![]() The secret of Giorgi's universe was number, for it was built, so he believed, by its Architect as a perfectly proportioned Temple, in accordance with unalterable laws of cosmic geometry. He accepts the connections between angelic hierarchies and planetary spheres, and rises up happily through the stars to the angels, hearing all the way those harmonies on each level of the creation imparted by the Creator to his universe, founded on number and numerical laws of proportion. ![]() ![]() For Giorgi, with his Franciscan optimism, the angels are close indeed, and Cabala has brought them closer. He develops that correlation between Hebrew and Christian angelic systems, already present in Pico, to a high degree of intensity. Giorgi grafts the Cabalist influence onto the traditions of his order. ![]() In these early years of the sixteenth century the Christian Cabalist was full of hope, believing that he held a new key to the mysteries of his religion. In Italy, the Christian Cabalist movement had as one of its outstanding figures Cardinal Egidius of Vit-erbo.6 Collecting and studying the greatly increased range of Cabalist manuscripts now circulating in Italy, the Cardinal and the scholars connected with him were deeply interested in movements for religious reform. With Giorgi we are in a stream of Cabalist influence contemporary with that which was inspiring Reuchlin and the German humanists. These influences were completely integrated into Giorgi's Neoplatonism in which was included the whole tradition of Pythagoro-Platonic numerology, of world and human harmony, even of Vitruvian theory of architecture,4 which, for Giorgi, had a religious significance connected with the Temple of Solomon.5 And, like Pico, he could see the many connections and correspondences between the Hebrew gnostic system and the teachings of the supposed 'Hermes Trismegistus', which were also given a Christian interpretation. As a Hebrew scholar he could follow the processes whereby the manipulation of Hebrew letters in the Name of God was believed to demonstrate that Jesus is the name of the Messiah (Plate 3).3 To Giorgi this seemed a revelation of the utmost religious and Christian importance. That Giorgi was a Christian Cabalist is a statement which means, not merely that he was influenced in a vague way by theĬabalist literature, but that he believed that Cabala could prove, or rather had already proved, the truth of Christianity. Cabalist writings had flooded into Venice and other parts of Italy through the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. And, like Reuchlin, he can draw upon richer sources of Hebrew religious literature than were available to Pico. ![]() Giorgi's outlook, as compared with that of Ficino and Pico, has an added Christian intensity, through his Franciscan training. Giorgi's Cabalism, though primarily inspired by Pico, had been enriched by the new waves of Hebrew studies of which Venice, with its renowned Jewish community was an important centre. These show clearly enough the influence upon him of the Florentine Neoplatonic movement. His main published works were the De harmonia mundi,2 first edition in 1525 (Plate 8), and the Problemata, 1536. Francesco Giorgi,1 or Zorzi, of Venice (1466-1540) entered the Franciscan Order probably in early life, though there is little documentary evidence about his early years. ![]()
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