Nought & the Ass in Robert Fludd

In the book 'Touches of Sweet Harmony' by S.K Heninger which explores late medieval and renaissance structures of cosmology and their influence in art and literary culture there is an excellent chapter on number symbolism and reproduced is a chart of symbolic images for the numerical scale, a plate from the 'Utriusque Cosmi Historia' of the 17th century Hermeticist Robert Fludd - in this chart the zero or naught is symbolized by - an Ass!

Interesting to see this correlation between asses and nought shared by both the popular late medieval iconography of the Tarocchi with its ass-eared fool a la Sebastian Brant and the learned Hermetic-Pythagorean speculations of Robert Fludd. I think a similar vein of apophatic asinine symbology is to be seen in Giordano Bruno's 1585 work 'Cabala del Cavallo Pegaso' - the Ass is a symbol of vacuity and ignorance but as Frances Yates has said 'The mystical Nothing beyond the Cabalist Sephiroth he [Bruno] symbolizes by the Ass, and this Ass of negative theology or Unknowing is the strange hero of the work.'

The emblem of the Ass and the symbolic themes of Wisdom and Folly in late medieval and renaissance culture are clearly susceptible to polyvalent interpretation in varying contexts.

all the best,
Nigel

nigromancer700 said:

In the book 'Touches of Sweet Harmony' by S.K Heninger which explores late medieval and renaissance structures of cosmology and their influence in art and literary culture there is an excellent chapter on number symbolism and reproduced is a chart of symbolic images for the numerical scale, a plate from the 'Utriusque Cosmi Historia' of the 17th century Hermeticist Robert Fludd - in this chart the zero or naught is symbolized by - an Ass!
Nigel

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IV.2 - Because Balaam was foolish, a foolish beast in the ass spoke with him, because he despised God Who spoke with him. Thee too let the pearl reprove in the ass's stead. The people that had a heart of stone, by a Stone He set at nought, for lo, a stone hears words. The Pearl -- Seven Hymns on the Faith, Ephraim Syrus

Kwaw
All wordly wealth for him too little was;
Now hath he right nought, naked as an ass.
Sometime without measure he trusted in gold,
And now without measure he shall have hunger and cold.
Lo, sirs, thus I handle them all
That follow their fancies in folly to fall.
From English Tudor play 'Magnificence'

Nice citations Kwaw, especially liked the Tudor one. Robert Fludd says that the Ass is the symbol of nought because an ass is worth nothing - which chimes with the value-ranks of the triumphs in Tarocchi and brings to mind such examples as the medieval ass-eared Bishop of Fools, Bishop Nullatensis, which Robert O Neill mentions.

all the best
Nigel

nigromancer700 said:

Nice citations Kwaw, especially liked the Tudor one. Robert Fludd says that the Ass is the symbol of nought because an ass is worth nothing - which chimes with the value-ranks of the triumphs in Tarocchi and brings to mind such examples as the medieval ass-eared Bishop of Fools, Bishop Nullatensis, which Robert O Neill mentions.

all the best
Nigel

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The festival of fools was also known as the feast of the ass. The fool or worthless fellow in 13th century french was called a 'cipher', a nothing or zero, in the steele sermon 'nulla', worth nothing. In Shakespeare Bottom [or arse] is transformed into an Ass. In Old English a 'nowt' [from Norse] is a fool, nought and an ox [as Hebrew aleph is an ox and Ain - nothing]. In 12th and 13th centuries vagrants, worthless fellows and criminals were marked with a Theca [a circle with upwards chevron in centre]. The fool in the game of tarot is without value... other than as an excuse. Language and history testifies to the 'nought' value of the fool, and the association of the fool with 'ass' [whose 'ass' or 'arse' we may note, is revealed in the TdM].

The connection between folly, ignorance and the ass go back to classical roman time, we may see it repeated in Boethius, possibly the vehicle of the Christian neo-platonism references we see in the tarot sequence.
"Dost thou understand, or art thou dull as an ass to the sound of my lyre?" wrote Boethius.

Kwaw

kwaw said:

The connection between folly, ignorance and the ass go back to classical roman time, we may see it repeated in Boethius, possibly the vehicle of the Christian neo-platonism references we see in the tarot sequence.
"Dost thou understand, or art thou dull as an ass to the sound of my lyre?" wrote Boethius.

Kwaw

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On good and evil fortune [a source for the idea of animal figures upon the wheel of fortune?] " Boethius wrote: "In like manner, wickness itself is the reward of the unrighteous. Unrighteousness degrades the wicked below man's level. Thou canst not consider him human whom thou seest transformed by vice. The covetous man surely resembles a wolf. A restless, wrangling spirit is like some yelping cur. The secret fraudulent schemer is own brother to the fox. The passionate man, frenzied with rage, we might believe to be animated with the soul of a lion. The coward may be likened to the timid deer. He who is sunk in ignorance and stupidity lives like a dull ass. He who wallows in foul lusts is sunk in the pleasures of a hog."

Or as the King Alfred anglo-saxon version has it "And the dull man who is too slow thou shall call an ass more than a man." [as by Trans. into modern English by Samuel Fox].

Boethius Latin original:
Segnis ac stupidus torpet: asinum uiuit.

Kwaw