The role of iconic practice in Bruno’s gnoseology

Abstract

The iconic praxis plays a vital role in Giordano Bruno’s gnoseological process. Bruno considers the image to be both sensitive and intelligible according to its faculty of Phantasia, which traditionally is condemned as the umbra (shadow) or false reflection of the idea. Through the cognitive practice in the art of memory, Bruno’s shadows symbolically take on those iconic forms and the mental schemas, and then the mnemotechnic shadows become a psychological vehicle, which can raise the human gradually up to the Divine glow. The theological rhythm of ascent and descent is also related to the operations of natural magic that can exert sympathetic links between the micro and the macrocosms. Hence the function of Bruno’s illustrations does not lie in the mechanical interpretation but depends on the private experience of the people who practice them. By means of the interior contractio (contraction) of the soul, Bruno is able to collect the celestial influences with his theurgic xylographs, which make him unique among the Renaissance and early modern philosophers.