A Discourse on Anagrams as a Part of the Cabala

...is a movement into a place, whether you consider a Letter within a syllable, a syllable within a word, or a word within a sentence. This "Processing" original: "Tractatio," referring to the physical handling or manipulation of linguistic elements. pleased Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE), an ancient Roman scholar and grammarian. in Book IV of On the Latin Language, where he teaches that names are formed from other names for four reasons: by the Removal or Addition of letters, and on account of their Processing or Change. Indeed, Turnebus Adrianus Turnebus (1512–1565), a renowned French classical scholar. noticed that "compression" original: "arctationem" was read here erroneously in older manuscripts.

Moreover, Processing occurs when letters are held as if by hand, and are transposed and shifted here or there. It is written thus by Cicero in On the Orator: The raw material is in the words, but the processing is in the arrangement of the words. Some others, however, read "attraction" original: "attractionem" there, but it makes no sense.

Furthermore, "Barbarity" In this context, "Barbarism" refers to the use of foreign-sounding or non-standard words. is perhaps often born here from this Processing; it stands in for refinement, just as foreignness stands for elegance. In such cases, meaning itself—because there is none—stands for pure energy. To this I link what the brilliant Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), a famous Renaissance philosopher and mystic. asserts in his Magical Disputations, Thesis 21: Foreign names, and those signifying nothing, possess more efficacy. original: "Nomina Barbara, & nihil significantia, plus habere efficacitatis." Pico was suggesting that "meaningless" words of power in magic derived their strength from their sound and mystery rather than literal definition.