OF THE GREAT ART OF KNOWLEDGE,

prepared for the youth; regarding which, just as Lupetus, Lavineta, Cornelius Agrippa, Jordanus Giordano Bruno and others have published vast commentaries, so I have judged it superfluous to describe it more extensively in this place, since I shall bring its principles back to the anvil A metaphor for refining or re-examining in the following chapter, where I will demonstrate what should be thought of it.

Gregory of Toulouse.

Syntaxes of the Wonderful Art.

Following the method of this art with equal pace, Pierre Grégoire of Toulouse, a noble writer and public Professor of Civil Law in the Academy of Cahors, composed a work boasting this title: Syntaxes of the Wonderful Art, through which one can dispute or treat any proposed subject by many and nearly infinite reasons, and a summary knowledge of all things can be obtained. It is indeed a splendid work, filled with an innumerable variety of things and sciences; but just as he did not hand down how one might reach the acquisition of those sciences—congested from everywhere—by a light, brief, and ready method through Lullian principles, so he left in the minds of the curious nothing but a most burning desire and an inflamed thirst for the art he so greatly praised.

Cornelius Gemma.

The Cyclognomic Art.

Contemporary to him, Cornelius Gemma, Royal Professor of Medicine in the Academy of Leuven and a man most learned in polite literature as well as the physiological art, exhibited to the world the Cyclognomic Art. In this, by a method entirely different from the Lullian one, through the principles of the analytic and synthetic arts, he promises to exhibit a universal reason for disputing about all things through the concatenated links of intellectual cycles; in a word, he promises a knowledge of all sciences. He proposes this in an elegant, flowery style, swollen with a variety of words and sciences, not without commendation for his genius. But as he nearly overwhelms the reader with the multitude and abundance of things to be said, and being carried away by the boldness of a luxuriant style, he creates no small amount of trouble even for men not of the lowest class of intellects to fully understand the intended method and its application, which leads to obtaining the desired knowledge of the sciences. Approaching most closely to the inner shrines of the Lullian art was

Pedro Sanchez.

Pedro Hieronymo Sanchez, in the book which he inscribed The Miraculous and Easy Method for Easily Acquiring All Sciences, and in his commentaries on the Short Art Llull's Ars Brevis which were indeed aptly composed; him we have followed in many things.

Yves the Capuchin.

These were followed by Yves the Capuchin of Paris, a man no less celebrated for his religion than for his all-encompassing learning; who in years past offered to the literary world a new work which he calls the Digest of Wisdom (Digestum Sapientiæ), composed with truly the highest and most relentless labor in two huge volumes. And although I do not deny that the work is filled with immense erudition and swollen with the embrace of all sciences—inasmuch as both preachers of the Divine Word and candidates of the faculty of Oratory may find there a most fertile "Horn of Plenty" (or better said, a new Polyanthea A common title for general reference encyclopedias or florilegia) prepared for the amplification and decoration of assumed arguments—nevertheless, in that truly laudable undertaking, a method easier and more ready than the opinion of all for achieving what is intended seems to be lacking. I do not deny that in the said work he reduced the entire series of things to the eighteen Lullian principles (partly absolute, partly relative); but, I know not by what motive he was driven to omit what has been uniquely sought until now. While the desired application for obtaining the goal was neglected, or at least only meagerly indicated, and the rules of the art touched only with the "tips of the fingers" Superficially, he translated those eighteen principles into a promiscuous variety of things by an application more difficult than is fair—especially for those whose minds burn to attain the genuine art through a brief, ready, and prepared reason. For as he mixed Theological matters with Canonical, Medical with Physical, Physical with Mathematical, Metaphysical with Ethical, and Political with Historical, mixing Sacred with Profane in no order, he could not avoid a Chaos of things; and nothing can be more contrary to this art than that. For since the scope of the Lullian Art is, given any subject or any proposed question drawn from the Encyclopedia of arts, to dispute about it amply and fruitfully, and to demonstrate the particular principles of the sciences from universal principles, I do not see how this can be performed—except with great labor and by a man already advanced in the sciences—through the method described in the Digest of Wisdom. Yet I add this to the commendation of that distinguished work: if someone were to reduce all things heaped up confusedly and promiscuously in the Digest of Wisdom into particular classes of sciences, he would reach the intended goal of the art nearly and safely by that aid. Whence I also confess that a work of this kind was of no small benefit to the perfection of the art, as I shall show a little later, after I have first opened my own judgment concerning the Lullian Art and what is desired in it. Succeeding in this last place was

Fr. Sebastian Izquierdo.

The Reverend Father Sebastian Izquierdo, currently the most worthy Assistant of the Society of Jesus in Spain, who published for the good of the literary Republic a huge volume which he entitles the Pharus Scientiarum (The Lighthouse of the Sciences), in which, although by a method for the arts and scien-