carlo ginzburg. high and low - the theme of forbidden knowledge in the sixteenth and seventeenth...

8/10/2019 Carlo GINZBURG. High and Low - The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

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The Past and Present Society

High and Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and SeventeenthCenturiesAuthor(s): Carlo GinzburgSource: Past & Present, No. 73 (Nov., 1976), pp. 28-41Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650424 .Accessed: 23/04/2013 14:02

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HIGH AND LOW:THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGEIN THE

SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES*THE SUBJECTOF THIS ESSAY ISA VERY BROADONE ANDIT WOULDBEbetter erhaps o start with a specific ext. In his Epistle to theRomans xi. 20, St. Paul cautioned those Romans who embraced

Christianityot to

despisehe

Jews.Christ's

message,e

implied,is a universal ne. And he concluded he Epistle with he wordsq VAoqv0pdvE,,JAA qofloi - translated n the Authorized Version

of the Bibleas "be not high-minded, ut fear". In Jerome's ulgatethe corresponding assage sgiven s: "noli altum apere, ed time".x

Jerome's Vulgate often ppears as a strictly iteral ranslation:2and in this case also "altum sapere" s more reflection nto Latinthan a proper translation of the Greek word bt'Ao povErv.EBut after he fourth entury he whole passage n the Latin Westwas often misunderstood:

sapere"was taken not as a verb with

moral meaning "to be wise") but as a verb with an intellectualmeaning "to know"); and the adverbial xpression altum" wastaken s a noun denoting highness". "Non enim prodest cire",Ambrosiuswrote, sed metuere, uod futurum st; scriptum stenim, Noli alta sapere .. (It is better o fear he things o comethan oknow hem; n fact, t has been written oli alta sapere . .)".4

In this way St. Paul's condemnation f moral pride became a* Written t the Institute or Advanced Study, Princeton, hispaper presents

in a necessarily ketchy way some preliminary esults of a wider research till nprogress.1The whole passage reads:

Quod si aliqui ex ramis fracti unt, tu autem, cum oleaster esses, insertus sin illis et socius radicis et pinguedinis olivae factus es: noli gloriari dversusramos. Quod si gloriaris, non tu radicem portas, sed radix te. Dices ergo:Fracti sunt rami ut ego inserar. Bene, propter ncredulitatem racti unt;tu autem fide stas: noli altum sapere, sed time. Si enim Deus naturalibusramis non pepercit, ne forte nec tibi parcat.

Bibliorum acrorum .. nova editio, d. L. Gramatica Rome, I95I), p. io66.2 See W. E. Plater and H. J. White, A Grammar of the Vulgate (Oxford,I926), p. 29.*See F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar f the New Testament

and Other Early Christian Literature, trans. and revised by R. W. Funk(Cambridge and Chicago, I96I), p. 65. The moral and religious meaning ofypoveivs emphasized by W. Jaeger, he Theology f the Early GreekPhilosophers(Oxford, 1947, repr. 1967), pp. 113-14.

4Ambrosius, De fide, v. 17. 209 (Sancti Ambrosii Opera, Pt. 8, ed.O. Faller, Corpus scriptorum cclesiasticorum atinorum [hereafter .S.E.L.],lxxviii, Vienna, 1962, p. 295); see also ibid., p. 300.

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HIGH ANDLOW: THE THEMEOF FORBIDDENKNOWLEDGE 29

warning gainst ntellectual uriosity. At the beginning f the fifthcentury elagius criticized ome unnamed people who, misinter-preting hemeaning nd context f he passage, aidthat n Romans i.20 the Apostle ntended o forbid the study f wisdom sapientiaestudium)".5 More than thousandyears ater Erasmus, ollowingremark f the talian humanist orenzo Valla,6noted hat he targetof St. Paul's words had been a moral vice, not an intellectual ne.In his unfinished ialogueAntibarbari e wrote hat these wordsdonot condemn rudition, ut are designed orestrain s from oastingabout our worldly uccess". "Paul", he added, "addressed hesewords non altum apere o rich people,not to learned men". Notsurprisingly, n his owntranslation f the New Testament, rasmusrefused o adopt the ambiguouswords of the Vulgate and wroteinstead, more precisely, ne efferaris nimo, sed timeas". "Whatis concerned ere", he explained, is neither earning orfoolishness,but arrogance nd modesty".' We will return ater o this defenceof learning by Erasmus. In any case, notwithstanding is clearinterpretation f the text, the misunderstanding f the Paulinepassagepersisted.

The analogy etween he words f Pelagius nd those of Erasmusis striking ndeed. Apparently here was a persistent endency omisunderstand his specific assage. At first ight his s difficultto acceptbecause ll medieval nd Renaissance ommentators ightlyinterpreted noli altum apere" as a warning gainst piritual ride.But Romans xi. 20 was followed y two other moral exhortationsin similar ein: "I say.. . to every man.. . not to think f himselfmore highly han he ought to think.. ." (Romans xii. 3); and"Mind not high things, but condescend o men of low estate"(Romansxii. I6). The keyword n all passages n the Greek ext sqOpov~tl) (ttzu\ V' Aoqp0'Et, [q' v5TEpqmooVEmtv,z) i-d5fra Ad'povo-v1-rES,,8

which was translated y Jerome s "sapere" ("noli altum sapere","non plus sapere quam oportet apere", "non alta sapientes edhumilibus onsentientes"). Already n the third entury actantius,the Christian pologist, ad written hat sapere" meant searching

6 Pelagius, Expositiones redecim pistolarum auli, In epistolam ad Romanos(Patrologiae cursus completus, ed. J.-P. Migne, Series latina [hereafter .L.],Supplementum, , ed. A. Hamman, Paris, 1958, col. II6I).

