On the Threefold Minimum and Measure

ON THE MINIMUM, THE EXISTENT, AND THE FREE ###

He paints it. Just as Atlas can scarcely support the glowing sky upon his shoulders:
Thus he renders the appearance of things in every detail, so that ancient
myth may adorn modern history. Just as once
Minos was beautiful in his crested helmet,
As he took up his shield and gracefully brandished his spear;
So does Arcturus A reference to the northern constellation, likely symbolizing Duke Henry Julius to whom the work is dedicated. possess art joined with strength.
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Turnus clothes Godfrey, and Pepin rejoices
in the rhythms of Aeneas, and Roland in the spoils of Achilles.
A new garment comes out of old cloth: and here the
fine linen of one Caesar is fashioned into the breeches of another.
In this poem, Bruno argues that modern greatness is essentially the same as ancient greatness, merely wearing different historical "clothes." He justifies his use of classical imagery to describe contemporary figures.

Mind above all things is God. Mind implanted in all things is Na-
ture. Mind pervading all things is Reason. God dictates and or-
dains. Nature executes and creates. Reason contemplates and dis-
courses. God is the Monad original: "Monas." In Bruno's philosophy, the Monad is the ultimate, indivisible unit of reality—both the mathematical "one" and the divine source of all existence., the source of all numbers, the simplicity
of all magnitude and the substance of composition, and an excellence
above every moment—innumerable and immense. Nature is
number that can be numbered, magnitude that can be measured, a moment that is
attainable. Reason is the numbering number, the measuring magnitude, the
estimating moment.

¶ 8 God flows through nature into reason. Reason is lifted up through
nature to God. God is Love, the Efficient Cause, Brightness, and Light. Na-
ture is the beloved, the object, Fire, and Heat. Reason is the Lover,
a certain Subject which is kindled by Nature and illuminated by
God.

¶ 49 Sense is an eye in a prison of darkness, looking out at the colors
and surfaces of things as if through bars and holes. Rea-
son is as if looking through a window, deriving light from the sun and
reflecting it back to the sun, just as it is observed in the body of the moon. In-
tellect, in the open and as if from a high watchtower, is an eye everywhere above
all particularity, crowd, and confusion; and in the
distinction of species, it contemplates the very sun shining forth in the universe.

¶ 76 Reason would easily lift itself into the mind were it not
distracted by tossing in an ocean of various passions: for nature is
arranged so that it is equipped and dispatched by the different faculties of the soul
toward as many works and effects through various operations and acts.
For man is a Republic original: "Respublica homo." Bruno views the human being as a "microcosm" or a "little state" composed of many competing parts that must be governed. composed of great and wonderful variety:
in which there are so many arts, statuses, conditions, ranks, orders,
workshops, instruments, masteries, and ministries; and therefore he is only
finally able to gather his whole self into one single object;
and that the most worthy. This is achieved whenever the intellectual will...

This is a "signature mark," used by early printers to keep the folded sheets of a book in the correct order.