The Latin Works of Giordano Bruno

...of our own time, easily the foremost among doctors, they say told the author: that he should show him his memory before his art, as it is doubtful whether he, out of disdain or incompetence, was unwilling to perform. The text suggests a physician challenged the author to prove his own memory worked before teaching the system, but the author implies the doctor was either too arrogant or too dull to appreciate it.

PHILOTHIMUS. — If he had said to him, "show me your urine before I consider more solid excrement," original: "ostende mihi urinam tuam priusquam solidiora contempler excrementa." Philothimus is returning the doctor's insult with interest, using the language of 16th-century medical diagnosis—inspecting waste—to suggest the doctor's mind is equally foul. perhaps our author would have accommodated him; for he would have received him more hospitably and politely, and in a manner more fitting to his own dignity, duty, and art.

LOGIFER. — What shall we say of Master Clyster, A "clyster" was an enema; the name is a satirical jab at a doctor obsessed with physical purging rather than mental cultivation. a doctor of medicine, who must not be outdone by the one just mentioned? For he differs in no way from that man who—following Arnald and the Tiber—wants instead to confer a most tenacious memory upon the forgetful by placing the tongue of a hoopoe upon them. original: "ex Aknaldo & Tiberide... linguam vpupæ impositam." Refers to Arnald of Villanova, a famous medieval physician. The use of a hoopoe's tongue was a folk-magic remedy for memory, which the author here mocks as superstitious nonsense compared to the "Art."

PHILOTHIMUS. — Aristotle said: "By playing the lyre, one becomes a lyre-player." original: "cytharizando fit cytharædus." From the Nicomachean Ethics, meaning that skills are acquired through practice. Philothimus uses it to mock the doctor's lack of practice in thinking. If someone were to place another brain upon this wretched man (having extracted the one he has), perhaps by practicing medicine he might become a doctor.

LOGIFER. — Doctor Carpophorus, following Proculus and Sabinus of Ithaca, likely references to classical or legal authorities used here in a pseudo-medical context. also said that the seat of the mind and memory is divided into three parts. For between the stern and the prow Anatomical metaphors: the "prow" is the anterior (front) of the brain, and the "stern" is the posterior (back). is the middle pineal gland; when we persist in recalling something with the memory, this opens up, providing a passage for the animal spirit animal spirit: In early modern medicine, these were "spirits" (a very fine, subtle fluid) that traveled through the nerves to facilitate sensation and movement. from the prow to the stern. Furthermore, the animal spirit never passes through unless it is serene, lucid, and clear. Hence, being dulled by excessive cold, it renders our memory blunt and sluggish. Indeed, if this cold is joined with dryness, it brings on excessive wakefulness and insomnia; if with humidity, lethargy. To drive these away, these things have been devised through art: Exercise that recalls and rouses the senses,