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Memory and Geometry in Bruno: Some Analogies

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Abstract

In 1588 the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno wrote a treatise against the mathematicians and philosophers of his time (Articuli centum et sexaginta adversus huius tempestatis mathematicos atque philosophos), which he dedicated to the emperor Rudolph II. The ‘oddities’ thus presented to the emperor, as an alternative to sixteenth-century mathematics, have been studied from both a mathematical and a philosophical point of view. In addition to the philosophical approach, this article indicates analogies between the Nolan’s geometry and his art of memory. Bearing in mind that Bruno was a teacher in the ars memoriae, the manner in which mnemonic aspects are woven into his mathematical thinking is brought out.

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  1. Centre for History of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Manuel Mertens

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  1. Manuel Mertens
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Correspondence to Manuel Mertens.

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Mertens, M. Memory and Geometry in Bruno: Some Analogies. Found Sci 19, 69–88 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-012-9314-7

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