ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the philosophical description of man to which contraction in the noetic interpretation is tied. It analyses Giordano Bruno's explanation of contraction in the noetic sense in his Sigillus. The chapter discusses his use of 'contraction' in the Eroici furori, where the notion of intention remains important. The most important references concerning melancholy and the fifteen contractions in the Sigillus occur in the Eroici furori. It is possible to distinguish between two kinds of furore, Bruno states in the Eroici furori. One thing displays "blindness, stupidity and irrational impulse", another one consists in "divine abstraction". The chapter examines Bruno's criticism of noesis induced physiologically by melancholy, in particular its consequences for love poetry and theology. Bruno applies 'contraction' in his philosophical anthropology. Bruno similarly formulates various aspects of his philosophical description of man with an eye on Plotinus' philosophical anthropology. According to Plotinus, the individual human soul animates an individual human body.
