Charles de Bovelles - The Book of The Sage

Matthias Riedl, CEU Budapest, matriedl@ceu.
edu
Charles de Bovelles: The Book on the Sage (Liber de Sapiente)

Chapters 1-8 and 22-26
Unpublished translation by Matthias Riedl, Budapest, 2014 (all rights reserved)
“The return of man to himself, illustrated by a serpent.”

Taken from chapter 27 of the Liber de Sapiente (fol. 133r in the Paris, 1510 edition)
Translator’s preface
This translation was done for a colloquium on Renaissance philosophy. I do not intend to publish it, but
nevertheless hope that someday I will find the time to translate the remaining chapters. However, since there is
still no English translation of the Liber de Sapiente available, I thought some colleagues may find this helpful.
The original Latin text is anything but easy to read. Whenever I encountered difficulties I found help in the
French translation of Pierre Magnard and an unpublished English translation by Richard Trowbridge. I’m not a
native English speaker and therefore grateful for the linguistic corrections by Rachel Mattair and Martin Pjecha.
All remaining errors are my own.
My translation follows the critical Latin text prepared by Raymond Klibansky and published in the appendix to
Ernst Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance (Darmstadt, 1963), pp. 300-412.
Texts in square brackets are my additions; superscript numbers in square brackets indicate the page numbers of
Klibansky’s edition. I took all illustrations and tables from the earliest printed edition (Paris, 1510) or reproduced
them myself.
Note to the reader: 1) The translation is as literal as possible and meant for academic use. Therefore I kept some
rather awkward sounding rhetorical idiosyncrasies of de Bovelles writing, for instance his habit to say the same
thing with three different expressions. 2) De Bovelles frequently capitalizes words; sometimes this indicates a
personification or allegorization and sometimes just an emphasis. Even though de Bovelles is anything but
consistent, the translation preserves all capitalizations of the original text. 3): The Liber de Sapiente makes a
playful (but meaningful) use of gender. Therefore, Homo is not translated as the gender-inclusive “Human” but
as “Man.” Throughout the book the archetypical Men, the Sage and the Fool, interact with female characters
such as Wisdom or Fortune and relate to respectable females (the virtues) and dubious ones (the sins). Other
characters are Mother Nature, Father Heaven, and their daughters (Essence, Life, Perception, and Reason).1
1
Matthias Riedl, CEU Budapest, matriedl@ceu.edu
[Dedicatory Letter:]
Charles de Bovelles of Amiens to the venerable father Guillaume Briçonnet,
Bishop of Lodève
[301]
Most worthy bishop, when the Pythian Apollo was asked what would be the true and most
excellent Wisdom (Sapientia), he reportedly proclaimed this oracle: “Oh,” he said, “Man, know
thyself (Homo, nosce teipsum).” The judgment of all Greek sages, then, wholeheartedly approved of
this oracle and, deservedly, soon eternalized it in golden letters on the gates of the Apollo Temple.
Now, because of this pagan and gentile god, you may say that it is an enormous sacrilege if a
Christian lends his credulous ears and shows faith to a vain idol. But I respond to this that Apollo was
anything but a god; and never has the Apollonian idol uttered any oracles, not even in a mute
manner. Nevertheless, this spirit (whoever was hiding under the made-up idol and who then spoke
surreptitiously instead of the idol and in the name of Apollo) gave to mankind this one truest answer;
no one will deny or refute this. For if the divinely spoken psalms attest that the utmost stupidity of
Man is the ignorance of himself, truly the opposite also applies, and namely that cognizance of
oneself is Wisdom. “For when Man was in his pomp,” they [i.e. the psalms] say, “he did not
understand; rather he became comparable to the brutes and the stupid beasts of burden and
becomes similar to them.”2
We may interpret this sacred saying in the following manner: When Man was Man by nature [i.e.
before the fall], even then he did not know that he was Man; and, unaware of his splendor, he did
not understand that he was a rational or immortal [being] or the image of God. For when he stupidly
lapsed from human height, he became brutish. He, who initially was proclaimed to be solely
distinguished by the species of natural humanity,3 then appeared to be clouded by a dreadful
darkness of ignorance, as if he was unconscious and without control over his intellect. After losing his
way of life, he appeared as a beast rather than a Man, and at odds with the whole Human [species].
It is, then, this human stupidity—[302] that is the fall from the proper and natural goods of Man—;
therefore, the natural Man lives a life unworthy of Man. Wisdom, which is opposed to this, will be
the virtue that erects, maintains, and binds Man in Man and forbids him to overstep the human
limits through association with the inferior [beings].
Likewise, the immovable Wisdom will have some kind of permanence in humanity (humanitas). And
she will be a genuine light of humanity’s proper goods and natural assignments, a light from which
phylautia—that is the love of oneself (amor sui)—and a certain internal number4 will be instilled into
Man. We may also infer the words of the divine Dionysius Areopagita: “If knowledge (scientia),” he
says, “is the unifier of cognizers and cognitions, then for the ignorant ignorance is truly the author of
his division [from cognition].”5 Indeed, only he who knows himself as man is Man; he who is at one
with himself, he is Man-Man (Homo-Homo).6 He, however, who is devoid of his own light and his
cognition, is by the same law secluded from himself by the bar of ignorance. He, despite being
created as Man by nature, neither meets with himself, nor emerges as being at one with himself, nor
becomes Man by means of virtue. The Sage is therefore One; through this principle [of oneness] he
came into being, from this fountain he emerged, and in the same manner he defines and numbers
himself: Man first, and Man after. He is Man as a bodily species and he is Man on the inside by means
of his mind; like one who is kept within the Human [bounds], supported by the splendid balance of
Reason (Ratio).
We dedicate to you this consideration on Wisdom, which is the careful inspection of one’s own
things and goods as well as the loving perception of oneself, however close we could approach it by
the measure of our limited talent. Please accept it, I ask you, no less open-mindedly than I offer the
described things to you with joyful wishes.
Farewell!
2
Hexastichon to the reader:

Whoever wants to know, how many years a Sage will live,
What illuminates him, what he alone is aware of,
At the same time, that the fool vainly examines all worlds,
That he spends his days in nothingness:
This is what this book will give you. You, who would be called a lover of righteousness,
Do, pursue, and establish this in your mind.
FORTUNE AND WISDOM

(woodcut; frontispiece of the first printed edition of the Liber de Sapiente, Paris, 1510)
[Translator’s comment: Fortune sits on a “round-shaped chair,” while Wisdom sits on the “quadratic chair of
virtue,” holding the “mirror of Wisdom.” The person in the upper left corner is the “fool,” who quotes Juvenal:
“We, oh Fortune, are the ones who make you a goddess and place you in heaven” (Saturae 10,366). The person
in the upper right corner is the “sage,” who quotes the humanist Battista Mantovano (1447-1516): “Put your
trust in virtue: Fortune is more ephemeral than waves” (Epigrammata 76,107).7]
3
This is
The Book on the Sage

by Charles de Bovelles of Amiens
dedicated to the venerable father in Christ, Guillaume Briçonnet, Bishop of Lodève
Chapter 1:
There are as many ranks of men as there are ranks of perceptible things
[303]
Substance, Life, Perception, and Reason (Substantia, Vita, Sensus et Ratio) are naturally inherent
in every man. For every man is, lives, perceives, and thinks.8 Yet some men function only by the
actualization and operation of simple Substance, others by Substance and Life, others by Substance,
Life, and Perceptions, and, finally, others by Substance, Life, Perception, and Reason.
Thus it occurs that all men are similar by nature and substance and, by the equality of the species,
they are only one [type of] Man. With respect to their mode of living, their performance and art,
however, they are different and unequal. Some, as it were, compare to minerals and simple
elements, others to plants, and others to the brute animals. Only the supreme are rightly declared to
be similar to Men and— because of the habit and performance (functio) of Reason—rational, true
and perfect Men.
For if there are four ranks (gradus) of natural things9—subsisting, living, perceiving, and rational—
then the human species is in itself divided into as many ranks, as well as separated into four orders
(ordines).10 Indeed, it is as if [the human species] comprises all nature, encircles everything, and
performs everything in itself: that which is similar to the [merely] subsisting things is effectuated in
its lowest and basest part, that which is similar to the living in its second part, and that which is
similar to the non-rational animals in its third part. Only in its fourth part is it restored to itself,
elevated to its highest level, and here it articulates itself and receives the highest praise. Only in this
[highest] rank the human things are considered perfect, in both ways, I say, in art, virtue, and
workings just as much as in the participation in natural Substance.11
For there are twin passions of the mind (animus), which tear the restless intellect (mens) away from
here [i.e. the highest level] into various directions; these are the hunger for honor and the joy of the
flesh. With a lethal bow each of these passions shoots three arrows into the Soul (Anima) and,
unexpectedly, kills the wounded soul with three poison-soaked arrowheads.
[304]
For certain, when Man out of hunger for honor desires to be elevated above himself and to be
superior to the average and his equals, baleful winds will throw him against three enormous cliffs:
Pride, Wrath, and Envy, which are known as the three spiritual ruins of the mind. Through the carnal
and bodily temptations, however, Man becomes triply inferior to Man and, fallen from the human
heights, he unhappily sinks down into a threefold abyss: (sexual) Lust,12 Gluttony, and Sloth, which
are known as the bodily stains of Man. Departing from the former [i.e. the hunger for honor] Man
nefariously tries to leap over Man with three wings, demanding divine honors, while he will never be
worthy of [even] human honors. Departing from the latter [i.e. carnal desire], however, temptation
will—in like manner—tear the triply burdened Man down below Man; and he will be by far inferior
to the very Man.
4
However, commonly a seventh ruin of Man is

