04-07-2022, 10:34 PM
Nicholas had a deep interest in the Llulian Art. There is a story told by Bessarion, the great Greek humanist, where he and Cusanus were out hunting. The rabbit they were pursuing suddenly vanished. "Where could it be hiding?" wondered Bessarion. Cusanus then suggested they should consult the Ars Magna, and quoted the operation relevant to the inquiry: Where has the rabbit gone? Cusanus was only joking, and making light of it, but the story illustrates the currency of the Ars Magna in those intellectual circles and how it presents itself as a type of universal oracle.
The question for me is how Cusanus (who I take to be the author) has adapted and deployed the Art in the creation of the Voynich language and text. A very useful recent article is that of René Zandbergen - The Cardan grille approach to the Voynich MS taken to the next level where Zandbergen considers what system of wheels-within-wheels might have created the patterns we see in the text. That type of approach takes us into Llullian territory.
Cusanus was not a mere copier of Llull though. What I see in the Voynich is the Cusaean cosmology which owes much to Llull but is Cusanus' own development. It is not Llull that needs to be studied here, but Cusanus' Llullism. Most studies of Llull (and Cusanus) dwell on the applications of the Art to religious dialogue and theological questions, or else there are celebrations of the Ars Magna as a proto-computer. Less attention is given to the application of the Art to the natural sciences, which is what is relevant here. Not much attention is given to it because it did not lead directly into modern natural sciences. Rather, it was a refinement of traditional medieval cosmology, a more involved way of thinking about the traditional four elements, for instance.
Llull began the process of extending his system to language and grammatical categories, and started marking elements within the Art with Latin suffixes - steps towards an artificial philosophical language. I think that Cusanus developed this further, and we find the results of it in the Voynich.
The question for me is how Cusanus (who I take to be the author) has adapted and deployed the Art in the creation of the Voynich language and text. A very useful recent article is that of René Zandbergen - The Cardan grille approach to the Voynich MS taken to the next level where Zandbergen considers what system of wheels-within-wheels might have created the patterns we see in the text. That type of approach takes us into Llullian territory.
Cusanus was not a mere copier of Llull though. What I see in the Voynich is the Cusaean cosmology which owes much to Llull but is Cusanus' own development. It is not Llull that needs to be studied here, but Cusanus' Llullism. Most studies of Llull (and Cusanus) dwell on the applications of the Art to religious dialogue and theological questions, or else there are celebrations of the Ars Magna as a proto-computer. Less attention is given to the application of the Art to the natural sciences, which is what is relevant here. Not much attention is given to it because it did not lead directly into modern natural sciences. Rather, it was a refinement of traditional medieval cosmology, a more involved way of thinking about the traditional four elements, for instance.
Llull began the process of extending his system to language and grammatical categories, and started marking elements within the Art with Latin suffixes - steps towards an artificial philosophical language. I think that Cusanus developed this further, and we find the results of it in the Voynich.