6 See Lorenzo Valla, In Novum Testamentum nnotationes .. cum ErasmiPraefatione Basle, 1541), PP. I4Iv' I142r-v. See also, however, Valla's treatise,

De libero arbitrio, ed. M. Anfossi (Florence, 1934), PP. 50-2, where thePauline words are still recalled in an intellectual ontext that is, an attackagainst the ofty peculations of theologians n free will and predestination.

7 See Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, Opera omnia, Io vols. (Leiden,1703-6), x, col. 1726; vi, col. 625.

8 See King James' Authorized Version f the Holy Bible, ed. W. C. Sanderson(Philadelphia, 1964), PP. 789-90. For the Greek text, ee Novum TestamentumGraece et Latine, ed. A. Merk, 5th edn. (Rome, 1944).



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30 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER73

for the truth".9 A century ater, o Ambrosius, s we have seen,"sapere" was just a synonym f "scire", that s, "to know". It is

significanthat n Neo-Latin

anguageshe verbs usedfor

knowledgeare sapere, avoir, saber - even if n Italian, for nstance, the distinc-tion between scienza and sapienza maintains n some way thedistinction between intellectual nd moral levels.1' It is notsurprising hen hat he words non plus sapere uamoportet apere"(Romansxii. 3) had been nterpreted s directed gainst he ntellec-tual curiosity f heretics bout matters f religion. Even comment-ators uch as Smaragdus r RabanusMaurus,who had rightly nter-preted noli altum apere" as an equivalent f "do not be proud",

eventuallyonnected t some

pagesater o "non

plus saperequamoportet apere" with n intellectual eaning." Removed rom heirproper ontext, t. Paul's words "noli altum apere" were quotedfor centuries nd centuries, y lay as well as ecclesiastical riters,as the standard authority gainst any attempt o overcome heboundaries f human ntellect, s we shall see later, or nstance, nDe imitatione hristi. At the end of the fifteenth entury ne of thefirst talian translators f the Bible, Nicol6 Malermi, ould write"non volere apere e chose lte" - that s, "do not eek o know highthings". 2

So we have a slip - not an individual lip, but a collective rnearly ollective ne. Certainly, he "slipping" f St. Paul's wordsfrom moral o an intellectual eaning ad been aidedby inguistic

9Lactantius, Divinae Institutiones, i. 7 (ed. S. Brandt and G. Laubmann,C.S.E.L., xix, Vienna, 1890, p. 125): "sapere id est veritatem uaerere.. .'

10 G. Luck, "Zur Geschichte des Begriffs sapientia' ", Archiv fiirBegriffsgeschichte,x (1964), pp. 203-15. See also E. F. Rice, The RenaissanceIdea of Wisdom Cambridge, Mass., 1958).

11Smaragdus, Collectiones epistolarum t evangeliorum e tempore et de

sanctis,Dominica

prima post Theophania (P.L., cii, Paris, 1851,cols.

76-7);Rabanus Maurus, Enarrationum n epistolas beati Pauli libri triginta, i. II;vii. 12 (P.L., cxi, Paris, 1864, cols. 1532, 1544-46). See also Primasius,Commentaria n epistolas S. Pauli, Epistola ad Romanos, xi; xii (P.L., lxviii,Paris, 1866, cols. 491, 494); Luculentius, In aliquot novi Testamenti artescommentarii, ii (P.L., lxxii, Paris, 1849, cols. 813-14); Alulfus, De expositionenovi Testamenti, i. 29 (P.L., lxxix, Paris, 1849, col. 1304); Sedulius Scotus,Collectanea n omnesB. Pauli epistolas, . I I; i. 12 (P.L., ciii, Paris, 1864, cols.105, III); Bruno the Carthusian, Expositio in epistolas Pauli, Epistola adRomanos, II, 12 (P.L., cliii, Paris, 1854, cols. 96, 102); Hugh of Saint Victor,Quaestioneset decisiones n epistolas D. Pauli, In epistolam ad Romanos, q.cclxxxviii (P.L., clxxv, Paris, 1854, cols. 502-3); William abbot of SaintTheodoric prope Remos, Expositio in epistolam ad Romanos, vi. II; vii. 12(P.L., clxxx, Paris, 1855, cols. 662, 672); Herveus Burgidolensis, Commentariain epistolas ivi Pauli, Expositio in epistolam ad Romanos, I I; 12 (P.L., clxxxi,Paris, 1854, cols. 754, 765-6). All interpreted Rom. xii. 3 as referring oknowledge (illicit curiosity, etc.). Some of them (Luculentius, William ofSaint Theodoric, Herveus Burgidolensis) explicitly recalled, in this context,Rom. xi. 20.