added, the love of possessions, which is known as
Avarice. She cannot be defined as coming either
totally from the spiritual or totally from the bodily
side; rather she participates in both extremes and
bends in both directions, since she originates from
both causes. For partly we devote riches to her,
similar to honors, and partly we desire these
riches, as if being deceived by a seducing spirit.
Consequently Man, deviating in both ways from
the mean, comes out as unhappy. And just as he
tried to become more than Man, he will live
inferior to Man; an insidious death will await him
in the darkness; and the ghost will escort the
shadow of this utterly mournful man.
However, he who keeps away from the extremes, who remains immovably in the center with equal
distance [from the extremes], and who has his seat in Man: this one is duly and truly Man; he is
considered erudite, righteous, a Sage, felicitous and happy. Consequently, there are six chief evils
which surround Man. Like the fiercest beasts they bring arms from remote places into position
against him and ambush his felicity. In their service, however, is the blemish of Avarice, which
operates with the same instruments: like an impious maiden, the blind folly for possession cultivates,
feeds, and nourishes all of them. For she gives these riches, by means of which we either consider
ourselves worthy of honors—proudly we are elevated, I say, raging against the dishonorable ones
and envying our equals—or we stupidly pursue the pathetic flatteries of the flesh and loose
pleasures.13
[305]
Certainly, Sexual Lust and immoderate love for detestable lust put man in a state not unlike that
of wild beasts and drive him unhappily from the human seat toward the rank of the brute animals,
since nothing characterizes the brute animals more than spreading their semen to propagate their
species. Gluttony, the unrestrained desire for bodily alimentation, throws him down from his first
and proper rank to the third rank and makes him similar to plants, which are found deprived of all
sensation and pleasure but nevertheless execute the office of alimentation. Furthermore, extreme
Sloth throws man down to the very lowest rank and makes him similar to minerals.
Like minerals, which are placed in the last rank, [such men] have nothing else but Being (Esse) itself.
To those, it is not permitted to exercise any natural operation or to stir from the spot. Whomsoever
this dreadful monster of Sloth possesses in this manner, firmly passes away into a permanent sleep.
They are deprived of any act and operation, they persevere unmoved like stones; mother Nature,
nevertheless, granted them a simple Being, without any famous capability or any capacity for
laudable operations. Certainly, those persevere more ungratefully toward the services of Nature and
make no use of any of their natural capacities. Deeply within Reason itself they are irrational, in
Perception insensible, and in Life inanimate, moribund, and infertile. Finally, in Substance itself they
are idle, disengaged, and inert. This we may better understand from the figure below, in one part of
which are sketched the fourfold orders of things; the orders of the subsisting things, the living things,
the sensible things, and the rational things. In the other part, however, one may discern the human
species, proportionally differentiated into four ranks. For he who resides in the first place is the true
and erudite Man, equal to the natural Man, and in both ways—that is in virtue just as much as in
nature—Man. Yet, those men who are placed in the lower ranks are by nature and substance Men
and, at the same time, non-Men because of their missing Virtue. However those who were thrown
headlong down from the summit of human dignity by carnal desires act and behave like, similar, and
equal to those beasts, the middle plants, and, ultimately, the immobile stones.
5
[306]
[Table: Upper section (from left to right): mineral, vegetative, sensible, rational, Virtue, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth.
Middle section (from left to right): rock, tree, horse, man, erudite, sensible, living, mineral. Performances
(functiones): understands (intelligit), perceives (sentit), lives (vivit), is (est).]
Chapter 2: On the four ranks of men according to the mundane elements

[307]
Furthermore, imagine that Man would have his natural seat in a fire, which somewhere borders
the lunar sphere and continuously shines on its concave surface.14 Here dwells the true, righteous,
and erudite Man, who—by either natural or acquired Virtue—maintains himself in the fiery orbit and
never falls from it. Yet he, on whom gnaws the impure worm of lust, is cast down from this chaste
and sincere mansion of fire into the neighboring element of air and is detestably polluted. He,
however, whom the tyrant of Gluttony cruelly tears to pieces, falls from Man down to the second
rank and is immersed and drowned in water. And he, whom Sloth, the ferment and nourishment of
all vices, forces to abstain from all human operation in a grave made of soft feathers: this miserable
man15 is cast from the highest fire into the nourishment and ferment of all preceding elements, i.e. to
the lowest earth; and, not unjustly, he ends up similar to the unmoving minerals and the immobile
earth.
For what is single and simple is like the earth. What lives is like water. What perceives is like air.
What understands is like fire. Certainly, the things that are single are like minerals: by their nature
they are immobile, shapeless, uncomposed, without differentiation, always [lying] on earth—as in
the womb of the common mother of everything—concealed, hidden, buried.
6
Those who live participate in the living motion of the waters and are the first to move themselves;
they are nurtured, increased, and propagated. In one of their parts they extend and reach out on
high; in their other part, however, they are by no means torn away from earth, from the breasts of
the mother, so to speak.
The beasts, then, and the beings that perceive, have a free and peculiar capacity to transfer
themselves from one place to another. By means of that capacity they avoid what is inimical to them
and eagerly search for what is useful, convenient, and necessary, with respect to dwelling place as
well as to food. No matter if it is by creeping, swimming, striding, or flying that they move away from
earth—almost as if thrust out and separate from the mother—they are found to be endowed with a
free and even spontaneous motion (libero insuper et spontaneo motu predita). Nonetheless, the
heads of all of them are bent, lowered, and turned toward the earth.
Only to Men did Nature grant and concede an erect and sublime stature and the ability to look at the
heavenly things.16
Thus it occurs that the beings of the first rank are without a head and obviously homogeneous, not
only because of the [missing] head, but also because they lack differentiation in their other parts and
are without the adornment of members; because with their whole body, as they say,17 they are
buried in the entrails of the earth. [308] The other beings, however, are known to be endowed with
heads, differentiation in their parts, impulse, and motion. The head of the living beings [i.e. the
plants], nevertheless, is hidden in the earth and not removed and separated from the breasts of the
mother; as a root they use it to reach their food and to graze on the milky juice of mother earth.18
The head of the irrational animals, then, even though it is removed and disjoined from the earth to
enable them to move freely, is nevertheless turned toward the earth; and it is hardly made to allow
them to gaze at the celestial and ethereal spheres. The head of Man, however, by nature holds the
highest position of the body and is turned toward the sky. It is made to look up and gaze at the
utmost points of the world, to the sidereal and celestial bodies.
[Mnemonic summary]
The four ranks of the things are similar to the four elements.
Being is like earth, Living like water, Perceiving like air, Understanding like fire.
The Minerals are homogeneous and have no differentiation in their parts.
The other three ranks are heterogeneous and are differentiated by their parts.
The heads display a threefold differentiation: downwards, sidewards, upwards.
For if the head is perfect, it is threefold as well.
The head of the plants [is turned] downwards, the head of the animals sidewards, the head
of Men upwards.
Thus, evidently, Man is somehow an inverse and upside-down plant.
Chapter 3:
The heads of the natural things prove to have a threefold differentiation
The heads of the natural things, then, show a threefold differentiation: the head of the plants, as it
were, at the bottom and hidden in the earth; the head of the animals in the middle and turned
toward the side; the head of Men at the top and turned upwards, toward the summit of their body
and their world. And not without reason this proverbial wisdom is always on almost everyone’s
mouth: Man is an upside-down and inverted plant. For all animals have either a head or something
instead of a head, which begs for supply of nourishment from the extremities; in the plants, as it
were, this is the root, and in all other animals it is called the head.
Plants, namely, are very similar to imperfect men, such as the infants that, needing constant feeding,
are forced to permanently hang at the milk-filled breasts of the mother with an open mouth and to
swallow the amount flowing from thence. In the same way the plants are the first-born of the earth,
7
and the first children of the sensible world. They are never torn away from the breasts of their
mother, i.e. the earth. They receive with their mouth, i.e. the root, her permanently flowing milk [309]
and, just like infants, they renew the flow of their substance (substantiae fluxus) by this
uninterrupted intake of nourishment.
The brute animals, however, are very similar to the little boys, who, after the first two years, are torn
away from the breasts of the mother and no longer carried by the mother; but they have not yet
reached the strength of the body, by which they could be erected on their feet and stand upright.
Therefore, when they move themselves over the earth, they must use hands and feet to stabilize
themselves, are curved and bent toward the earth, and must walk like animals.
The rational beings, however,
compare to the perfect Man
(Homo) and perfect male (vir). By
all means, the natural Man
(naturalis Homo), when he
approaches the age of manhood,
no longer needs to suck from the
breasts of the mother nor to walk
on the ground with hands and feet
like the beasts; rather he enjoys
solid food and holds himself
upright, he stands by himself and
walks about.
Thus it occurs that the whole
human species, for two reasons, is
to be differentiated into four ranks
and to be decently compared to
the four ranks of sensible things.
By all means, since Man is brought
to completion by body and age
and brought to perfection by mind
and virtue, it is in both of these
respects that the four ranks of
men occur: progressing through
the ranks by means of age and
wisdom, Man ascends and is
elevated and lifted on high from
the lowest and meanest place [310]
to the supreme rank of his
perfection.
With regard to human perfection, to wit, we count these ranks of age: the infant in the womb, the
infant at the breasts, the crawling boy, and the man able to walk by himself and carry himself. For in
the time before his birth the infant is concealed in the mother’s womb and remains immobile and
without any activity, not different from the minerals that are concealed and hidden in the entrails of
the earth. Yet the infant that drinks milk and sucks from the breasts of his mother: him we taught to
be similar to the plants. The child before it reaches virile strength that crawls over the earth: him we
proved to be like the beasts. However, he who reached virile strength and accomplished standing
and walking by himself, him we showed to correspond to natural Man. For these are the four ranks
of human perfection with respect to body and age, through which Man gradually ascends,
progresses, and grows from the rank of the minerals to the rank of the men.
8
Yet there are as many ranks among the completed Men, with respect to the mind and the acquisition
of virtues, as we have enumerated and covered earlier [in chapter 1]. For among these men, that by
body and substance are perfected and completed and that have reached the age of manhood, there
are some who are also perfected and completed in virtue who we call erudite and Sages (studiosi et
Sapientes); and there are others who are incomplete in virtue who we call fools (insipientes). Those,
you see, are considered inferior to the human summit because of a defect in Virtue or, as we said
above, are found to be not unlike minerals, plants, or beasts because of their way of living. Because
of Sloth they become similar to the minerals; because of unrestrained appetite for nourishment they
compare to the plants; because of their detestable lust they imitate the beasts; finally, only through
Virtue in both forms, body and mind, are they declared to be Men.
Chapter 4: Man is called Man in three respects

It is clear from what we said, that in three respects and for three reasons man (homo) may be called
Man (Homo). In one respect, certainly, man is simply Man: because he is composed of a human body
and a rational Soul. Therefore every man is Man, the Fool just as much as the Sage, the little infant
just as much as the one who has reached virile strength. This is the measure of Man by nature
(Hominis modus a natura), by means of which one may prove that among the sensible substances
the human species has achieved the fourth rank. [311] In another respect we call Man he who received
the perfect growth of his body and, nevertheless, evades activity. Therefore, the infant and boy are
hardly called Men. Finally, in a third respect, he is Man who is mature in his mind and perfect in
virtue. In this sense neither the infant nor the fool are Men, but only the erudite and wise. The
erudite (studiosus), certainly, is Man in every respect and Man in a threefold way. He is Man by
Nature, I say, Man by age and Man by virtue. He, however, who is not erudite, can only be Man in a
twofold way, namely by age and by nature. Yet he, who is not [yet] Man because of age, like an
infant, may be called Man only in one way, namely by nature and not by age and virtue.
Infant nature Man

