☩ ii

PROLOGUE

BY FRANCESCO GIORGIO THE VENETIAN, OF THE

FRANCISCAN ORDER, original: "Minoritanae Familiae"; the "Minorite Family" refers to the Order of Friars Minor, or Franciscans. FOR THE WORK ON THE

HARMONY OF THE WORLD, DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS

PREFACE

TO CLEMENT VII, SUPREME PONTIFF.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ROME, VITTORIO EMANUELE

NOT INDEED, MOST BLESSED FATHER, am I led by any pride, nor according to flesh and blood, but by a good spirit—indeed, by a better spirit—so that for those who are less enlightened, I might attempt to approach with this little torch, such as it is. It is certainly not a new light, but one that glows from that Light which illuminates all people. And from the most rich harvest of the Lord, I might bring into the Lord's barn to feed the poor at least some small sheaves, perhaps left behind for posterity by other reapers at the Lord's command. From these we have threshed the wheat—certainly not new wheat, but ancient wheat brought forth in a new form and worked in a new way. It is mixed with water, not from broken cisterns A reference to Jeremiah 2:13, contrasting human-made systems with divine truth. but from a better and saving wisdom, from which, for the one who drinks, it becomes a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. A reference to John 4:14. Those who first laid the foundations of Gospel teaching, having truly become children of God by drawing this water, considered the wisdom of this world to be foolishness. This worldly wisdom relies on its own strengths and those devised by human industry; it yields to no truth except that which its followers trust they can demonstrate through syllogistic reasoning. Syllogistic reasoning: a form of logical argument (like "all men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore Socrates is mortal") which Giorgio argues is insufficient for understanding God.

But those composite deductions, rooted as they are in the senses themselves, are unable to reach that solitary and intellectual nature of the Creator (as Proclus teaches).
Proclus Proclus (412–485 AD) was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher who influenced Christian mysticism.
Furthermore, they cannot teach the effects, properties, or "passions" (as they call them) of the lower world of nature, since the causes from which they think they can infer them by their arguments are (by the consensus of all of them) utterly unknown to mortals. Moreover, because they proceed from the senses, which are fallacious (as Pyrrho of Elis proves with many reasons), they can offer us no pure truth.
Pyrrho Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360–270 BC) was the founder of Greek Skepticism, who taught that human senses and reason cannot reach certain truth.
Plato

Hence, when dealing with divine matters, which ought to be compared to oracles (as Plato says), we must leave behind these types of composite reasons deduced from fallacious senses. They belong to those who occupy themselves only with sensible things, and who have established the "outermost boundaries" of their learning as those things which are subject to motion in the world of action. These people think they can combine and conclude everything through certain axioms which they believe it is impossible to refute. But such people mock the divine things hidden from them—things which are exalted all the more as a man presumes to ascend to a "higher heart." A reference to Psalm 64:6 (Vulgate 63:7): "Accedet homo ad cor altum" (Man shall reach a deep heart). For these sacred things are shown only by divine light; they hate contention and require silence...