12 Biblia vulgare historiata .., trans. Nicol6 Malermi (Venice, 1507 edn.),p. clxxv.



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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEMEOF FORBIDDENKNOWLEDGE 31

and textual actors.13 But the fact hat he words nolialtum apere"had been interpreted s a warning gainst he illicit knowledge f

"high things" pointslso to more

profound lements.14Humanbeings epresent eality othemselves n terms f opposites.That is to say, they ut the flowof their perceptions ccording otidy, olar ategories: ight nd dark, ot nd cold- high nd low.'"The old dictum scribed o Heraclitus hat reality s a struggle fopposites a dictumwhichHegeltranslated nto he anguage f hisown dialectical onception can also be read in a different andequally anachronistic) ey. A famousbiologist nce observed hatthe obsession with polarity as deep biological oots. The humanmind, he said, s like

computer orkingn the basis of a

yes-or-no,all-or-nothing ogic. Even f modern hysics asbecome ufficientlyunanthropomorphic o supersede his kind of logic, human beingsstill behave and think n a different ay. To them, reality asreflected n language, nd subsequently n thought is not a con-tinuum, ut a realm of distinct, rimarily olar categories.16

These categories, f course,have a cultural r symbolicmeaning,as well as a biological ne. Anthropologists avebegun oelucidatethe variablemeaning f some of them - the opposition etweenright nd left, for nstance.17 But none of these categories s souniversal s the opposition etweenhigh nd low. It is significantthat we saythat omething s "high" or "superior" or conversely,"base" or "inferior" without onsideringwhy what we mostpraise goodness, trength nd so on) must be located high". Evenprimates, e are told, re sensitive othe opposition etween igh ndlow. But the strong ultural alue ascribed o this opposition, nevery ociety, s far s I know, points perhaps o a different actor,specifically uman in fact, he most decisive actor n the historyof homo apiens.'8 The prolonged nfancy f man, the exceptionalslownessof his physical nd intellectual evelopment, s perhaps

13See S. Timpanaro, II lapsus freudiano: psicanalisi e critica testuale(Florence, 1974).

14 In the treatment f this kind of slip I took as a model Erwin Panofsky's"Et in Arcadia ego. On the Conception of Transience n Poussin and Watteau",in R. Klibansky and H. J. Paton (eds.), Philosophy History EssaysPresentedto Ernst Cassirer Oxford, 1936; 2nd edn., New York, 1963),pp. 223-54.

15 See in general G. E. R. Lloyd, Polarity and Analogy: Two Types ofArgumentation n Early Greek Thought Cambridge, 1966).

16 See L. von Bertalanffy, An Essay on Relativity f Categories", Philosophyof Science, xxii (1955), PP. 243-63. For a recent discussion, see H. Gipper,Gibt es ein sprachliches elativitdtsprinzip? ntersuchungen ur Sapir-Whorf-Hypothese Frankfurt m Main, 1972), with bibliography.

17 R. Needham (ed.), Right and Left Chicago, 1973).18 See G. Roheim, "Primitive High Gods", in his The Panic of Gods and

Other Essays (New York, 1972), pp. 52-3 and passim unconvincing but highlystimulating). Some psychological mplications f the archetype f "verticality"are stressed by J. Laponce, "Hirschman's Voice and Exit Model as a SpatialArchetype", Social Science nformation, iii no. 3 (1974), pp. 67-81.



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32 PAST ANDPRESENT NUMBER73

responsible or his mmediate dentification f "high" with trength,goodness nd so on. To the powerless uman hild heoverpoweringadult s the ncarnation f all "values".

This is, of course,pure speculation. But we know or fact hatevery ivilization ocated he sourceof cosmic power God - inthe skies.19 Moreover, he symbolism f "highness" s deeply on-nected to secularpower as Indo-European anguages till show.And f we return o the passage n the Vulgatewithwhichwestarted,we can see that he warning gainst nowledge f "high" things asbeen referred ovarious but intertwined) evelsof reality. Cosmicreality: t s forbidden o ook nto he kies, s well s into he ecretsof Nature (arcana naturae). Religiousreality: t is forbidden oknow he secrets f God (arcanaDei)like predestination, he Trini-tarian ogma nd so on. Political eality: t s forbidden oknow hesecrets f power arcana inzperil), hat s, the mysteries f politics.In fact, we have here some different spects of reality, ll of themimplying definite ierarchy; ifferent, ut intertwined or, toput it in a more preciseway, mutually einforcing y the means ofanalogy.

Anthropologists now- perhaps better han historians thedanger f projecting ur own categories n to distant ultures. Butin this casewe can be quite confident, ecausethe recurrence f thePauline words "noli altum sapere" n different ontexts eflects nimplicit, nifying ssumption: he existence f a separate phere f"highness" cosmic, religious, political) which was forbidden ohuman knowledge.

The ideologicalmeaning f this riple xhortation s quite evident.It tended to maintain he existing ocialand politicalhierarchy ycondemning ubversive olitical hinkers ho tried o penetrate hemysteries f heState. It tended oreinforce hepower f he Church(or churches), ubtracting raditional ogmasfrom he intellectualcuriosity f heretics. As a side effect f some mportance, t tendedto discouragendependent hinkers howouldhavedared o questionthe ime-honoured mage f he cosmos,whichwasbased,by the way,on the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic ssumption f a strong oppositionbetween ncorruptible kies and a corruptible ublunar that is,earthly) orld.