Fool age nature Man
Erudite virtue age nature Man
However, in whatever way we look at men—according to nature, according to age, or according to

virtue—Man is perfected by [progressing through] four ranks. Obviously, natural Man, such as the
infant, must be differentiated from the minerals in the fourth rank. For the mineral things are
Nature’s firstborn, the living things second, the brute animals third, and natural Man last: Because in
the beginning Nature gave birth to those things that are, then to those that live; in the third place she
brought forth those that perceive, and in the fourth and last place those that participate in Reason.
Imagine, then, that Nature, the mother of all, would have born four daughters from her womb: first
Substance, then Life, thirdly Perception, and fourthly Reason, the most precious and wisest of all
daughters, like and equal to mother Nature. All other daughters are subjected to her [i.e. Reason’s]
government, as if they were imperfect and not in control of themselves. Therefore it is shown that,
toward the birth of Man and natural Reason, mother Nature has passed through four ranks. Yet in
the human age there are [again] comparable ranks to go through: the infant in the womb, the infant
at the breasts, the crawling boy, and the man propping himself up. Yet in man we find the following
distinction that must be completed by Virtue: Sloth, Gluttony, Lust, and Virtue. Consequently, the
human Substance gradually ascends, progresses, and is lifted up from these vices to which Man is
naturally prone, up to Virtue herself. And these things are illuminated through this table: [312]
9
Mineral beings Living beings Perceiving beings Rational beings

Stone Tree Beast Natural Man (Homo)
Being Living Perceiving Understanding
Infant in the womb Nursling Forward moving Standing
First age Second age Third age Fourth age
Fetus Infant Boy [Adult] Man (vir)
Sloth Gluttony Lust Virtue
Averse Desiring Loving Erudite
Earth Water Air Fire
Script Voice Concept Intellect
From above and from a consideration of intellectual Virtue (which is perfected in Man after moral
Virtue) occur again four ranks in the completion of Man by intellectual Virtue. Therefore moral Virtue
is improper and external to the mind (animus). For it is she who seals the truce between the mind
and the body and who forces the body to serve the mind; and she clears the mind by driving away
clouds and winds, providing it with serenity and tranquility. Intellectual Virtue, however, is the
irradiation of the mind; but it is forbidden to her to enter and brighten the mind without moral
Virtue, just as it is forbidden to the sunray to shine with golden splendor in foggy air. So it is
ultimately intellectual Virtue who illuminates the mind after it was rendered cloudless and quiet by
moral Virtue. Since she is the proper and internal good of the mind, she also has four ranks, by
means of which she matures and reaches her climax. Because—as we taught earlier in the Book on
Perception19—a man who has the rank of a pupil and is being educated by another man first begins
by writing. From script he is elevated to voice, from voice he elicits a concept; from this notion, which
is closest and most intimate to the image of his intellect (mentis imago), he is finally lifted up to the
sublime Being of the intellect (in sublime mentis Esse). This, consequently, is the true, mightiest, and
intellectual completion of Man: from script to voice, from voice to notion, and, finally, from notion to
intellection.
Chapter 5: Only Reason is an adult and perfect daughter of Nature

[313]
First we must show that the sensible and material Nature has only four daughters: Substance,
Life, Perception, and Reason, who—as the Book on Generation holds20—share among themselves all
matter and contain its total mass, just as the four elements contain, occupy, and possess the whole
concave ambit of the sublunar sphere. The actualities of matter are also divided according to the rule
and yardstick of the four elements, you see, if the same space comprises the sublunar vault and
matter itself, and if the same one capacity holds both.21 For even if we concede that God brought
forth five substantial actualities: substantive, vital, sensible, rational, and intellectual (i.e. angelic), we
nonetheless do not agree that this supreme actuality is material, i.e. that it came into being to subsist
in matter.22 If it came into being to subsist by itself (per se), and if it is prior to matter itself and prior
to all actualities of matter, then it may in no way be regarded as material.23 That is why we insist that
the fifth and supreme body of the world, i.e. heaven (which is called the fifth essence of the world), is
immaterial and has nothing in common with matter.24 The same applies to the angelic actuality,
which is counted as the fifth (departing from the substantive and lowest order of the actualities) and,
nevertheless, is the first with respect to age and origin: it receives nothing in common with matter
and it is not bound to it by any alliance. It exists disconnected and by itself outside matter; and it
neither carries out any activity in itself, nor does it receive natural Being in itself. Evidently every
actuality, which brings forth anything in matter, or works something in it, must inhere in matter,
10
which obviously exists to receive and undergo nothing from the separate and disconnected actuality.
Rather it is only affected by that actuality that it encompasses within itself and which dwells within
its circumference of the sublunar globe.
Consequently, the angelic actuality is not a fetus or child of sensible Nature; rather it refers to the
superior and intellectual Nature. For we learn to equate the sensible Nature of matter with the
sublunar sphere and hear that sensible Nature gave birth to only four daughters (i.e. gave four forms
to matter): Essence,25 Life, Perception, and Reason. We hold that three of them are imperfect:
Substance, Life, and Perception. Yet the fourth, Reason, is the only one we preach to be perfect,
unmitigated, complete, and equal to mother Nature.
[314]
Surely, Essence is very similar to the orb of the earth;26 the mass of the earth is the beginning of
the plenitude of the sensible world, but it does not exhaust its plenitude. Likewise Substance or
substantive actuality is the beginning of material plenitude, but it does not exhaust the plenitude of
matter. Life corresponds to the orb of water. The mass of water is added to the mass of the earth; it
makes the orb of the earth more complex and increases its plenitude, but it does not exhaust it. In
the same way, the vital actuality, added to essential [= substantive] actuality, makes it more complex
and fills up matter more than essential actuality alone, but it hardly completes it. Perception, then,
compares to the orb of air, which is added to the orbs of water and earth; it fills up the space of the
sensible world more completely than the masses of the inferior orbs, but not totally. Likewise the
sensible actuality is accompanying the vital and essential actualities; it can make matter fuller, but
not absolutely full. What remains, Reason, is very similar to the orb of fire.27 By involving and
internalizing the masses of air, water, and earth, you see, she fully completes the mass of the
sublunar sphere and kisses the flanks of heaven. The same goes for the remaining actualities: being
added on top of the essential, vital, and sensible actualities, Reason fills up the complete gap in
matter, brings about whatever was missing, and invests matter with a perfect, most powerful and
splendid adornment.
Understand, furthermore, that heaven is the father, the beginning (principium), nature, the source
(fons) and origin of the elements, and that, in the beginning, heaven gave birth to earth in a place
most remote from himself and in the center of the world; then he gave birth to water, then air, and
lastly fire (even though we taught in the Book of Generation28 that the elements were born at the
same time and that no emanation (fluxus) would be implied in the elementation29 of matter).30 For
this reason fire insists that it is the most excellent of the elements, that it is the only one to return to
its origin31 and to take hold of its beginning, and that it is the only one to come forth near and next to
the father, and constantly offers him kisses.32 Now understand in the same way that mother Nature
is the parent of four daughters: First she gave birth to Essence in a place most remote from herself,
and behind all others, as if she were the smallest and humblest of them all; then, in the proper place,
she brought forth Life, who is taller than Essence by one head. In the third place, and again in the
proper rank, the more mature Perception was born from her, who surpassed Life by one head in
length. In the fourth, neighboring, and closest place, finally, Nature brought forth Reason, who is
taller and more mature than even Perception, and equal to her mother. Thus it is clear that among
the daughters of Nature only Reason is perfect. As you see, only she is connected to mother Nature,
is on par with and equal to her, and is able to kiss her.33 Moreover, she is the only one who is with
the mother and born to understand and comprehend Nature. The other three daughters, however,
are imperfect and incomplete, [315] since they are unequal to mother Nature and, being positioned at
a distance, are kept away [from her]; therefore they can neither comprehend her, nor touch her, nor
kiss her.
11
[Table: A marginal note entitles the image illatio, an act of bringing or offering. The black ambit at the bottom is
“Matter.” The four daughters of Nature from left to right: Essence bringing a stone, Life bringing a plant,
Perception bringing an animal, and Reason bringing Man.]
Thus, mother Nature ordained that Reason—as the adult, most perfect, and only daughter on par
with her—should rule over the other daughters; and she trusted her with the governance
(moderamen) of all the sensible world and everything that is in it. She installed her, who by origin
and order is the youngest and lastborn, as the oldest and firstborn, by giving her more ample love
than she gives to the others. She also appointed her as her heir, so she may learn by imitating her
mother to preside over the others more wisely and to rule, steer, and govern all of them by
borrowing from her the light of Wisdom.
[Mnemonic summary]
Sensible Nature is perfect and absolute in a fivefold way.
For everything that exists under heaven consists of matter and four actualities.
Matter, single and uniform, underlies all actualities.34
Her actualities are Essence, Life, Perception, and Reason.
These four actualities of Nature we call her daughters.
Reason as the mightiest of all presides over the minor ones.
Essence carries a stone, Life a plant, Perception an animal, and Reason Man. [316]
By procreating these daughters Nature progresses from the imperfect to the perfect.
For the firstborn is Essence, yet the lastborn Reason.
Because of the interposition of Reason the three inferior ones are kept from the
contemplation of Nature.
Only Reason is born to contemplate the entire Nature.
From the things that have been said so far it is clear that all imperfect and minor daughters are like
the maidens of the more mature and adult Reason; and because of her [i.e. Reason’s] interposition
they are born to be kept away from the contemplation, presence, sight, and vicinity of mother
Nature and, furthermore, born to learn from Reason. Yet it is also clear that Reason is the only one
who enjoys the vicinity and perennial sight of the mother, and who is born to stand by her, to
contemplate her, and to fully enjoy her graceful speech.35 As a consequence, Reason may be duly
defined by us as the adult and consummate daughter of Nature and, as it were, a second Nature. She
is the contemplator of first nature and, in order to imitate first Nature, she forms everything in
herself and governs all wisely, completing the forces of her mother. Reason we also define to be the
force that leads mother Nature back into herself (in seipsam redit);36 through her the whole circle of
Nature is consummated and through her Nature is restored to herself.37 In some way the producing
and creating Nature carries everything [as potentiality] in herself from the beginning,38 until she
12
brings forth the things that are most remote from her, such as Essence, Life, and Perception; yet
lastly she gives birth to that which is found to be close to her, to reside in her vicinity, and to be born
to kiss the mother: we teach that this is Reason alone.
Chapter 6: Only the Sage is truly Man

