The Ash Wednesday Supper

DIALOGO PRIMO

...with obsolete and antiquated diction.

FRULLA: Be quiet, Master, for he is not speaking to you.

SMITHO: What did they look like?

THEOPHILO: One seemed like the High Constable of a giantess and an ogre; the other like the High Steward of the Goddess of Reputation.

SMITHO: So there were two of them?

THEOPHILO: Yes, because this is a mysterious number.

PRUDENTIO: So that there might be two witnesses original: "Vt eſſent duo teſtes." This is a Latin legal and biblical formula..

FRULLA: What do you mean by those "witnesses"?

PRUDENTIO: Witnesses to examine the Nolan’s The "Nolan" refers to Giordano Bruno himself, who was born in Nola, Italy. competence. But by Hercules! Why did you say, Theophilo, that the binary number is mysterious?

THEOPHILO: Because two are the primary pairings, as Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos was an ancient Greek philosopher who believed numbers were the fundamental reality of the universe. He organized the world into ten pairs of opposites. says: finite and infinite, curved and straight, right and left, and so on. There are two types of numbers: even and odd, of which one is male and the other female. There are two Cupids: the superior and divine, and the inferior and common. There are two acts of life: cognition and affection. Two are their objects: the true and the good. There are two kinds of motion: straight, by which bodies tend toward their preservation, and circular, by which they preserve themselves. There are two essential principles of things: matter and form. Two specific differences of substance: rare and dense, simple and mixed. Two primary contrary and active principles: heat and cold. Two primary parents of natural things: the Sun and the Earth.

FRULLA: In keeping with the purpose of these aforementioned two, I will make another scale of the binary. The beasts entered the ark two by two, and they also came out two by two. Two are the leaders of the celestial signs: Aries and Taurus. There are two species of "Be not like" original: "Nolite fieri," a reference to Psalm 32:9: "Be not like the horse or the mule.": the horse and the mule. Two are the animals in the image and likeness of man: the monkey on earth and the owl original: "Barbagianni," literally a barn owl, but often used to mean a "simpleton" or "big-bearded blockhead" in this period. in the sky. Two are the false and honored relics of Florence in this country: the teeth of Sassetto and the beard of Pietruccia These are likely satirical references to contemporary Florentine figures or folk stories known to Bruno's circle..