This emphasis n the imits fhuman eason pparently ontradictsthe nineteenth-century mage of the Renaissance s a sharp break

from hetraditional medieval"world. In fact, his magewasnottotallywrong onlyover-simplified. t willbe usefulhere to dis-cuss the case of Erasmus. The defence f learning mplied n hisremark bout the correct meaning f St. Paul's words "noli altum

11 See R. Pettazzoni, L'onniscienza di Dio (Turin, 1955).



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HIGH AND LOW:THETHEMEOFFORBIDDEN NOWLEDGE33sapere" was a consciousdeparture rom he tradition n which hehad beenreared. In the famous ract e imitatione hristi f Thomasa Kempis we can read the following assage: "Do not

yourselfboast about any art or science, ut fear what has been said to you".Fear (time): nd the text ontinued: Noli altum apere, ut confessyour own ignorance".20 Once more, we can see how this passagewas relevant o a whole world-view. Should we call it medieval?This is of course vague,catch-allword. There is no doubt thatthe Brothers f the Common Life praised monastic virtues, ikehumility, s against he ntellectual ride which hey scribed o thescholastic radition. However, heir early follower, rasmus, didnot identify imself ither with monasticism r with cholasticism.In his Antibarbari, n fact, he rejected oth as "barbarisms". Hisdefence f earning asconnected o a different, umanistic radition.It is true hat he heological isputes etween atholic nd Protestantfollowing he onset of the Reformation licited from Erasmus,more nd more often, he quotation f an old dictum: Quae supranos, ea nihil ad nos (we have not to care about things which areabove us)". He was not returning, f course, to the traditionof monastic ntellectual umility. The dictum tself, scribed toSocrates, xpressed different eeling. With true Socratic rony,Erasmus ambiguously eferred o the limits of human knowledge,contrasting he implicity f Christ'smessagewith he ubtle pecula-tions of theologians f both parties.2"

This Socratic motto, quae supra nos, ea nihil ad nos", is oftenquoted n emblem-books those commonplacellustrated anualsread by cultivated uropean people n the sixteenth nd, even morewidely, n the seventeenth enturies."2 f we lookat them, we canfind large number f mages nd mottoes elating o the theme fforbidden nowledge f "high things". What unifies hem s therecurrent uotation duly misunderstood of the Pauline words"noli altum apere". In a typical lendof Christianity nd classicalculture, hese words were used, for nstance, s a caption for the

20 "Noli ergo extolli de ulla arte vel scientia: sed potius time de data tibinotitia ... Noli altum sapere (Rom. II. 20): sed ignorantiam uam magisfatere": Thomas a Kempis, De imitatione Christi libri quattuor, editio adcodicem utographum xacta (Rome, 1925), p. 6.

21 See Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, Opus epistolarum, d. P. S. andH. M. Allen, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1906-58), v, pp. 176-7 (to John Carondelet).See also ibid., pp. 338-9, and Opera omnia, i, col. 250. On the dictum "Quaesupra nos, ea nihil ad nos", see A. Otto, Die Sprichwirter nd sprichwi6rterlichenRedensarten er Rdmer Leipzig, 1890o), . 335. I intend to study ts use byRenaissance and post-Renaissance sceptics in a broader context.

22 See M. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century magery, 2 vols. (London,1939-47; 2nd edn., Rome, 1964-74), i, passim; review by W. S. Heckscher andC. F. Bunker of Emblemata Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst es XVI. und XVII.Jahrhunderts, d. A. Henkel and A. Sch6ne, RenaissanceQuarterly, xiii (1970),pp. 59-80.



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34 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER73Greekmyths f Prometheus nd carus. Icarus, alling rom he ky,and Prometheus, unished orhaving tolen rom he sky he divinefire

seePlates

Iand

2),were seen as

symbolsf

astrologers,f

astronomers, f heretical heologians, f philosophers rone o boldspeculations, f unnamed political theorists.23 ometimes t ispossible odisentangle heobscure llusions mplied n these mblem-books. Alciati's mblemata perhaps hemost amous mong hem,with near one hundred ditions n various anguages contains nemblem which depicts Prometheus n chains, an eagle devouringhis iver. The motto s the one whichwe havealready een: "Quaesupra nos, ea nihil ad nos (we have not to care about things whichare above us)". The verse commentary eads: "roduntur ariisprudentum ectora uris / qui coeli affectant cire deumquevices",of which literal translation ould be: "the hearts f the learnedmen who want to investigate he nature of the skies and of godsare gnawed that s, tormented] y every indof trouble". Alciati'scommentary choed a passage n De fato, a philosophical reatiseabout free will and predestination omposed some years earlierby Pietro Pomponazzi, and then circulating n manuscript."Prometheus ere est philosophus", omponazzihad written, qui,dum vult scire Dei archana, perpetuis curis et cogitationibusroditur.. ", that s "Truly, Prometheus s the philosopher ho, she wants oinvestigate he secrets f God, s continuously ormented[literally, nawed] y roubling orries ndthoughts". Pomponazzi'sheroic self-image ad become, n Alciati's emblem, a polemicalinvective. 4

Emblem-books, eing centred n images, ould easilyovercome23 Both Icarus and Prometheus re included in Andrea Alciati's Emblematum

liber Augsburg, 1531), probably the earliest nd certainly he most influentialcollection of emblems. It must be noted, however, that in the first ditionthe poem In astrologoswas illustrated y an astrologer bout to stumble whilehe gazes at the stars (see Plate 3). In later editions the astrologer Thalesaccording to an old tradition) was replaced by Icarus. The text of the poemis as follows:

Icare per superos qui raptus et adra, donecIn mare praecipitem era liquata daret.Nunc te cera eadem fervensque resuscitat gnis,Exemplo ut doceas dogmata certa tuo.Astrologus caveat quicquam praedicere, praecepsNam cadet impostor dum super astra vehit.