Even though the same substance, nature, origin, and species is in all men, even though all men have
raised heads, and even though participation in Substance, Life, Perception, and Reason is lacking in
no men, nonetheless, only the Sage is truly Man. He alone raised the Soul from the bottom to the
supreme summit of Reason; he alone foresightedly achieves gains in his nature and Substance. For,
on the one hand, he is Man through the office of Nature and through the participation in Substance;
and, on the other hand, he is Man through the success of Virtue as well as through the sacred
performance (sacra functio) and honesty of life.
The others, however, who remain in a low rank below the summit of Reason and splendid Virtue
because of idle leisure, are incomplete and foolish men and live according to their natural function,
i.e. the substantial Man; they are undignified because of this [merely substantial] conduct and
irrational because of their performance and norm of living. And, as if they were devoid of natural
Reason, they act according to sensible or vital desire; for they are Men by nature and substance, yet,
because they have fallen from virtue, they are confused in their mind, [317] not in control of
themselves, shortsighted, disordered, and inhuman. We teach, in fact, that there are three ranks of
them that are kept from developing into a true, erudite, and perfect Man, as they remain idly in their
vices. Some of them are like minerals, as they turn into stone, as if they had died from sleep and an
enticing body. Others imitate plants, as those who devote themselves to ingestion; others again may
duly be compared to wild beasts, which cherish nothing more than earthly love.
The perfect thing (res perfecta) is necessarily composed of matter and form; for it receives from
matter a first, obscure, unstructured, and occult Being (Esse), yet from form it obtains a second,
clear, ordered, and lucid Being. In fact, the perfect thing is that which appears; and that which is
apparent, is. For it not only is and not only appears, but is composed of both, Essence and
appearance. Whatever it seems to be on the outside, it also has on the inside; and whatever more it
has inside, that too it directs toward the outside and shows openly with most lucid signs.
Conceive then the traits of the Sage and the consummate man in this way from the total, complete,
and perfect thing; and conceive this something (hoc aliquid)39 from the perfect and total being,
which, in fact, is a being (ens) in a double way: being in potentiality and being in actuality, being in
the beginning and being in the end, being in matter and being in form, being in the hidden and being
in the open; being in commencement and being in perfection.40 The Sage, you see, is a complete,
total, and perfect Man. He is Man from Nature, I say, and Man from intellect, he is Man in matter
and Man in form, he is Man in potentiality and Man in actuality, he is Man from the beginning and
also Man from the end (ex fine), he is the existing Man and the appearing Man, and, finally, he is Man
in commencement and Man in perfection.41
Nature representing matter, in fact, endowed the Sage with the first function of Substance; yet Will
(Voluntas), art, and diligence, representing form, give him Virtue, knowledge, light, splendor, apparel,
and appearance. Nature gave the Sage simple Being; yet he himself created for himself structured
being (compositum esse), i.e. good and happy being (bene beateque esse). Reason presented him
with the special force of Reason; yet he himself submits to the government of Reason in every
respect and strives to be rational in the conduct of Life. For he took Reason as a guide and does
nothing that deviates from her.42 He is illuminated by her lightning and adjusts the mind, all acts and
motions to her proper number.
The imperfect thing is either matter, simple, unformed, and unstructured, or form, devoid of a
subject, empty, lazy, unstable, and unsettled. The former, however, is appearance without
13
Substance, the latter is Substance without appearance. Consequently, from these imperfect beings,
which are [only] parts of the true and whole beings, you shall learn to perceive the signs and traits of
the imperfect and foolish man. [318] Just as Nature does not sustain simple potentiality without
actuality, nor actuality dissociated from potentiality—for both are inert without the other— in the
same way (and not differently) it occurs that Man who lives against the order (series) of Nature is a
Fool on earth, who always remains Man [only] partially and never progresses toward the complete
and total Man. In fact, the Fool is an unstructured man, who takes his beginning from Nature, but
with respect to art and virtue is incomplete, unfinished, and imperfect. The substantial and natural
Man is immortal and is blessed with a rational Soul (Anima), which is nevertheless deprived of light.
He has no share in the splendor of the mind, by which [Man] himself seeks to know his duties
(munera), by which he partakes in reason and happily understands that he is the immortal image of
God.
Chapter 7: The Sage and the Fool are similar by nature and differ only in virtue
There is no difference between the Sage and the Fool with respect to nature and Substance, since
both are Man by participation in body and Soul.43 The mind (animus) of the Fool, however, is empty
and desolate; the mind (mens)44 of the Sage, enriched with virtue, perfection, self-knowledge, and
overabundant spiritual light, emerges as being in control of itself. Both Men have the same God as
their beginning and only one God as their end. Only one of them, however, is similar to God in Virtue
and Wisdom, takes recourse to his origin and pursues his natural end. Yet the other is impaired by
the privation of Virtue, the admixture of dissimilitude, and the grafting of unfavorable dispositions
(habitus); he neither takes recourse to his origin, nor fully pursues his natural end and is unhappily
kept from it.
His number (numerus) lies open to the Sage;45 he comprehends all his parts: body and Soul. In
himself he observes the congruent order (ordo) of Nature, so that one part rules and the other part
serves the former. He measures all forces of the mind and all natural powers and capacities
according to themselves; and he prefers one over all others and venerates that one more than others
which opens to him a way toward immortality and bliss. Finally, he lives on earth like a second God
(Deus alter), as the true, most excellent, and substantial image of the eternal, first, and natural God
(eternus, primus, naturalisque Deus), from whom he borrowed Substance as well as Virtue.
You shall say the contrary about the Fool. Because of his ignorance he has no hope for immortality,
as it is rightly expressed in these words of Solomon: “Insignificant and detestable is the time of my
life. Scorching smoke is in my nostrils and my spirit is blown away like thin air. Thereafter I will be as
if I had never been. Then nobody will remember my deeds. So I shall enjoy the good things in my
youth, I shall feast and drink, because tomorrow I will be [319] dead.”46 Because of this infelicitous
desperation the Fool, who is addicted to the earthly and passing seductions, accelerates a sad death
as long as he tries to ban the grim death and avenging punishment from his memory; he rather
increases punishments, “walking headfirst into the trap he has set himself,” as the sacred proverbs
have it.47
The Sage is a finished Man (finitus Homo), i.e. he is ordered and perfected by the end [that he
pursues]. The fool, however, is unfinished, incomplete, and imperfect. For the latter openly proves of
being a beginning without an end, a power without an object, a force without function. Yet the
former prooves to be a beginning connected to an end, a power hardly detached from its object, and
a force contained in actuality, use, and function. The latter, again, is like an eye in darkness or
detached from a visible thing. Yet the former is compared to the sharpness of eyes which are imbued
with light and exposed to the sun itself, the source of all visible things.48
Therefore this sacred proverb is rightly applied to the Fool: “He has open eyes, but does not see. He
has open ears, but does not hear. He has a heart and does not understand;”49 he does not meditate
on anything salutary. The Sage, however, is the seeing eye, the hearing ear, the teachable heart,
14
which understands, grasps, and meditates on the things which ultimately aid his ascension to
immortality. Moreover, in this way the Sage is something and something (aliquid et aliquid), Man and
Man (Homo et Homo); likewise the Fool is something and nothing, Man and not Man. Although both
are something by Nature and Substance, i.e. natural and substantial Man, only the Sage, through the
benefits of his erudite labors, doubles his natural Man by the Man of virtue and emerges as a Man by
nature as well as by will (et natura et voluntate Homo). Yet the withering Fool does not struggle to
enlighten the natural Man by Virtue and does not care to imbue his primal Substance with the
splendor of literature.
For this reason these sacred words can be rightly ascribed to the Sage and the Fool: “For whosoever
hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him
shall be taken away even that he hath.”50 Indeed, the Sage received from Nature the substantial
function of Man from the fecundity of which he gave birth to the erudite Man (studiosus Homo). Yet
the Fool also borrowed the same substantial Man from Nature, but does not shine in splendor
through the revenue of Virtue. The latter Man is rightly described as having and not having (habere
et non habere), the former as having and having. In fact, in the Fool there is only a simple disposition
(habitus), which is called the natural Man or a talent borrowed from Nature,51 beyond which he has
gained nothing. In the Sage, however, there is a double disposition: the talent from Nature, I say, and
the gain that he is shown to rightly possess. To the one who is simply having— [320] i.e. he who has
both, the natural and erudite Man—God gives the prize of immortality and he becomes Man in both
ways: that which he is and which he borrows from Nature, and that which he ultimately brings forth
from substantial Man, his true, his own, and his peculiar possession. Yet from him who did not obtain
the erudite and perfect Man from himself, will also be taken away that which he has from God. For
the sacred scriptures announce that this natural Man will be “cast into the outer darkness.”52
Chapter 8: The progress and profit of the Sage

