ABSTRACT
In the first section of this work we have pointed out how important was the role played by mystical speculation in science during the Renaissance, even in the theories of its principal representatives, such as a Cusanus or a Bruno. As a matter of fact, through the break-down of scholasticism in science, the field was left open for all those wild fantasies that seem to be common to all times and generations, although they are at times thrust out of sight and dare not show themselves for fear of learned authority and the derision of critics. Seldom indeed is it that mystical speculation and magical experiments have gone so far and had such scientific pretensions as during the Renaissance.
