Pansophic Mirrors of the Soul: Comenius, Pinder and the Transformation of Cusan Optics

0553614 - FLÚ 2022 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Burton, Simon James Gowan
Pansophic Mirrors of the Soul: Comenius, Pinder and the Transformation of Cusan Optics.
Acta Comeniana. -, 34/58 (2020), s. 9-47. ISSN 0231-5955
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA19-02938S
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : Jan Amos Comenius * Ulrich Pinder * Nicholas of Cusa * Bonaventure * Metaphysics of Light * Contuition
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology
Method of publishing: Metadata only

By his own account Jan Amos Comenius discovered the works of Nicholas of Cusa through his reading of the Speculum intellectuale felicitatis of the Nuremberg humanist Ulrich Pinder. However, while Cusa’s influence on Comenius is well known, that of Pinder remains unconsidered. Indeed, Pinder has been mined simply as a Cusan source and not considered as a Comenian influence in his own right. Yet Pinder’s skilful compiling places Cusan conceptualities in new frames and alongside different figures (e.g. Bonaventure, Peter of Limoges, Pico, Baptista Mantuanus) offering a profound interpretative lens through which to view the fifteenth-century German Cardinal. Placing Comenius’ reading of Pinder in the wider context of the Neo-Platonic metaphysics of light this paper investigates his reception of optical metaphors of knowledge (eye, mirror, glasses etc) considering the Speculum as a prototype for the Panaugia and Pansophia.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0329352