The Sage is a supervisor of the earthly Man (tellureus Homo) that he possesses by Nature; he
sublimates him by [his] forces. In this way he brings forth the heavenly Man (celestis Homo); he
solicits and elicits him from darkness to splendor, from potentiality to actuality, from beginning to
end, from innate force to action, from Nature to Intellect, from emergence to perfection, from
partiality to totality, and, finally, from seed to fruit. In this respect, in fact, he partially imitates the
famous Prometheus, who, as the fables of the poets recount, was once—either by divine permission
or by the strength of his mind and prowess—admitted to the ethereal mansions after he had
contemplated all the palatines of heaven by attentive speculation of the mind and found nothing
more sacred, precious, and lively in them than fire. This fire, then, which the gods ardently denied
the humans, he stole and promptly introduced into the realm of the humans; there he animated the
clay and earthen Man, which he had previously crafted.53 In the same way the Sage leaves behind the
sensible world by the force of Contemplation and penetrates the kingdom of heaven, where he
grasps the most lucid fire of Wisdom and transports it in the bosom of his mind to the inferior
realms; and by this sincere and most vivid flame the same person’s earthly Man becomes vivified,
enflamed, and animate.
The Sage compensates the functions of Nature by means of the erudite Man; moreover, he acquires
himself, possesses himself, and remains his own (suus). The Fool, however, receives in vain from
Nature the earthly, carnal, and substantial Man, in which he produces nothing worthy of immortality;
he does not make an effort to reach beatitude, he persists in being ungrateful toward mother Nature
and permanently remains as a debtor to Nature, a debtor to the substantial Man, and is never his
own.
The Sage makes a distinction in his mind and, as has been said,54 consists of two Humans: one by
Nature and sensible, the other by Virtue and intellectual. He is never absent from himself, he does in
no way desert himself, can only encounter himself, he permanently is a mirror for himself; he
15
comprises himself and, in a circular move, returns to himself. By means of the erudite Man he
remains unchangeable and can’t be moved from himself. [321] Finally, he dwells in the same way in
the sensible world and in the intelligible world. For with his body he lives on earth with the brute
animals; but with his mind he pierces the heavens and wanders all through the celestial halls. He
meditates solely on intellectual things, and he knows how to always hold on to the immortal things in
the same way:
For if the spirit, as the poet Bigus sings,55 is born for the solace of the ethereal court,
He will never be quiet in an earthly seat.
His work is directed upwards, so the Sage may fly through heaven,
And desires to enjoy himself full-throatedly.
The Sage, indeed, requires the sensible things only for temporal administration, as long as he is
dressed with the cloth of the body. For the mind is nourished and revived only by those things which
are completely free of body and matter and which enter the mind from supramundane rooms,
everywhere driven by a sacred breeze.
The fool, however, is never one, never the same, never firm and stable; he is a lover of variety,
division, and change. After refuting the prescient and seeing Virtue, he hires the improvident and
blind Fortune as a guide; then he worships her, by placing her in the highest heaven like a goddess.56
Because of her unstable orb, he moved first in one direction, then in another; he is driven toward the
rough paths, declivities, and slopes of the vices and loses control over himself. Enticed by every
object, his attention is gained by everything that newly occurs. He has no power to contain himself
within himself or to return to himself the outside.
Yet it is characteristic of the Sage to strive for, to concentrate on, and to be mentally elevated
towards inseparable unity with himself and with God, the supreme artificer. With great force he
restrains the tantalizing stings of the carnal desires; outside of himself no necessity may tempt him or
make him lose the control over his mind. He learned to kick Fortune and in no respect to fear her.57
He becomes conscious of the inner light of the true and immortal goods; he is strengthened by the
happiest and unshakable hope for them; and he feels permanent joy. He cannot be lonely or
desolate, since with himself he is many (secum sit plurimus). In the midst of the savage and swirling
vortex of earthly passions he keeps his balance on the splendid gravel of virtue and keeps an optimal,
quiet, and undisturbed state of mind.
The Sage is a Man who is truly celebrated as a small world (minor mundus), as the son of the great
world (maior mundus), i.e. the Universe. Indeed, only the Sage [322] composed, structured, and
perfected himself by imitation of the great world. He alone is able to imitate Nature and he alone
keeps all his parts in consonance and proportion with the parts of the Universe. In fact, the Sage
must rightly be called not only a small world, but also another great world; for if the mind of the Sage
is as large as the capacity of the whole world, as the Book on the Intellect says,58 his Memory is
adorned and filled with as many notions of things as there are substances we perceive to be in the
world. The mind of the Fool, however, remains empty, vain, lazy, and ineffective and, thus, never
ever becomes manifest in the great world, never becomes at par and equal with the great world, and
never does it [the mind], which was born to become everything,59 become complete through the
knowledge of all the things.
16
Chapter 22: The pilgrimage of the human Soul

[Translator’s comment: In the preceding chapters de Bovelles established the principle that man—and the sage
in particular—is “the Soul of the cosmos” (Anima mundi) and, in turn, the cosmos is the body of man. While the
cosmos brings forth and presents all things, man observes and explores all things. Thus the human mind
functions like a mirror in which the cosmos recognizes itself. Consequently, if man knows himself, the cosmos
knows itself. This is now further explained.]
[348]
At first the Soul of the Sage—after it has spiritually progressed beyond the body through the
gates of the outer senses—departed for a pilgrimage into the world. Then she returns into the body
with atoms which she has abstracted and obtained from the forms (species) of all the things that she
has found in the world; and from the collected atoms of the forms she crafted a Man of virtue: i.e.
the true image, form, archetype, splendor, knowledge, and appearance of this first, natural, and
earthly [i.e. prelapsarian] Man, whose disposition is Wisdom as well as the transfer, translation, and
alteration of Man into all things and of all things into Man, by means of [all] the forms.60
Therefore it is clear that Wisdom is some kind of humanness (humanitas) and the image and true
form of our first, unimpaired, and natural Man, as well as of the Man of art (artis Homo), who was
born from the happy encounter of the first, natural Man with the world itself. For this second Man is
like a proper object of human Contemplation and like the exode, conclusion, and palinode of the
world61 that the wise Man (sapiens Homo) recites when he sounds the retreat from his pilgrimage on
earth. This Man also is like Minerva, procreated from the first Man; he is a holding-back and a calling-
back, a mansion and seat [of Man] within himself.62
Furthermore, it is obvious that Wisdom is some kind of number, distinction, fecundity and an
emanation of Man, consisting in a dyad of Man, brought forth from the primordial monad.63 For our
first, innate, and sensible Man, given to us as a loan by Nature herself, is a monad, the source and
beginning of all human fecundity. However, the Man of Art (i.e. the human form brought forth by
Art) is a dyad, some kind of emanation, Wisdom, fruit, and end of the first Man. After it was
reduplicated by the revenue and the most plentiful harvest of Art, the disposition of this Man, who
by nature was only Man (Homo), is now called Man-Man (Homo-Homo).64
Moreover, the power of human Wisdom does not only extend the number of Man to a dyad, but
even to a triad and, thereby, propagates humanity. For without [349] a mean (medium), there are no
extremes, without proximity, there is no distance, without concord there is no dissociation, and
without concurrence there is no contradiction. Now the monad and the dyad, that is Nature and Art,
are some kind of extremes; suchlike applies to the Man of nature and the Man of art, to the
substantial Man and his true image begotten by Virtue, and to the loan from Nature (or the natural
gift) and that which has been acquired by Man.
Consequently, there is some kind of complexion of extremes (extremorum symplegma), some kind of
concord and concurrence; some kind of life, peace, bond and mean emerging from both: a union,
fruit, and emanation.65 For the mutually joined monad and dyad elicit the triad and bring forth their
connection, union, and concord. Thus Wisdom is a certain threefold uptake (sumptio) of Man;66 it is
the trinity, humanity, and triad of Man. The trinity, in fact, is an emulation of complete perfection,
since perfection without trinity is nowhere to be found.
Chapter 23: Every cognition is a kind of trinity

Whoever ponders the marvelous power of cognition a bit more attentively will learn that, indeed, it
cannot be without number, distinction, and trinity. For in every cognition there is something
observing, something presenting (i.e. the object), and something making and driving the cognition.67
There is one thing that observes, another thing that is observed, and yet another thing that is the
actualization of both (utriusque actus) and an emanation from both; in the same way as in the Soul
17
one thing is the Intellect (Intellectus), another thing Memory, and another thing Contemplation,
which is the performance (functio) of both, of Intellect and Memory.
The Intellect is the first and obverses all things (spectativus omnium). Memory is [the object]
observed (spectabilis) and presents all things to the Intellect. Contemplation, however, is the very
inspection and presentation itself, by which Intellect and Memory are actualized (in actu).
Contemplation, in fact, is defined as the actualization of both, of observation and presentation—as
the actualization of Memory, on the one hand, and Intellect, on the other hand. Furthermore,
Intellect is like the monad and the Man of nature; Memory is like the dyad and the Man of virtue;
Contemplation, however, is the triad and the bond (vinculum) between both Men.68 As we teach in
the Book on the Intellect, the Intellect is indeed the unity of Memory;69 and its actualization is prior to
the actualization of Memory.70 Memory, in contrast, is the duality, number, and resumption of the
Intellect; and its actualization is posterior to the actualization of the Intellect. Contemplation,
however, is the trinity and the perfection of both.71
In fact, the intelligible form72 is at first in the Intellect, secondly in Memory, and thirdly in
Contemplation. The first and most simple uptake of the intelligible form is called its acquisition and
Intellection. The second [350] uptake is its conservation and Memory. The third uptake, however, is
called Contemplation and speculation. The first condition of the form is in the Intellect; its second
setting is in Memory; its third position, however, is in Contemplation. Furthermore, the Intellect is
first and by itself (per se): it produces, fills, and fecundates the Memory. Yet Contemplation and
speculation are brought forth, derive, and proceed from both in equal proportions.73/74 And in the
Soul the three are one (tria unum sunt);75 they are the one and undivided substance of the Soul
(Anima)—one and the same consubstantial76 trinity of the mind (animus).
For this reason there are three [types of] cognitions of Man—Reason, Imagination, and Perception
(Ratio, Imaginatio, Sensus)—and man comes forth as thrice threefold: He is threefold—I say—in the
Soul, threefold in the body, and threefold in the world. In the Soul he is threefold by Reason and
Contemplation, which is done by the Soul and in the Soul, by means of the rational and intellectual
form. In the body (or in his whole self) he is threefold by Imagination, which is performed by the Soul
in the body by the presentation and inspection of appearances. Finally, [he is threefold] in the world
by Perception, which is performed by the Soul in the world by means of the sensible form.
Every cognition, in fact, is like an emulation of perfection. Just like a transformation and
condensation of Being in itself (ut entis in se conversio et glomeratio),77 it takes on and claims the
number of trinity and is comprised in the two extremes and their middle: potentiality, object, and the
actualization of both (potentia, obiectum et amborum actus).
Man is thrice threefold In Reason In Imagination In Perception

