The concept of anima mundi in the Renaissance: Nicholas of Cusa, Marsilio Ficino and Giordano Bruno
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to study the treatment of the concept of anima mundi in three central figures of Renaissance philosophy: Nicholas of Cusa, Marsilio Ficino, and Giordano Bruno. To achieve this, I analyze Cusa’s conception of anima mundi in his works De docta ignorantia II (1440) and Idiota. De mente (1450). Subsequently, I study the place of the World Soul in Ficinian ontology in selected passages of works such as De amore (1469), Theologia platonica (1482) and the third book of De vita triplici (1489). Finally, I examine the reception of the Platonic concept of anima mundi in the natural philosophy of Giordano Bruno, mainly from the reading of De la causa, principio et Uno (1584) and Lampas triginta statuarum (1586), complementing it when relevant by considerations from other works in his Italian and Latin production. The aim is to analyze the continuities and transformations of the concept of anima mundi in the three philosophers mentioned.
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