ABSTRACT
While a novitiate in Naples between the years 1565 and 1566 Giordano Bruno took part in a popular game known as sorti or ‘drawing lots’.1 In this game the players were required to open a book and point to a verse at random (or draw verses written on slips of paper from a pool) and then link this verse with one of the persons present, whose name was also selected by chance. This game became a favourite pastime at court, and was often included in the divertissements held on the eve of the Epiphany. We know that on one occasion, by some happy fate, a poet was called upon to join the name of Isabella d’Este to the Petrarchian verse ‘Fior di virtù, fontana di beltade’ [flower of virtue, fountain of beauty] (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, 351, 7): a most auspicious lot indeed for both the princess and the poet, who was no doubt inspired by this to write one of his most felicitous sonnets or madrigals.2
