The Latin Works of Giordano Bruno

In the annotations placed before each of the pamphlets contained in this second part of the second volume, everything necessary for the understanding of the critical apparatus The set of notes explaining textual variants and editorial choices has been stated. It remains for us to say something about the manner in which the small London volume is composed, which contains the Art of Remembering original: 'Ars reminiscendi', the Thirty Seals original: 'Triginta Sigilli' etc., and the Seal of Seals original: 'Sigillus Sigillorum'; but for now, we see no hypothesis that resolves every difficulty.¹ Let it suffice to note that a Minor Explanation original: 'Explicatio minor' (see p. 160, line 20) would seem to imply the existence of a Major Explanation original: 'Explicatio maior'; one might therefore believe that the pamphlet now reprinted from page 73 to page 119—a pamphlet which is missing in some copies and is, in any case, printed on different paper from the rest—is nothing but a second draft of a larger, destroyed work. But why the second draft would have been substituted in some copies and not in others, we cannot explain. On the other hand, if the pamphlet missing in some copies was printed after the rest, how can we explain that the seal Gorgias (p. 148) of the Minor Explanation erroneously becomes Heaven original: Caelum (p. 94) there, which is already the title of the second Seal in both pamphlets (p. 80 and 122)? Nor can a simple writing or printing error on page 94 be admitted, because the words "It was a figure of worldly eternity, a symbol of the circling earth" original Latin: 'Erat mundanae aeternitatis figura, circumgyrantis terrae typus' etc. do not seem to be of such a nature as to suggest that the title does not suit the text. Perhaps an explanation for such difficulties can be provided [by...]

¹ See Tocco, The Latin Works of G. B. [Giordano Bruno] p. 63 and following.