los tres mundos: de que cada una conserve objeto propio sin cerrar el paso de una a otra.

«The stars have themselves become gods, in effect, and are inhabited by demons, while the divinity seems to occupy the infinite spaces which extend between worlds.» — y en qué queda el cielo tras esa caída: las estrellas mismas devenidas dioses habitados por demonios.

«Universal animism was what suggested to Bruno the schema according to which the whole of nature should operate and on the basis of which every type of magical operation should be modelled.» — Ingegno hace del animismo universal el esquema del que sale toda operación mágica, y no una consecuencia suya.

«Bruno clarifies the nature of its action by referring to the corpora caeca (blind bodies) which figure in Lucretius’ De rerum natura.» — y remite el modo de obrar de ese espíritu universal a los cuerpos ciegos de Lucrecio.

«The action of the magus at every level, therefore, consists in the preparation and modification of matter so as to render it susceptible to the desired influence. The world-soul has thus to be drawn into a portion of matter suitably prepared, so as to produce a particular effect.» — en qué consiste, resumida por Ingegno, la operación del mago en todos los niveles: preparar la materia para que el alma del mundo sea atraída a ella.

«Bruno distinguishes between two types of contraction achievable by man. Contraction is a phenomenon through which the soul, by concentrating on itself, can realize particular powers; but this can have an opposite effect if it is directed towards a higher contemplative level or if it is carried out so as to render us no longer masters but servants of our imagination, and thus exposed to demonic influence.» — Ingegno define la contracción y señala que el mismo movimiento puede salir al revés: eleva si se dirige a la contemplación y esclaviza si nos deja siervos de la imaginación.

«The magus is acquainted with the dynamics not only of magic but also of demonic action, and knows how demons can take possession of us through unguarded avenues, and this opens up to him a new field of action, permitting him to link other men to himself and, in fact, to establish a whole series of magical bonds between himself and others.» — y qué le abre al mago el conocer la mecánica demoníaca: un campo de acción nuevo, el de atarse a otros hombres.

«At the beginning of On Magic, Bruno examines the stereotypical moral objections which are advanced against magic in general, and against ‘mathematical’ magic in particular. His reply is equally traditional: magic understood as pure knowledge, as scientia, is always positive but it can be used well or badly, for good or evil, depending on who sets it to work.» — Ingegno resume la respuesta moral con que arranca el tratado y la califica de igualmente tradicional: la magia como saber es siempre positiva, y el bien o el mal dependen de quién la pone a trabajar.

«And yet here we find talk of the establishment of occult snares designed to put one man in the power of another, making the latter a kind of demon with the power to take possession of the other’s spirit.» — y deja planteada la tensión que le encuentra al conjunto, sin resolverla: una filosofía que libera del miedo termina hablando de lazos ocultos para poner a un hombre en poder de otro.

«Magical action is another instance of the coincidence between act and potency which the supreme contemplator has translated into the ability to become omniformis and which here, because of the potency of the vincula and, in particular, the most powerful of them all (love), is the ability to transform the other by actualizing the potency which is within him.» — Ingegno hace de la acción mágica un caso más de la coincidencia de acto y potencia, con el amor como el más potente de los vínculos.

«the vinculum, that which links to an ever-changing degree the operator (the vinciens) to the vinciendum.» — y define el vínculo por su posición: el punto medio entre el momento activo y el pasivo, que liga al operador con lo que ha de ser ligado.

«Interested the French court in his theory of memory and maintained contact with the court for five years, due to close links with the politiques who supported the King of Navarre.» — la cronología del volumen sitúa el arte de la memoria en el centro de su relación con la corte francesa, sostenida cinco años.

«received an invitation from the Venetian patrician, Giovanni Mocenigo, to go to Venice to teach him the secrets of his art of memory.» — y ata a ese mismo arte el regreso a Italia: la invitación de Mocenigo era para que le enseñara los secretos de su arte de la memoria.

«the identification of angels with the stars and of the Holy Spirit with the world-soul, and belief in pre-adamites» — entre las proposiciones que la comisión de teólogos extrajo de sus obras publicadas figura la identificación de los ángeles con las estrellas y del Espíritu Santo con el alma del mundo.

«it listed among his errors the denial of transubstantiation, the thesis of the transmigration of souls, the infinity of the world, the eternity of the universe, the allegation that Moses and Christ were magicians and impostors, and belief in pre-adamites.» — y la sentencia de 1600, según la cronología, cuenta entre sus errores el haber llamado magos e impostores a Moisés y a Cristo.

«The translations of the De magia and of the De vinculis in genere are based on the texts published in Jordani Bruni Nolani opera latine conscripta publicis sumptibus edita, edited by F. Tocco and E. Vitelli (Naples and Florence: Morano,» — Richard J. Blackwell declara el texto base de estas dos traducciones: la Opera latine conscripta de Tocco y Vitelli; el corte deja fuera los años y los tomos, que en este troceo viven en el plano de uso privado.