ABSTRACT
This paradigm of intersection between contraries, of coincidentia oppositorum-specifically between human and Divine-is rooted in Bruno's perpetual efforts to reconcile antitheses: the maximum and the minimum; form and matter; the container and the contained; the One and the Many. He wanted to make these oppositions part of a continuum of balance, allowing for difference in an infinite space of indifference. Aquilecchia has pointed out that Bruno was not in accord with the Neoplatonic tradition of putting Unity above and the Many below and, consequently, "for this vertical axis Bruno substituted a horizontal one, abolishing any hierarchical distinction."3 Distinction between entities, yes, but not in terms of higher-as-better or lower-as-worse. In De mínimo, Bruno explained how in infinity the minimum atom/point/number coincides with the maximum expression of the physical/numeric/geometric.4 In De magia, he discussed the three worlds of contraries: the archetypical one inhabited by concord and discord; the physical one of fire and water; and the mathematical one of light and darkness, which is the world of the intellect that connects the other two together.5 The universe and all that is in it exist, according to Bruno, because of the movement of contraries. Similarly, the true hero is one who lives with contraries, who can come to understand the incomprehensible only through focusing on something comprehensible: the point of union between opposites. For the hero, this is the angle that completes the triangle between self and the Divine; it is the reflection of God's effulgence onto the intermediary object. The Furori is a text that investigates the angles produced as the mind engages contraries and moves toward comprehension of the Divine through intersection with His reflection.