A near literal ranslation would be: "Wax melting made you, Icarus, while youwere flying loft, allheadlong nto the sea. Now the same wax and the burningfire revive you, to teach with your example a well-defined ruth. Let the

astrologer beware of making predictions, for the imposter, while flying verthe stars, will fall headlong to earth."24 See Alciati, Emblematum iber, pp. 55-6; P. Pomponazzi, Libri quinquede

fato, de libero arbitrio et de praedestinatione, d. R. Lemay (Lugano, 1957),p. 262. See in general O. Raggio, "The Myth of Prometheus: Its Survivaland Metamorphoses up to the Eighteenth Century", Ji. of the Warburgand Courtauld nstitutes, xi (1958), pp. 44-62; R. Trousson, Le theme e Pro-m'thde ans la litterature uropdenne, vols. (Geneva, 1964)(very uperficial).



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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEMEOF FORBIDDENKNOWLEDGE 35

linguistic oundaries, ven when heywere not written n the nter-national anguageof Latin. But their wide European circulationovercamenot

onlynational, ut also confessional, oundaries. In

fact, hey sually ppealed oa deeper evel f conventional isdom",based on unconscious or semi-conscious ultural assumptions,among which was the idea of the analogy f cosmic,religious ndpolitical ierarchies the analogy n which he "noli altum apere"prohibition asbased.

However, t a certain oint ome of the traditional imits mposedon human knowledgewere vercome. We have only to rememberthe incredible progress made by astronomical cience from thebeginning f the eventeenth entury. Certainly, en ike GalileoorKepler did not hesitate o look at the skies, even exploiting uchnew artificial evices s the telescope. Arcananaturae, he secretsof Nature, beganto be unveiled: what hen wasthe mpact f thesescientific iscoveries n the old interrelated rohibitions n knowingarcanaDei and arcana mperii, he secrets f God and the secrets fpower Recent iscussion f these problems asmainly mphasizedthe relevance f a specific ntellectual r religious utlook Purit-anism, or nstance to the progress f scientific hought. We willtry otake,however riefly, n alternative oute.

"Hath your raising up of the earth nto heaven", LoyolaaskedCopernicus n John Donne's Ignatius is Conclave,brought men tothat onfidence, hat heybuild new towers r threaten od againe?Or do they ut of this motion f the earth onclude, hat here s nohell, or deny he punishment f sin?""25These were, ccording othis most perceptive f contemporary inds, wopossible ffects fthe "new science": blasphemousntellectual ride on the one hand,or rejection f such a powerful, ohesive ocial force s religion, nthe other. Putting side the former eaction or he moment, et usconcentrate n the atter.The possibility f drawing ubversive nalogiesfrom he "newscience" o religious nd politicalmatters as not, suspect, onfinedto learned ircles. We should recall he words of the eader of oneunsuccessful ower-class onspiracy gainst he papal government,Costantino acardino. This man, hanged s an atheist n Bolognain 1619,was in the habit of saying: "Only fools believe that helldoes exist. Princes want us to believe t, becausethey want to doas they lease. But now, t ast, ll the common eoplehaveopenedtheir eyes (ma ... hormai tutta la colombara ha aperto li occhi)".2G

25 John Donne, Ignatius His Conclave, n his CompletePoetry and SelectedProse, ed. J. Hayward (London, 1949), p. 365.26 Venice, Archivio di Stato, S. Uffizio, b. 72 ("Costantino Sacardino")."Colombara" means, literally, dovecote; as a metaphor, he lower classes insociety. See also R. Campeggi, Racconto de gli heretici conomiasti iustiziatiin Bologna a gloria di Dio della B. Vergine t per honore ella patria (Bologna,1622). I intend to discuss Sacardino's case in a forthcoming rticle.



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36 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER73In these ame yearsFrench nd Italian ntellectual roupsknown s"libertins &rudits" laimedthat religion was a lie, albeit a usefulone: without

t,the masseswouldhavebehaved

adly,nd the whole

of society would have fallen part.27 A man like Sacardino aprofessional lown,whowas also a practitioner fParacelsianmedicine- explicitly eversed his aristocratic heory. The attitude f thecommon eople- this washis hopeful ssumption had changed.They no longer gazed passively t the great deeds of kings andpoliticians n the theatre f the world. They had begun openetrateinto the secrets f power - discovering he secret of secrets, hepolitical se of religion.

"Do they", s Donne had asked, out of this motion f the earthconclude, hat there s no hell, or deny the punishment f sin?"In fact, acardino id. Of course, here s no evidence hathe knewanything bout the Copernican system. But I wonder if hisconsciousness f iving n a new era, n which raditional eliefs adbeen shattered "hormai utta a colombara a aperto i occhi" -wasreally ndependent f what wasgoing n in the realm f science.