Man is thrice threefold In the Soul In the body In the world
Trinity of the Soul Intellect Concept Memory
Trinity of the body Imagination78 Appearance Body
Trinity of the world Perception Sensible form World
Beginning Middle End
Observer Object Presenter
18
Chapter 24:
Nothing is characteristic and peculiar to Man except the community with all things
Nothing is peculiar or characteristic of Man; rather he shares in all things that are characteristic of
others. Whatever belongs to this one or that one, whatever belongs to one being or another being
and, thus, is characteristic only of these single beings: it also belongs to the one Man.
He indeed transfers all nature into himself, observes all things, and imitates the whole of Nature. By
absorbing and drinking everything that is in the nature of things he becomes all things. Because Man
is neither a particular being—this or that—nor is he himself of this or [351] that nature; but he is
everything at the same time: he is the confluence, the rational abyss (rationale chasma) and the
coming-together of all things. In fact, all these things of the whole find their limits in the reason and
name of the greater Man (maior homo).
Two Men, then, were created and brought forth by Nature: a greater one, which we call the world,
and a smaller one which, by a more special use of the name, is called Man. This greater one is
everything in actuality, while the smaller one is the whole in potentiality. By his activity, actuality,
operation and motion, then, he elicits actuality from potentiality and he lets light shine forth from
darkness; from the confusion of numbers he obtains order and distinction, until the smaller one has
taken in the whole greater one, and until—after all the innate darkness of ignorance has been
destroyed—there is nothing left which the smaller one does not know, nothing that he does not hold
in his mind, nothing that he is not. In this way indeed the smaller achieves perfection. Then whatever
was ugly in him will take shape, whatever was raw, cumbersome, and without form “will become
noble by taking on form,” as the blessed Dionysius says.79
Consider once again that Nature has born two Men: one is assembled in the center, in the middle of
the world, and subsists in actuality—this is indeed our Man; the other, however, is still to be
assembled, imperfect, subsisting in potentiality, at the periphery, in [various parts of] the world, in
matter and in the multitude of atoms, who singularly inheres in the individual substances. In fact,
something human is hidden in every earthly substance; in every substance was put an atom of Man,
belonging to Man. The erudite Man is composed and assembled from these [atoms]. Man is born by
claiming them for himself and abstracting them from matter by the force of his mind: man, who is
praised to be the potentiality of all things and whose particular something (cuius aliquid) is in
everything and in whom, in turn, something of everything existing is found.
The Man, then, who is assembled and perfected by Nature (our Man, I mean, who is placed in the
center of the world): he is destined by the command of his mother [Nature] to circumambulate the
world: he demands from the individual [substances] those [atoms] which are his, he abstracts from
every substance of the world the atoms of their particular form. This [atom] he claims for himself and
inserts in himself. And from the atoms of the many forms he elicits and produces his own form; this is
the fruit from our natural and first Man, the fruit which is also called the acquired and erudite Man.
This, consequently, is the completion of Man: when he is able to elicit the rational Man from the
substantial Man, the acquired Man from the natural Man, and the assembled, perfect, and erudite
Man from simple Man.80
Chapter 25: Comparison of the original human substance with human education
[352]
To this human spiritual trinity, which is reached in the education, completion, and perfection of
Man (I mean the trinity of the natural Man, the erudite Man, and the bond between the two), a
certain other trinity is related and corresponding, which comes about in the emergence of the whole
human substance, the first creation of mankind by God and its bringing forth into Being.
In the same way as the human mind is not educated at once and by a single actualization, but rather
over time and by three actualizations—first the actualization of Intelligence, by which the intelligible
form is brought forth and born in the mind; secondly the actualization of Memory, by which the
19
same form is retained, preserved and stored in Memory; thirdly the actualization of Contemplation,
by which the same form is observed by the Intellect and presented by Memory—in the same way
mankind or human substance does not have a sudden beginning and did not come into Being in a
single actualization, but over time and by three actualizations.
The divine Mind, in fact, first brought forth the actuality of mankind, i.e. the [male] man (vir). Then it
brought forth potentiality from actuality, that is the woman.81 In the third place it wanted to bring
forth and create from both extremes—actuality and potentiality, man and woman—the middle
condition, the completion and end of them: I mean the son of both. Through him the human form
has accomplished naturally becoming a complete, total, perfect and threefold Being (Esse).
The first man (vir) Adam, in fact, was created by God; thereafter the woman was created and
brought forth from the man, being the potentiality of man (vir) and mankind; in the third place, the
son came forth from both, man and woman. Consequently Adam is like some kind of Intellect; Eve is
like Memory; and Abel is like Contemplation and the actuality of both. Then again Adam is our
natural Man (Homo); Eve is like the acquired and erudite Man and like the form and image of the
natural Man; Abel, however, is like the bond between Nature and Virtue and like the connection
between both, natural and erudite Man.
Adam is man by himself (per se) and not procreated from any man, Eve is man from man (homo ex
homine), and Abel is Man from Men (homo ex hominibus).82 Then again Adam is a monad, Eve a
dyad, and Abel a triad. Adam is only Man, Eve Man-Man, and Abel Man-Man-Man (Homo-Homo-
Homo).
From Adam to Eve: this is a motion of one toward one. However, from Adam and Eve together to
Abel: this is a motion of two toward one and a setting of two into one and the same. Finally, Adam,
Eve, and Abel are equals among themselves, [only] one Man according to form and Men of a very
similar substance, which in some way is one and three at the same time; in the same way the first
human mind is called one and three: one undivided substance, but threefold as Intellect, Memory,
and as the acquired form of both. Memory is equal to Intellect; and the form of both—which
becomes Contemplation, presenting from one [i.e. Memory] and observing from the other [i.e.
Intellect]—is spiritually equal and very similar to both.83
Trinity of the mind Intellect Memory Form

Trinity of Man Adam Eve Abel
Performances of the mind Acquisition Preservation Contemplation
Processions of Man Man for himself Man from Man Man from Men
(Homo per se) (Homo ex Homine) (Homo ex Hominibus)
Number of Man Man Man-Man Man-Man-Man
Chapter 26: Man is the mirror of the universe

