ABSTRACT
Vedrete nel secondo dialogo … una descrizion di passi e di passaggi, che più poetica e tropologica, forse, che istoriale sarà da tutti giudicata … mi par che non sia minuzzaria, né petruccia, né sassetto, che non vi vada ad intoppare. Ed in ciò fa giusto com’un pittore; al qual non basta far il semplice ritratto de l’istoria; ma anco, per empir il quadro, e conformarsi con l’arte a la natura, vi depinge de le pietre, di monti, de gli arbori, di fonti, di fiumi, di colline; e vi fa veder qua un regio palaggio, ivi una selva, là un straccio di cielo, in quel canto un mezo sol che nasce, e da passo in passo un ucello, un porco, un cervio, un asino, un cavallo; mentre basta di questo far veder una testa, di quello un corno, de l’altro un quarto di dietro, di costui l’orecchie, di colui l’intiera descrizione; questo con un gesto ed una mina, che non tiene quello e quell’altro, di sorte che con maggior satisfazione di chi remira e giudica viene ad istoriar, come dicono, la figura. Cossì, al proposito, leggete e vedrete quel che voglio dire. (Argomento del secondo dialogo)1
[In the second dialogue you will see: … a description of journeys and voyages, which will be judged by all to be more poetic, and perhaps allegorical, than historical; … so that it seems that, looking here and there at everything with Lynceus’ eyes, and not stopping too much along his walk, he contemplates the great structures (of the universe) while, at the same time, he stumbles over every bit of stone, every pebble. In doing this, he acts like a painter for whom it is not enough simply to portray a story, but then, in order to fill up the canvas and to bring his picture into conformity with nature through his art, he also paints stones, mountains, trees, fountains, rivers, and hills; here he shows a royal palace, there a forest, here a stretch of sky, and in that corner the half-disk of the rising sun, and one by one a bird, a pig, a deer, an ass, a horse. But it is enough to show of this animal only the head, of that one only the horn, of another only the hind quarter, of this only the ears, of that the whole; and he portrays each one with a gesture and manner peculiar to him, so that the person who looks and judges can attach substance to the image with greater contentment. In the same manner are you to read and visualize what I have to say.]2
In this prefatory passage, which summarizes the second dialogue of the Cena, Bruno instructs the beholder – who is now explicitly a reader – how to read: Cossì al proposito, leggete, e vedrete quel che voglio dire – ‘In the same manner you are to read and visualize what I have to say.’ The author’s transparency comes both as a welcome relief to a reader who seeks an itinerary to knowledge, and an open challenge to one who hopes to make sense of the competing discourses that will follow in the text. By comparing the process of reading a literary text to the act of viewing a painting, Bruno isolates the need for what we may call the experience of text. This experience should reflect as much as possible the experience of the world, which is an experience of phenomena.