Sacardino's ase s, as far s I know, uite exceptional. Moreovera lower-class evolution, uch as that of which he dreamed, wouldhave been, in seventeenth-century urope, obviously doomed tofailure. A successful nalogy rom he "new science" of nature othe science f society ouldbe related, s it was by Hobbes,only oalready xisting nd powerful ealities, uch s the bsolute tates. Itis significant hat this kind of analogywas labelled"atheistic" avague term which could cover not only religious ut also politicalmatters. Thus wehavehere further roof f whatwehave lreadysaid about the deep interrelation etween the three levels ofknowledge cosmic, eligiousnd political. It is useful o rememberin this ontext he nvective f Simplicius n Galileo'sDialogo soprai due massimiistemi elmondo: This manner f thinking ends o thesubversion f ll natural hilosophy nd to the disorder nd upsettingof Heavenand Earth and the whole Universe".28 This fear of thesubversive mplications f the new heliocentric ystem, whichGalileoascribed o the followers f the old, Aristotelian osmology,wasnot a rhetorical xaggeration. n fact t was echoed ome yearslater by Descartes n his Discours e la mithode:

... I cannot in any way approve of those turbulent and unrestful piritswho, being called neither by birth nor fortune o the management f publicaffairs, ever fail to have always in their minds some new reforms. And if

27 See R. Pintard, Le libertinage rudit dans la premiere moitid du XVIIesidcle, vols. (Paris, 1943), i, passim.

28 Galileo Galilei, Dialogue on the Great World Systems, n the SalusburyTranslation, d. G. de Santillana (Chicago, 1953), P. 45; Dialogo sopra i duemassimi istemi el mondo, d. L. Sosio (Turin, 1970), p. 47.



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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEME OFFORBIDDENKNOWLEDGE 37I thought that in this treatise there was contained the smallest ustificationfor this folly, should be very sorry o allow it to be published.29

This cautious remark hrows ome additional ighton

Descartes'sdecisionnot to publish his own treatise Le monde fter Galileo'scondemnation y the Roman Church. He was highly onscious fthe political mplications f the new science - even if he was farfrom upporting hem.

The condemnation f the heliocentric ystem by the RomanChurch has been judged either s an act of blind ntolerance r ofstubborn edantry. The possibility annot be excluded,however,that t was dictated lso by an obscure fear of the religious nd

political mplicationsf the new

cosmology.30n the middle f the

seventeenth entury n Italian Jesuit, Cardinal SforzaPallavicino,adopted more flexible ttitude owards cientific rogress. He tooreferred othe oldanalogy etween rcana naturae nd arcana mperii,the secrets f Nature nd the secrets f political ower, ut sharplyopposed the former o the latter. It was possibleto predict hebehaviour f Nature, because natural aws were few, simple andunbreakable. But to predict hebehaviour f kings nd princes,wassheer emerity as it would be to predict God's inscrutable ill.31In the same vein Virgilio Malvezzi,a nobleman who was also arelative f Sforza allavicino, rote hat whosoever xplains aturalevents by referring hem to God, is a poor philosopher naturalphilosopher, hat s, scientist]; ut whoever oes not refer o God toexplainpolitical vents, s a bad Christian".32 So we have, on theonehand, herealm f cience which s, n principle, pen oeveryone,evento artisans nd peasants, ecause s Sforza allavicino emarked"philosophy againnatural philosophy, hat s, science] ives n theshops nd in the countryside, s wellas in books nd in academies".On the other hand, we have the realm f politics,which s forbiddento "private men" who try to penetrate nto the secrets f power.In this way hesharp pposition etweenNature's predictability ndthe unpredictability f politics eads to (or maybe s dictated by)a very ifferent ssue the need oprevent he common eoplefromintervening n politicaldecisions. At the same time, however, hesubtle distinction raced by Sforza Pallavicino mplied a realisticappraisalof the nature of scientific rogress, hough he cautionedagainst hepretension f gnoring he"gatesof humanknowledge".33

29 Rend Descartes, Discourse n Method... , trans. E. S. Haldane and G. R. T.Ross (Great Books of the Western World, xxxi, Chicago, 1952), P. 45.

30 Some reactions to the idea of a plurality f worlds as an extension of theCopernican cosmology have been discussed by P. Rossi, "Nobility of Man andPlurality f Worlds", in A. G. Debus (ed.), Science,Medicineand Society n theRenaissance Essaysto Honor Walter Pagel, 2 vols. (London, I1972),i, pp. 131-62.

31 Sforza Pallavicino, Del bene Rome, 1644), PP. 346-7.32 Virgilio Malvezzi, Davide perseguitato Bologna, 1634), P. 3.33 Pallavicino, Del bene,pp. 248, 168.