Of all things Man is nothing (nichil). Furthermore, Nature has made and created him outside of all
things, so he may see many things and become the expression and natural mirror of all things:
disconnected and separated from the order of the universe, positioned remote from and opposite to
all things, like the center of everything.84 For it is the nature of the mirror to be vis-à-vis and opposite
to that of which it must bear the image in itself.
Imagine, however, that all things would be positioned at the circumference of the world, like a
firmament, in which the forms of all things are represented and made visible in the most illuminating
manner. From this parable you may infer that man was created in the center of the world and
20
outside of all things, so he may be more effectively hit by the arrows of the earthly forms that are
shot at him from all sides and, after being affected by every form, he may emerge as omnifarious.
If Man inheres in any kind of thing he does not acquire the acquaintance and knowledge of the thing
and substance in which he has been put, since every cognition and insight as well as the
objectification and emanation of the forms occurs along the diameter. In this way, the observed and
objectified thing is separated from the [human] capacity to contemplate and observe it.
Consequently, Man is created outside of all things; and, in turn, all things are created outside of Man
and are presented to Man from the opposite side of the diameter. In fact, if you would place all
things in the circumference of the world (like in a firmament), you would have to put Man in the
middle and center. From thence the whole circumference of the world becomes evident and is
revealed to him with certainty.
Now, if you place all things on the base of a triangle [imagined as standing on its top], you have to
position Man in the apex, toward which the whole base of the triangle flows down through the
narrowing of both sides and toward which the whole surface of the triangle is pouring: for this
reason the whole base is at once apparent and easy to observe. And in whichever place you put all
the beings of the world: you must always position and retain Man in a position opposite to them, so
he becomes a mirror of everything.
This, then, is the nature of Man, which is also the nature of the mirror. However, it is the nature of
the mirror to be located outside of all things and to be adverse and opposite to all things; thus
nothing is contained in it and it is not affected by any natural image. If you establish the mirror in the
area, rank, and line of the visible things you instantly take away the mirror’s benefit, as the mirror
can be stamped and affected either by the images of no things at all or, at least, not of all of them.
Obviously, if the mirror is placed in the base of the triangle, then none of the things that are located
at the base will have lines directed toward the mirror; no drain of forms will lead toward the mirror.
And if you repeatedly place the mirror in the circumference, then indirect and unequal lines will
extend to it from all the things that are in the circumference.
[Inscriptions:
Above the triangle: “All things in the base of the
In the inner circle: “Man (Homo)”. The letters in the
triangle (Omnia in basi trianguli).” In the circle: “Man
outer circles add up to “All things in the circumference
(Homo)”. Next to the circle: “Apex of the Triangle
(Omnia in circumferentia).”]
(Trianguli Vertex)”.
21
Consequently, the true location of the mirror as well as of Man is in the opposition, extremity,
distance and negation of all things, where all the things are not [existent], I mean, where there is no
actuality, outside of all things: nevertheless are all things born in this place.
Indeed, all things are in the circumference of the world, but can come into being in its center. Where
all things are, there they do not emerge. However, where they can emerge and where they come
into being, there they are not. Wherever the place is in which they are: they are born into existence
and emerge in its opposite.
For this reason the earth and Man are some kind of mirror of the firmament, which is initially rough,
unrefined, impure, lightless, imperfect, void, and lacking any image.85 Yet because of the pouring
down of atoms and natural forms from the stars of the firmament, both mirrors become
impregnated and fecundated. And both mirrors are a certain potentiality of the firmament and a
natural shadow of the actualities of those sublime things that can be seen blazing in the firmament.
For in the beginning God set apart the sensible actualities of all things and placed them in the
firmament. Because their shadows, rays, spires, cones, vertices, and atoms are brought and sent to
earth in a vertical line, the earth is called their concurrence, fusion, shadow, and potentiality, and the
number of the earth is in some way the number of all things.86 For the firmament is the number as
well as the actuality of all things; the earth itself, however, is also the number of all things, but in
potentiality. Whatever is in the firmament can come in to being on earth; in the same way all things
that exist on earth can emerge in Man. And, indeed, we taught that it is peculiar to the form of Man
to have Wisdom as its habitus: this is not the form of this or that thing, but somehow the form of all
things.
[355]
If it is now the same form, which may be called the form of all things as well as the form of our
natural man, then it is also necessary that our innate Man is in some way the potentiality of all
things. For his actuality is the actuality of all things, his form is the form of all things, his image is the
image of all things and, finally, his number is the number of all things.87 There is the same number of
the stars in the sky, of the atoms of the earth, of Man, and of human form and Wisdom: his
awareness (agnitio) and recognition (decomprehensio) is, at the same time, the cognition (gnaritas)
and science (scientia) of himself and of all things. Just as there is the same form for Man and for all
things—since whatever pertains to Man pertains to all things, and whatever pertains to all things
pertains to Man—there is one and the same science, one single meaning (ratio), and an equal
cognition of both.
Consequently, Man is the last, supreme, and most eminent sensible creature of the world, placed
and located outside of all things, as it were, the potentiality and concurrence of all things; he is the
natural shadow of the lights above and of the actualizations of the world as well as some kind of
center of the world.
Indeed, after everything was accomplished and completed, after every single actuality had found its
proper place, God saw that what was still missing was an observer of all things and an eye of
everything88—an eye into which would shine the ethereal little flames glimmering above, the
heavenly torches and the lights of the firmament, the stellar adornments and most tender shades of
the gates to the intelligible and transcendent world, full of the infinite light; an eye onto which those
would perpetually shine, an eye which is like the son of the whole world, like the world’s natural
image, like the peace and concord of all things. And God saw that between all things there was not
place left for this supreme eye. In fact, everything was filled with actualities, whatever he had
established according to its proper rank, place, and order. Never could Man have emerged from the
diverse actualizations and disparate forms, from the differences of the things and the luminaries of
the world, which are not themselves capable of to mixing, fusing, and amalgamating.
Consequently, Man emerged outside of all differences and properties, in a place opposite to all, at
the intersection of the world, in the center of all things: [he is] a public creature, as it were, which
filled whatever was left empty in Nature with potentials, shadows, forms, images, and meanings.89
22
1
Cf. Tamara Albertini, “Actio und Passio in der Renaissance. Das Weibliche und das Männliche bei Agrippa, Postel und
Bovelles,” Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 47 (2000), pp. 126-49.
2 Psalm 48:13.21 Vulgata iuxta LXX (roughly corresponds to Psalm 49:12.20 in modern Bibles).
3 Cf. Genesis 1:26.
4 Cf. below c. 22f., where Wisdom reveals that Man is a trinity or triad.
5 “For as ignorance leadeth wanderers astray from one another, so doth the presence of Spiritual Light join and unite
together those that are being illuminated, and perfects them and converts them toward that which truly Is—yea, converts
them from their manifold false opinions and unites their different perceptions, or rather fancies, into one true, pure and
coherent knowledge, and filleth them with one unifying light.” Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita, On the Divine Names 4,6,
trans. C. E. Rolt. It seems that De Bovelles quotes (very inexactly) the Latin translation by John Scotus Erigena. He certainly
did not use the edition of his mentor Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (Paris 1498, fol. 57r, §49) which has a totally different
wording.
6 Cf. below c. 22. This way of thinking seems to originate from the Ars of Ramon Llull (1232-1316), where man is not simply
described as animal rationale, but as an animal endowed with the capacity to make itself human. Homo est animal
homificans (Ars brevis 9,4). De Bovelles’ mentor Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (latinized Faber Stapulensis) was “the true
restorer of Lullist studies in France.” J. M. Victor, Charles de Bovelles. An Intellectual Biography (1978), p. 57. De Bovelles
himself edited the first print of the Catalan philosopher’s autobiography.
7
For an interpretation of the frontispiece see Tamara Albertini, “Charles de Bovelles‘ Enigmatic Liber de Sapiente: A Heroic
Notion of Wisdom,“ Intellectual History Review 21:3 (2011), pp. 297-306, at. pp. 300f.
8 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Cf. De Generatione, XVII [XVI], 2-6; XVIII [XVII], 3.
9 Cf. Aristotle, De anima II, 2-3.
10 De Bovelles clearly refers to the Theologia naturalis of Raimundus Sabundus. Sabundus explains that both, macrocosm of
the universe and the microcosm of man, are structured by the scala naturae and its four general ranks (generales gradus).
This natural ladder would allow the human mind to ascend first from the inferior things to man, and then from man to God.
However, Sabundus emphasizes more than de Bovelles that the fourth rank implies not only understanding (intellegere) but
also free will (libere velle): Vel est, vivit, sentit, intellegit, discernit et vult libere et sponte: ecce quartus gradus. Sic ergo ista
quattuor, scilicet esse, vivere, sentire et intellegere continent omne, quod est; et omnia clauduntur in istis quattuor; et nihil
est extra ista. Per intellegere enim comprehenduntur discernere et velle libere. Raimundus Sabundus, Theologia naturalis,
conclusion of titulus. 1
11 Cf. de Bovelles’ intellectualizing interpretation of paradise in Quaestionum theologicarum libri septem (1513): “[…] the
rational qualities of the soul are like the qualities and properties of paradise” (IV, 19, fol. 21ra). De Bovelles describes
paradise as the last and highest stage in the process of human evolution and perfection, departing from the lowest stage of
divine creation: “God took man, whom he had created, and positioned him in the paradise of joy [cf. Gen 2:8]. These words
indicate that Adam was created outside of paradise. Subsequently God led and guided him upward into paradise. This,
however, shows that man was not perfect immediately in the moment of his creation; clearly he was created on the lowest
level (in imo), but born to be perfected on the highest level (in summo)” (IV, 15, fol. 21rb).
12 De Bovelles refers to the traditional canon of mortal sins. In this context luxuria typically denotes sexual lust.
13 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Cf. Liber de septem Vitiis, c. 7-11.
14 The Liber de Sapiente was published more than twenty years before Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
and clearly relies on an (advanced) Ptolemaic model of the cosmos. Copernicus, in turn, was a careful reader of de Bovelles.
A volume with the major works of de Bovelles, richly annotated by Corpernicus’ own hand, was preserved in the library of
Copernicus in Uppsala. Cf. D. Groh, Göttliche Weltökonomie (2010), pp. 208f.; H. Blumenberg, Genesis der kopernikanischen
Welt (1981), p. 575.
15 In Pico as well as in de Bovelles, miseria hominis is the opposite of dignitas hominis. (Groh 126).
16 Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses I,84-87:
pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram, Whereas other animals look groveling at the ground,
os homini sublime dedit caelumque videre to man he gave an upturned aspect, and ordered him to look
iussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. at the sky, and to raise his face to the stars.
17 Cf. Aristotle, De generatione animalium III,11 (762b): In Aristotle, however, “entrails of the earth” refers to the birth place
of eels.
18 Cf. Aristotle, De generatione animalium I,2 (716a): “For by a male animal we mean that which generates in another, and
by a female that which generates in itself; wherefore men apply these terms to the macrocosm also, naming Earth mother
as being female, but addressing Heaven and the Sun and other like entities as fathers, as causing generation.”
19 [Klibansky’s annotation:] De Sensu c.30 and 35 with tables.
20 [Klibansky’s annotation:] De Generatione, VI,5; XVII,2 [XVI,2].
21 Difficult sentence: Sunt enim ad normam et examen quattuor elementorum substantiales quoque materie actus diducti,
cum eadem sit sublunaris concavi et ipsius materiei intercapedo sitque amborum capacitas una.
22 Note that de Bovelles finds it necessary to preemptively defend himself against allegations of pantheism.
23 This seems to refer to the Aristotelian notion of actus purus. Cf. Metaphysics XI and Aquinas S.Th. I, qu.3.
24 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Cf. De Generatione, VI,2f.
25 De Bovelles uses substantia and essentia interchangeably.
26 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Cf. De Generatione, VI,5; XVII,5f. [XVI].
23
27 Cf. Raimundus Sabundus, Theologia naturalis, titulus 6 : Sed humana natura est infinita in possibilitate, quia es
multiplicabilis, quantum est de se, in infinitum, quia sibi non repugnant, quin duobus hominibus existentibus, scilicet mare et
foemina, prorcreetur tertius quantum est de natura. Ita similiter est de natura ignis, quia in infinitum potest crescere et
multiplicari appositis combustibilibus.
28 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Cf. De Generatione XIV, 1-5 [XIII].
29 Elementatio is a very rare term which otherwise occurs almost exclusively as the Latin title of a book by Proclus (412-
485). The Stocheiôsis theologikê was translated by William of Moerbeke as Elementatio theologica. Despite its pagan author
this book was held in high esteem by certain late medieval philosophers, most notably by Berthold of Moosburg, who wrote
a commentary on it, and by Nicolas of Cusa.
30 In other words, in De Sapiente de Bovelles prefers a Neoplatonic understanding of the origin of the elements, according
to the principle of emanation; while in De Generatione he presented the Christian understanding, according to the principle
of creation.
31 The formulation redire in originem occurs frequently in Christian Neoplatonic literature.
32 Cf. the beginning of c. 2.
33
Stephan Otto comments: „Mit seinem Bild des einigenden Kusses, in dem Natur und Vernunft sich treffen, umreißt
Bovillus in paradigmatischer Weise das Weltverständnis der Renaissance. Die Metaphorik des Kusses hat aber zum
rationalem Inhalt den spekulativen Gedanken, dass Natur und naturversehender Geist nicht voneinander getrennt werden
können: Der Geist ist Spiegel der Natur. Ohne das die Natur reflektierende Denken bliebe die Natur formlos oder rein
objektive Möglichkeit; erst in der subjektiven Vermöglichung des Geistes gewinnt sie Gestalt.“ Stephan Otto, Geschichte der
Philosophie in Text und Darstellung, vol.3: Renaissance und frühe Neuzeit (1984), p. 292.
34 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Cf. De Generatione, c. XII,1.3-4 [XV].
35 This is an inversion of Seneca’s principle that nature must listen to reason (De beata vita VIII,1).
36 Cf. the reditus in Erigena, Periphyseon IV-V, passim.
37
Ernst Cassirer comments on this passage: “With these thoughts Bovillus anticipates the Hegelian formula, according to
which the meaning and aim of the mental process of development consists in the ‘substance’ becoming ‘subject’. Reason is
the power in man by which ‘mother nature’ returns to herself, i.e., by which she completes her cycle and is led back to
herself.” Ernst Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy (1964), at p. 89.
38 Cf. Erigena, Periphyseon I, 444c-445b.
39 In Thomas Aquinas hoc aliquid denotes an independently subsisting entity. Summa Theologiae I, qu. 2, ad 2.
40 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Cf. In Artem Oppositorum Introductio, XIII, 7.
41 Ernst Cassirer comments that Bovillus essentially applies Nicolas of Cusa’s dynamic understanding of the Divine Trinity to
man. Trinity “is not to be conceived of as the simple juxtaposition of three ‘natures’ within one actually simple substance,
but rather as the continuous unity of a development that leads from mere ‘possibility’ to ‘reality’, from ‘potentiality’ to full
and complete ‘actualization’. Applying this conception of God to man, one sees that the true reality of man is to be found
only where he has gone through the individual stages of this process. Only in this becoming can he attain and understand
his specific being. What we call we call ‘wisdom’, therefore, is not really a knowledge of external objects but a knowledge of
our own selves; not nature but humanitas is its proper object. The wise man is he who has passed through the
contraditictions that are contained within man, recognized them, and therewith overcome them. He is homo in potentia
and homo in actu, homo ex principio and homo ex fine, homo existens and homo apparens, homo inchoatus and homo
perfectus, homo a natura and homo ab intellectu. And for Bovillus, this definition of wisdom also contains the formulation
of the problem of freedom. To him, freedom simply means that man does not receive his being ready-made from nature, as
do the other entities, not does he, so to speak, get it as a permanent fief; but rather that he must acquire it, must form it
through virtus and ars.” Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos, op. cit., p. 90.
42
Tamara Albertini comments on this passage: “In other words, it takes a conscious and deliberate effort to actualize the
rational potential given to Man by nature. Or, as Bovelles asserts in his Book on the Intellect: ‘And just as the angel is
perfect by nature, Man achieves himself by art’ (Et sicut natura perfectus est angelus: ita et homo arte consummatur).”
Albertini, “Charles de Bovelles’ Enigmatic Liber de Sapiente,” op. cit., p. 303.
43 Homo est compositus ex anima et corpore. Ramon Llull, Ars brevis 9.4.
44 As this sentence shows, de Bovelles uses animus and mens interchangeably.
45 Cf. below c. 22f.
46 Sections from Wisdom 2:1-6 (Vulgate).
47 Cf. Ecclesiastes 10:8; Psalm 7:16.
48 Cf. Plato, Republic 517c (Parable of the Cave).
49 Cf. Jeremiah 5:21; Mark 8:17f.; Matthew 13:15; Acts 28:27.
50 Matthew 13:12; 25:29 (KJV).
51 Cf. the parable of the borrowed talent in Matthew 25:14-30.
52 Matthew 25:30.
53 Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses I,82f.
54 Cf. above c. 1 and 6.
55 Ludovici Bigi Pictorii Ferrariensis Christianorum Opusculorum libri tres (Modena 1484), liber II, carmen 37.
56 Cf. the frontispiece of the Liber de Sapiente.
24
57 Cf. Machiavelli’s famous line in The Prince, c. 25: “… fortune is a woman, and if you wish to keep her under it is necessary
to beat and ill-use her.”
58 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Liber de intellectu XII,9.
59 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Liber de intellectu I,4.8-9; II,7; VIII,2-3.
60 This appears to be a philosophical exposition of Genesis 2:19f: “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast
of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and
to every beast of the field …” (KJV).
61 In Greek drama the exode is the catastrophic conclusion of a tragedy; in Roman drama it is the final farce of a comedy.
Palinode commonly denotes a poetic recantation.

