Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the concept of contractio, or contraction, in the philosophy of Giordano Bruno. It deals with contraction in its ontological and noetic interpretations in Bruno's Latin and Italian works. The book discusses the sources of contraction. It argues that Cusanus' and Bruno's interpretations of contraction derive from late medieval and Renaissance interpretations of the Liber de causis. The term contraction had been applied in scholastic commentaries on the Liber de causis, a work falsely attributed to Aristotle. The book points out that the Liber de causis had infused a Neoplatonic strain into scholastic philosophy, and that Bruno's alternative to Aristotelian natural philosophy to a considerable extent built on this tradition. It examines the commentary on the Liber de causis by Giles of Rome, also called Aegidio Romano or Aegidio Colonna, and its possible contribution to Bruno's idea of contraction.