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38 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER73This overcoming f he old imitswasdulyregistered n the mble-

matic literature. During the seventeenth entury carus andPrometheus ecame

ymbolsf a

powerfulntellectual rive owards

discovery. In a dramatic hift f values, boldness", curiosity",34and "intellectual ride" - vicestraditionally ssociatedwith hesemyths werenow seen as virtues. John Donne foresaw t: "Hathyour raising up of the earth nto heaven brought men to thatconfidence, hat they build new towers or threaten God againe?"Icarus nd Prometheus like he Titans or the builders f the Towerof Babel - had also been defeated: but their defeat had been aglorious ne. In fact, n an emblem-book f the late seventeenthcentury, rometheus as no more depicted s a defeated od,chainedto the mountain. His hand touching he sun was matched y theproud motto Nil mortalibus rduum" See Plate 4) - "nothing stoo difficult or human beings".35 Even Icarus's flight o longerconformed o the new attitudes: n another mblem-book carusappears as a winged young man, quietly swimming n the air.(See Plate 5.) The caption "Nil linquere nausum Dare every-thing)" related carus's flight o Columbus's discovery f a newworld.36 DanielloBartoli, he talian Jesuit, ompared olumbus oIcarus, concluding: without his boldness,we would have neitherAmerican pices, nor American mines"."3 The very notions of"risk" and "novelty" were now seen as positive values -appropriate, n fact, to a society ncreasingly ased on commerce.A new culture, entred n the affirmation f new social values,wasemerging.

If wereturn nce againto the Paulinewords noli altum apere",it will be clear why n this period heyno longer eemed cceptable.Indeed we can follow lmost tep by step how this time-honouredmotto was at last dropped. At the beginning f the seventeenthcentury, n a widely ead Dutch emblem-book ritten y a younglawyer, lorentius choonhovius,we can find once more the oldexhortation noli altum sapere", in a slightly modified form:"altum sapere periculosum it is dangerous o know high things)".(SeePlate 6.) Once more he motto eferred o Icarus. A lengthy

34 On curiosity, ee the important ook by H. Blumenberg, Der Prozess dertheoretischen eugierde Frankfurt m Main, 1973).

35 Marcello Marciano, Pompe funebri dell'universo nella morte di FilippoQuarto il Grande re delle Spagne ... (Naples, I666), p. IoI, and plate facing

p. 102; the emblem was dedicated to the Emperor Matthias. The mottoechoes Horace (Carmina, i. 3. 37).36 See Anselme de Boot, Symbola varia diversorum rincipum, Archiducum,

Ducum, Comitum & Marchionum otius taliae, cumfacili isagoge Amsterdam,1686), pp. 292-4. The Latin motto "Nil linquere inausum" echoes Virgil(Aeneis,vii. 308).

37Daniello Bartoli, Dell'huomo di lettere difeso et emendato Rome, 1645),pp. 154-6.



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HIGH ANDLOW: THETHEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 39commentary y Schoonhovius xplained he emblem's arget: thetoo curious theologianswho quarrelled bout such divine secretsas predestination, reewill,Adam'sfall. How much better t wouldbe, the author exclaimed, f they would leave aside such useless,abstruse iscussions, nd be satisfiedmerelywith he Bible. In thisway, he continued, ur prosperous ountry would not run the riskof beingruined by religious trife.3s

What Schoonhoviuswas referring o was at that time a burningissue. In 1618religious ebates n the Dutch republic were at aturning point. The followers of Calvin's strict doctrine ofpredestination ere encountering ncreasing pposition from themilder Arminians. This theologicaldebate had strong politicalovertones incethe Arminians, eing minority, dvocated eligioustoleration. For this reason they were backedby men like Olden-barnevelt who wanted to challenge the political power of theCalvinistministers.39 A synodwassummoned n Dordrecht o settlethe whole issue. At that very moment choonhovius ecided topublish his emblem-book, s a plea for religious eace.

Both the falling carus as a symbol f curious heologiansnd themotto noli altum apere"were irculating idely mong heseDutchreligious roups. In February 618the brother-in-law f the consulofHaarlemwrote letter itterly ondemning hose nsane heologianswho, ike carus, miserably all,having ared o fly oohigh, owardsforbidden argets. Someyears arlier Casaubon, he great lassicalphilologist, ad written o Grotius, he politicalwriter who was themost prominent rminian, emarking hat t would be useful toChristianity, nd above all to Arminians, f somerestraint asput oncurious heologians hoseek he added,obviously choing t. Paul'sEpistle to the Romans,xii. 3) to know more han we should know,"sapientes upra d quod oportet apere".40

Schoonhovius's mblem wastherefore triking n already amiliarnote. But its context was somewhat new. If we look atSchoonhovius's olumewecan see,first f all, facing hefirst ageoftext, portrait f the young uthor, ramed y the words "sapereaude" (see Plate 7); after hat, three emblems: "nosce te ipsum(know yourself)"; sapiens supra fortunam the wise man cannotbe defeated y chance)"; and "altum sapere periculosum", whichwe have already een. The sequencewas centred n the theme ofknowledge, ith vident toic overtones. The meaning f the first

3s See Florentius Schoonhovius, Emblemata .. partim moralia partim etiamcivilia (Gouda, I618; later editions, Leiden, 1626; Amsterdam, 1635-48).

39 ee D. Nobbs, Theocracy and Toleration: A Study of the Disputes inDutch Calvinism rom 16oo to 1650 (Cambridge, 1938).

40 Praestantium c eruditorum irorum pistolae ecclesiasticae t theologicae..[ed. Christian Hartsoeker nd Philip a Limborch], 2nd edn. (Amsterdam, 1684),pp. 492, 378.



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40 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER73

motto, owever, trongly ontrasted ith he astone, "altum aperepericulosum".

