Renaissance Lullism

[Giordano Bruno]. Llull, Ramon (1232-1316).

Opusculum Raymundinum De auditu Kabbalistico siue ad omnes scientias introductorium... Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1578. (bound with:)

Idem. Ars brevis illuminatis Doctoris Magistri Raymundi Lull. Quae est ad omnes scientias pauco & breui tempore assequendas introductorium & breuis via... Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1578. (bound with:)

Bruno, Giordano (1548-1600). Philoteus Iordanus Brunus Nolanus De compendiosa architectura, & complementi artis Lullij. Ad illustriss. D.D. Ioannem Morum pro serenissima Venetorum R.p. apud Christianissimum Gallorum & Polonorum regem, legatum. Paris, Gilles Gourbin, 1582.

A remarkable miscellany with three rare editions that offer striking evidence of the revival of Lullism in the Renaissance, including the rare first edition of De compendiosa architectura, & complementi artis Lullij by the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno.

The Compendiosa architectura is Bruno’s third printed work, after the De umbris idearum and the Cantus Circaeus, which had been issued a few months earlier. Dedicated to the Venetian ambassador in Paris, Giovanni Moro, the Compendiosa architectura, is a vivid testament of the revival of Lullism and of its notable influence on Giordano Bruno in particular. Bruno had read the works of the Catalan philosopher and theologian Ramon Llull (1232-1316) during his youthful studies in Naples, under the guidance of his master Teofilo da Varano. The work represents therefore an essential chapter in the history of Renaissance Lullism, as well as in Bruno’s own interpretation and renewal of Lullism, convincingly presenting an original synthesis between the combinatoric method of the Ars Lulliana and the classical art of memory, a synthesis particularly well demonstrated through his use of mnemonic wheels.

The ‘Lullian’ significance of the miscellany presented here is furthered by the two other editions bound inside: two works attributed to Lull himself and printed in 1578, once again by Gourbin. The first bound work is the famous De auditu Kabbalistico, an apocryphal treatise first printed in Venice in 1518 which greatly impacted Lull’s reception over the centuries. Also known as the Opusculum Raymundinum, this work, intended to provide a combination of Lullism and Christian Kabbalah, was long attributed to Lull; its real author has, however, been identified by Paola Zambelli as the physician from Verona Pietro Mainardi (1456-1529), who taught surgery at the University of Padua. Mainardi’s name is included as editor of the work in the colophon of the 1518 editio princeps, suggesting his desire for the work’s authorship to remain anonymous. “Circulating widely, this treatise reinforced the association of cabala with Lullism. Together with Pico, it gave a significant impulse to the evolution of Lullism and consequently to the introduction of cabalistic elements into it” (M. Mertens, On Bruno’s De compendiosa architectura, p. 515).

The second bound edition is the equally rare Ars brevis, the popular compendium of his Ars magna generalis which was composed by Lull in 1308 and published for the first time in 1481. The treatise crowned Lull as one of the greatest philosophers of mediaeval Europe, while the combinatory tables of the symbolic letters ‘BCDEFGHJKT’ shown in the plate titled ‘tertia figura’ (in the edition presented here, on fol. B1r) are considered forerunners of modern symbolic logic.

For printing the Compendiosa architectura, & complementi artis Lullij, Bruno turned to Gilles Gourbin. Gourbin had previously been responsible for the printing of Bruno’s De umbris idearum, so a certain level of familiarity may have existed between the printer and the philosopher. There is, however, another more nuanced reason for Bruno’s interest in Gourbin, which concerns the illustrative apparatus supplementing the edition.

The new work to be printed was to include woodcuts of mnemonic wheels, some designed by Bruno himself, others derived from Lull’s own works. Gourbin had not only already printed several editions of the Doctor illuminatus, but by that point he was also considered the ‘Lullian printer’ par excellence. As they were already in Gourbin’s workshop, Bruno could count on the printer’s access to the woodcuts previously used for the Lull editions, as well as the possibility of their being employed either directly or as templates in his Compendiosa architectura, so as to make his new interpretation visually clear.

A comparison of the woodcuts illustrating Bruno’s Compendiosa architectura and those included in both Lull editions of 1578 has indeed yielded interesting findings. From the two 1578 Gourbin editions, Bruno’s work inherited the plates titled ‘prima figura’, ‘secunda figura’, ‘tertia figura’ and ‘quarta figura’.

The ‘secunda figura’ is a re-use of the woodcut employed in the Opusculum Raymundinum, which was clearly still extant in 1582 when the Compendiosa architectura was printed; the ‘secunda figura’ in Lull’s Ars Brevis, meanwhile, was made with a different and larger woodcut, which was probably subsequently broken.

The suggested primacy of the Ars Brevis printing – still unrecorded – might be confirmed by the architectural decorations present in the ‘tabula generalis’ of the Ars brevis, which are omitted from the same plate in the Opusculum Raymundinum.

The ‘tertia figura’ also differs in Bruno’s work, with a longer combination of letters and without the tabulation.

The presentation of the ‘quarta figura’ represents a peculiarity of the present copy, in that it preserves the two moving parts of the volvelle, still uncut and to be mounted. This is an exceptional feature of the copy. In fact, books containing volvelle diagrams were meant to be assembled and used by their readers, and copies with uncut volvelles printed on separate leaves – usually on thick paper – have thus generally not survived.

The present copy of the Compendiosa architectura includes, between fols. B7 and B8, an additional folding sheet, printed only on one side, containing two circular volvelles to be cut and mounted onto the alphabetical dial on the verso of fol. B8. What’s more, this leaf is in an uncut state and includes instructions to the printer or binder: “Hi duo circulli includentur in eo circulo qui habetur folio 16.”. Evidently these instructions were not heeded, as the printer or binder failed to cut and mount the pieces on the appropriate diagram. Perhaps a simple oversight, but one which allows us precious insight into the world of Renaissance printing.

One more feature deserves particular attention, as well as further research. Perusing the census of Bruno editions, we have discovered that recorded copies of the Compendiosa architectura are mainly bound in volumes that – just as with the miscellany presented here – also contain editions of the Opusculum Raymundinum and the Ars brevis issued by Gourbin in 1578. This is perhaps not a coincidence, simply the result of similar though independent choices made by the volumes’ respective owners. Rather, the miscellaneous nature of the volume may reveal a precise commercial strategy on behalf of the Parisian printer, i.e., a plan for proposing an ‘entirely Lullian book’ to a particularly receptive market, one which would simultaneously allow him to repurpose unsold copies of his previous editions, now made all the more attractive alongside the novelty represented by the Compendiosa architectura.

I. STC French 292; Palau 143.864; Caillet 6846; Duveen, p. 370; Rogent y Duran, no. 121. II. STC French 292; Palau, 14370-14384; Duveen, p. 370, Rogent y Duran, no. 120; J. E. Rubio, “Llull’s ‘Great Universal Art’”, A Companion to Ramon Llull and Llullism, 82 (2018), pp. 81-116. III. Adams B-2953; STC French 84; Salvestrini Bibliografia, no. 40; Sturlese Bibliografia, no. 3; M. Gabrieli, Giordano Bruno. Corpus Iconographicum, Milano 2001, pp. 125-153; P. Zambelli. “Il ‘De auditu kabbalistico’ e la tradizione lulliana nel Rinascimento”, Atti dell’Accademia Toscana di Scienza e Lettere ‘La Colombaria’, 30 (1965), pp. 115-149; M. Mertens, “On Bruno’s De compendiosa architectura”, Bruniana & Campanelliana, 15 (2009) pp. 513-525.