Le Opere Italiane di Giordano Bruno

1Entangles and disentangles; makes one happy and sad; wounds and heals; discourages and encourages, whether she brings you good news or bad; whether she brings lean chickens or fat ones. Advocate, intercessor, cloak, remedy, hope, mediatrix, way, and gate; she who turns Cupid's bow, 5conductor of the arrow of the god of love. The knot that binds, the birdlime that sticks, the nail that joins. The horizon that joins the hemispheres. All of which comes to pass through feigned stories original: "finte bazzane"; refers to tall tales or nonsensical deceits used by go-betweens., big bellyfuls of lies, sighs on purpose, tears on command, hired weeping, and sobs that die of cold. Masculine mockeries, illuminated jests, 10hungry flatteries, fox-like excuses, wolf-like accusations, and oaths that die of hunger; praising those present, blaming those absent, serving everyone, and loving no one. She whets your appetite, and then you fast. You will also see the personification and majesty of a man of the "masculine gender" Bruno is mocking the redundant, hyper-grammatical speech of pedants.. One who brings you certain sweetmeats original: "suauioli"; likely a pun on sweet words or small kisses. to turn the 15stomach of a pig or a hen; a restorer of that ancient Latium A reference to scholars obsessed with restoring "pure" classical Latin., an emulator of Demosthenes; one who summons Cicero original: "Tullio"; Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman orator. from the deepest and darkest center. An arranger of the deeds of heroes. Here before you is a sharp wit to make the eyes water, [28] the hair stand on end, the teeth feel numb; to fart, to rise original: "rizzar"; implies an erection, part of Bruno's mix of high and low register., to cough, and 20to sneeze. Behold one of those composers of books "well-deserving of the republic," annotators, glossers, constructors, methodists, adders, commentators, translators, interpreters, makers of compendiums, new-fangled dialecticians, attendants with a new grammar, a new dictionary, a lexicon, a variant reading, a prover of authors, an authentic proven one, with Greek, 25Hebrew, Latin, Italian, Spanish, and French epigrams placed at the front of the books. Whereby the one and the other and the other and the one are consecrated to immortality, as benefactors of the present and future centuries; for this, people are obliged to dedicate statues and colossi to them in the Mediterranean seas and the ocean, and other uninhabitable places of the earth. The eternal light original Latin: "lux perpetua"; a phrase from the Requiem Mass, here used to mock the "divine" status of scholars. comes to 30tip its hat to them, and forever and ever original Latin: "secula seculorum". bows with profound reverence. Fame is obliged to make their voices heard at both poles, and to deafen with shrieks, noise, and crashes the North Wind and the South Wind, and the Indian and Atlantic seas. How well a Latin discourse stands out (it seems to me I see so many pearls and margarites on a field of gold) in the middle of Italian. A Greek discourse in the middle of Latin; and they do not 35let a page of paper pass where there does not appear at least one little word, a verse, a concept, from an exotic character and language. Ah, they give me life when, whether by force or of their own free will, in speaking and writing they bring in a verse of Homer, of Hesiod, a little scrap of Plato, or Greek Demosthenes. How well they 40demonstrate that they are the only ones on whom Saturn has pissed the ju[ice]... The text cuts off mid-word "giu-"; likely "giusquiamo" (henbane), a plant associated with madness or melancholy.

1 discourage | 4 mediatrix | 20/21 translators | 22 a Lexicon | 36 of an | 38 of Homer, of