"Sapereaude" is taken from Horace's

Epistleto

Lollius.4'Literally t means dare to be wise". Horace addresses hesewordsto a fool who hesitates o cross river ecause he is waiting or heflowingwater o stop. The passagewas originally oncernedwithcommon ense - not with knowledge. But we can easily urmisethat he meaning f Horace's words n Schoonhovius'smblem-bookwas different. Here too "sapere" slipped from a moral to anintellectual evel,under the attraction f the nearby motto altumsapere periculosum".42 The result was a somewhat uneasybalance: "it is dangerous o know high hings", ut "dare to know".

To understand ully hemeaning f this ast xhortation e have torecall that n this period European ntellectuals ore nd more feltthemselves o be part of a cosmopolitan espublica iteratorum,commonwealth f intellectuals.43 n this context heir allegianceto fellow ntellectuals as more mportant o them han heir eligiousor political commitment. We could even say that the search fortruth was becoming peculiar religion, political ommitment nitself. But this emphasis n the spirit f research id not concerneveryone. "Hic vero ibertas liqua nquirendi, ut etiam issentiendidoctis omnino oncedenda st (we have to give some freedom finquiry, nd even of dissent, bove ll to ntellectuals)", rote onradVorstius, the Arminian professor of theology at Leiden, toCasaubon,"otherwisewe will ook as if we were stopping he slowmarch f the truth".44

So, freedom f nquirywas to be given bove all - or should wesay only? - to a specific ocialgroup: that s, intellectuals. t ispossible o say that new mageof ntellectuals as then emerging,an imagewhich, orbetter r worse, s still live.

"Altum aperepericulosum": he searchfor ruth an have somedangerous ocial implications as the Dutch case would prove.In the synod f Dordrecht he Arminians ere defeated. One yearlater, n 1619, the theological ictory f Calvinist rthodoxy asmatched by a political one. Oldenbarnevelt as put to death;manyArminians or Remonstrants, s they were alled fled ntoexile,mainly oFrance. Schoonhovius, erhaps isillusioned y thereligious truggles f his fellow-believers, orsookCalvinism nd

41 Horace, Epistolae, . 2. 40 ("ad Lollium").42 This evidence confirms he highly perceptive hypothesis formulated byL. Firpo, "Ancora a proposito di 'Sapere aude ' ", Rivista storica taliana,lxxii (I96o), pp. 114-17.

P4 See C. Vivanti, "Dalla repubblica cristiana all'Europa dei dotti", in hisLotta politica e pace religiosa n Francia fra Cinque e Seicento Turin, 1963),pp. 325-62.

44 Praestantium c eruditorum irorum pistolae, p. 288.



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HIGH ANDLOW: THE THEMEOF FORBIDDENKNOWLEDGE 41

became a Catholic. Nor, incidentally, id he produce any moreemblem-books. But the diffusion f the new meaning of theHoratian words "sapere aude (dare to know)" continued. Indeed,they were chosen as a personal motto by Gassendi, the Frenchempiricist philosopher onnected not only with the "libertinserudits", ut also with he Arminian xiles n Paris.45

At the beginning f the eighteenth entury bookwasprinted nHolland. Its title agewas adorned y vignette f a man limbinghigh mountain. (See Plate 8.) On the top, surrounded y clouds,can be seen a cornucopia. A wingedgod with scythe FatherTime - holds the man's hand, aiding him in his ascent. Themotto s"Dum audes, rduavinces if youwilldare,youwillovercomeevery difficulty)". he emblem artfully ints at three differentmottoes, using hem nto one: "Veritas filia Temporis Truth isthe daughter f Time)"; "altum sapere", because "ardua" meansalso "high things"; and "sapere aude". In fact, we have FatherTime; we have height; we have boldness ("Dum audes...","if youwilldare . ."). But where s "sapere"?Onehasonly o ookat the title of the book: Epistolae d Societatem egiamAnglicam(Letters o the EnglishRoyalSociety) y Anton an Leeuwenhoek,46the greatDutch biologistwho was the first cientist o use the micro-scope. So the vignette'smeaning ould be translated n this way:the time has come; the secrets f Nature re no longer ecrets; heintellectual oldness f scientists illput Nature's gifts t our feet.

The uneasybalancebetween don't knowhigh hings" nd "dareto know" had been broken. The eighteenth-century istory f thisexhortation o overcome he old limits of knowledgehas beentraced.47 It ishighly ignificanthat he Horatianmottowasregardedas the very expression f Enlightenment alues. "Was ist Auf-kliirung?" - "What is Enlightenment?" - Kant asked at the

end of the century. His own answerwas sapere ude - even ifhe too emphasized n his own waythe imits f human knowledge.But this s a different tory.University f Bologna CarloGinzburg

45 See Firpo, op. cit., pp. 116-17.46 Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Epistolae ad Societatem Regiam Anglicam et

alios illustres iros . . (Leiden, 1719).47 See F. Venturi, "Was ist Aufklirung? Sapere aude ", Rivista storica

italiana, xxi 1959), pp. 119-28; and his Utopia and Reform n the Enlightenment(Cambridge, 1971), PP. 5-9.

carlo ginzburg. high and low - the theme of forbidden knowledge in the sixteenth and seventeenth...

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