GIORDANO BRUNO OF NOLA

lest those who have not been trained might understand: for this art possesses this quality, that although it encompasses difficult terms and presupposes speculative faculties, it can nevertheless be explained to anyone (provided they are not of an entirely dull wit), for it contains very precise terms that are most perfectly suited to the things they signify.

This art does not merely provide a simple method for memory; it also opens a path and introduces one to the discovery of many faculties The Latin 'facultatum' here refers to branches of knowledge or mental powers. Therefore, let those who are granted the ability to perceive its inner workings remember: out of respect for its majesty, they should not make it common to everyone without discrimination. They should explain and bestow its rules upon each person to whom it is to be communicated more intensely or more sparingly, according to the measure of their merits and capacity.

Beyond this, let those into whose hands this art may fall know: we are not of such a mind as to be bound to a specific type of foreign philosophy; nor do we, on the whole, despise any way of philosophizing. Indeed, no one...