62 According to legend, Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, was born from the head of Jupiter.
63 In Neoplatonic philosophy the dyad denotes the nous as the second hypostasis which emanates directly from the super-
existent One (or monad), the first hypostasis. The third hypostasis (or triad) is the universal soul (ousia), which brings forth
beings by contemplating the eternal ideas of the nous and forming matter in their image. Cf. Plotinus, Enneads V,1-3.
64 Cf. the dedicatory letter above.
65
“As one learns from Bovelles’ doctrine of opposites, developed in his book Ars oppositorum (1509) and to be used
throughout his work, extremes do not have to be mediated by a third, external, element—they bring forth their own
middle. Similarly, they themselves are created—as opposites—by the middle they produce. Applied to the present context,
subject and object of cognition are joined in that they are both the result of the middle position connecting them. And the
middle position borne from the extremes is the wise placed between himself as the subject and object of cognition.”
Albertini, “Charles de Bovelles’ Enigmatic Liber de Sapiente,” op. cit., p. 302.
66 In medieval liturgy, sumptio also refers to the taking-up of the Lord’s body in the Eucharist. As is even more apparent in
the next chapter, de Bovelles’ philosophical anthropology often invokes the vocabulary of Christology and Trinitarian
theology.
67 De Bovelles follows the triadic logic of Llull’s Ars. Cf. Kurt Flasch, Das philosophische Denken im Mittelalter (1995), p. 390.
Llull’s logic is not connected to a static ontology but tries to give structure to a dynamic understanding of reality. Cf.
Alexander Fidora’s introduction to Raimundus Lullus: Ars brevis (1999), p. xxii: “Dieser dynamische Realitätsbegriff findet
seinen Niederschlag auch in der sogenannten Korrelativenlehre Llulls, derzufolge die gesamte Wirklichkeit trinitarisch bzw.
triadisch strukturiert ist, und zwar durch den Akt, sein Subjekt und sein Objekt. Grammatisch ausgedrückt, bedeutet dies,
dass die Wirklichkeit im Wechselspiel von -tivum (das -Machende), -bile (das -Machbare), und -are (das -Machen) besteht, z.
B. von bonificativum (das Gut-Machende), bonificabile (das Gut-Machbare) und bonificare (das Gut-Machen).”
68 In Trinitarian theology the Holy Spirit is often imagined as a bond of love (vinculum amoris) between Father and Son. The
idea goes back to Augustine, but the specific terminology emerges in the context of the specifically Western interpretation
of the Trinity (filioque) in early medieval Frankish theology. Cf. Roland Kany, Augustins Trinitätsdenken (2007), pp. 129f.;
Jürgen Moltmann, Trinität und Reich Gottes (1980), p. 198.
69 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Liber de Intellectu XIII,1.
70 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Liber de Intellectu VII,3.
71 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Liber de Intellectu VII,7.10.
72 In scholastic metaphysics species intelligibilis denotes the mental representation of a general essence, abstracted from a
perceived thing. For the process of abstraction see the previous chapter.
73 Again, this is the language of Trinitarian theology, especially the phrase ab ambobus procedere. Cf. for instance Anselm of
Havelberg, Dialogi II,16: Est ergo Spiritus sanctus virtus Altissimi, Patris scilicet, est et virtus Filiii, qui et ipse Altissimus est: et
quoniam amborum est ab ambobus etiam procedere recte credendus est ….
74 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Liber de Intellectu VII,7.
75 Cf. the Trinitarian/Christological formulation Pater, Verbum et Spiritus Sanctus: haec tria unum sunt in Christo Jesu. The
phrase is a variation of the much debated “Comma Ioanneum,” a phrase inserted in the biblical text (1 John 5:7f.) in the
fourth century to provide “evidence” for the existence of Trinitarian theology in the original revelation. Cf. Adolf von
Harnack, Studien zur Geschichte des Neuen Testaments und der Alten Kirche I: Zur neutestamentlichen Textkritik (1931), pp.
151f. However, only a few years after the publication of de Bovelles’ Liber de Sapiente, Erasmus of Rotterdam began to
question the authenticity of the Comma Ioanneum.
76 Consubstantialis is the Latin translation of homoousios, the qualification of the Trinity in the Nicene Creed.
77 The term conversio entis may also refer to the transubstantiation in the Eucharist.
78 Here the Latin text has imaginatrix instead of the usual imaginatio. De Bovelles may refer to vis imaginatrix, which in
Renaissance magic denotes the power of imagination that affects one’s (and one’s neighbor’s) body.
79 [Klibansky’s annotation:] Peri tes ouranias Hierarchias VII,3; Peri tes ekklesiastikes Hierarchias I,1.
80 Stephan Otto comments on this chapter: “Hier wird deutlich: Bovillus will die aristotelische Erkenntnislehre, die auf dem
Gedanken der Formung des durch die Sinne dem Verstand dargebotenen Erkenntnismaterials beruht, durch die kusanische
Metaphysik der Koinzidenz der Gegensätze erweitern—er versucht damit gleichsam eine Quadratur des Kreises. Diesem
Versuch aber entspringt seine neue Logik der Reflexion: Alle Gegensätze, die die Dinge in der Welt dem menschlichen Geist
vor Augen stellen, sollen aus dem einen Denkakt der Entgegensetzung verstanden werde. Die Naturauffassung des Bovillus
ruht somit der Idee einer Vernunft auf, die in ihrer Denkhandlung die Vermittlung von Sein und Bewusstsein erzeugt. Zwar
gleicht sich die Vernunft dem Seienden an, aber sie verwandelt dabei, schöpferisch, deren Sein in Bewusstsein. Diese
25
Verwandlung wird unter dem Symbol der reflektierenden Spiegelung vorgestellt; Bovillus lässt es indes bei dem
veranschaulichenden Bild nicht bewenden, sondern zeichnet ganz genau dessen logische Konturen.” Otto, op. cit., pp. 294f.
81 This appears to be a philosophical exposition of Genesis 2:21-23: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God
had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man“ (KJV).
82 Cf. the Western Trinitarian creed as formulated in the Synods of Toledo (400/447): Est ergo ingenitus Pater, genitus Filius,
non genitus paraclitus, sed a Patre Filioque procedens. Cf. the Athanasian Creed: Pater a nullo est factus: nec creatus, nec
genitus. Filius a Patre solo est: non factus, nec creatus, sed genitus. Spiritus Sanctus a Patre et Filio: non factus, nec creatus,
nec genitus, sed procedens.
83 Cf. the Athanasian Creed: Fides autem catholica haec est: ut unum Deum in Trinitate, et Trinitatem in unitate veneremur:
Neque confundentes personas, neque substantiam separantes. Alia est enim persona Patris, alia Filii, alia Spiritus Sancti. Sed
Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti una est divinitas, aequalis gloria, coeterna maiestas. Qualis Pater, talis Filius, talis Spiritus
Sanctus. However, de Bovelles does not completely follow the terminology of the orthodox creed. Speaking of the divine
persons as equal in substance is orthodox; but calling them “very similar” (consimiles) would be heretical. This is exactly the
famous “Iota,” making the difference between the orthodox Nicene formulation “equal in substance” (homoousios) and the
heterodox (or Arian) “similar in substance (homoiousios).”
84 Cf. Pico della Mirandola, Oratio de hominis dignitate 3.
85 Cf. Genesis 1:1f.: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the deep” (KJV).

86 Cf. Genesis 1:14f.: “ And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night;
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the
heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so” (KJV).
87 Cf. Hugo of St. Victor, Der arca Noe morali c. 2 (PL 176, 665CD): Omnium rerum numerus quantum ad nostrae
intelligentiae capacitatem pertinet infinitus est [. . .].

88 Cf. Pico della Mirandola, Oratio de hominis dignitate 2: “But, when the work was finished, the Craftsman kept wishing
that there were someone to ponder the plan of so great work, to love its beauty, and to wonder at its vastness.”
89 The expression publica creatura is rather unique. Volker Gerhardt comments: “Wie weit die politischen Folgen von Picos
Weltentwurf hätten reichen können, vermögen wir erst heute zu erkennen: In seiner exponierten metaphysischen Position
ist der Mensch von allen jenen Einschränkungen frei die andere Lebewesen an ihre Umwelt binden. Also steht er unter dem
(gottgleichen) Anspruch, sich selbst zu bestimmen (sibi praefiniens). Der Mensch ist das einzige Geschöpf in der von Gott
geschaffenen Ordnung, das sich selbst bestimmt. […]. Doch die politisch-praktischen Konsequenzen lassen noch auf sich
warten. Bei Carolus Bovillus blitzen sie auf, wenn er den Menschen als publica creatura bezeichnet.” Volker Gerhardt,
Öffentlichkeit: Die politische Form des Bewusstseins (2012); italics in the original.
26

Charles de Bovelles - The Book of The Sage

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Deskripsi Asli:

Judul Asli

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Charles de Bovelles - The Book of The Sage

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Matthias Riedl, CEU Budapest, matriedl@ceu.

Charles de Bovelles: The Book on the Sage (Liber de Sapiente)

“The return of man to himself, illustrated by a serpent.”

Hexastichon to the reader:

FORTUNE AND WISDOM

The Book on the Sage

dedicated to the venerable father in Christ, Guillaume Briçonnet, Bishop of Lodève

However, commonly a seventh ruin of Man is

Chapter 2: On the four ranks of men according to the mundane elements

Chapter 4: Man is called Man in three respects

Infant nature Man

However, in whatever way we look at men—according to nature, according to age, or according to

Mineral beings Living beings Perceiving beings Rational beings

Chapter 5: Only Reason is an adult and perfect daughter of Nature

Chapter 6: Only the Sage is truly Man

Chapter 8: The progress and profit of the Sage

Chapter 22: The pilgrimage of the human Soul

Chapter 23: Every cognition is a kind of trinity

Man is thrice threefold In Reason In Imagination In Perception

Trinity of the mind Intellect Memory Form

Chapter 26: Man is the mirror of the universe

Palinode commonly denotes a poetic recantation.

darkness was upon the face of the deep” (KJV).

intelligentiae capacitatem pertinet infinitus est [. . .].

Anda mungkin juga menyukai