The Past and Present Society

High and Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries
Author(s): Carlo Ginzburg
Source: Past & Present, No. 73 (Nov., 1976), pp. 28-41
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society
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HIGH AND LOW:

THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE
IN THE
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES*
THE SUBJECTOF THIS ESSAY IS A VERY BROAD ONE AND IT WOULD BE

betterperhapsto startwitha specifictext. In his Epistle to the

Romans xi.

20,

St. Paul cautioned those Romans who embraced

not to despisethe Jews. Christ'smessage,he implied,

Christianity
is a universalone. And he concludedthe Epistlewiththe words
q VAoqv0pdvE,,JAA qofloi -

translated in the Authorized Version

oftheBibleas "be nothigh-minded,

butfear". In Jerome'sVulgate
is
thecorresponding
as:
passage given "noli altumsapere,sed time".x
Jerome'sVulgateoftenappears as a strictlyliteraltranslation:2
and in thiscase also "altumsapere" is morea reflection
into Latin
than a proper translation of the Greek word bt'Ao povErv.E

But afterthe fourthcenturythe whole passage in the Latin West

was oftenmisunderstood:
"sapere" was takennot as a verb witha
moral meaning("to be wise") but as a verb with an intellectual
meaning("to know"); and the adverbialexpression"altum" was
takenas a noun denoting"highness". "Non enimprodestscire",
Ambrosiuswrote,"sed metuere,quod futurumest; scriptumest
enim,Noli alta sapere... (It is betterto fearthe thingsto come
Noli alta sapere.. .)".4
thanto knowthem;in fact,it has beenwritten
In this way St. Paul's condemnationof moral pride became a

* Writtenat the InstituteforAdvanced Study, Princeton,thispaper presents

in a necessarilysketchyway some preliminaryresultsof a wider researchstillin
progress.
1 The whole passage reads:
Quod si aliqui ex ramis fractisunt, tu autem, cum oleaster esses, insertuses
in illis et socius radicis et pinguedinisolivae factus es: noli gloriariadversus
ramos. Quod si gloriaris,non tu radicem portas, sed radix te. Dices ergo:
Fracti sunt rami ut ego inserar. Bene, propterincredulitatemfractisunt;
tu autem fide stas: noli altum sapere, sed time. Si enim Deus naturalibus
ramis non pepercit,ne fortenec tibi parcat.
Bibliorumsacrorum... nova editio,ed. L. Gramatica (Rome, I95I), p. io66.
2 See W. E. Plater and H. J. White, A Grammarof the Vulgate (Oxford,
p. 29.
I926),
* See F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammarof the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature, trans. and revised by R. W. Funk
(Cambridge and Chicago, I96I), p. 65. The moral and religiousmeaning of
is emphasized by W. Jaeger,The Theologyof theEarly GreekPhilosophers
ypoveiv
(Oxford, 1947, repr. 1967), pp. 113-14.
4Ambrosius, De fide, v. 17. 209 (Sancti Ambrosii Opera, Pt. 8, ed.
O. Faller, Corpus scriptorumecclesiasticorumLatinorum [hereafterC.S.E.L.],
lxxviii,Vienna, 1962, p. 295); see also ibid., p. 300.

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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

29

warningagainstintellectualcuriosity. At the beginningof the fifth

centuryPelagius criticizedsome unnamedpeople who, misinterthemeaningandcontextofthepassage,saidthatin Romansxi.
preting
20 the Apostleintendedto forbid"the studyof wisdom(sapientiae
studium)".5More thana thousandyearslaterErasmus,followinga
remarkof the ItalianhumanistLorenzoValla,6notedthatthetarget
of St. Paul's wordshad been a moralvice, not an intellectualone.
he wrotethat"thesewordsdo
In his unfinished
dialogueAntibarbari
but are designedto restrainus fromboasting
notcondemnerudition,
about our worldlysuccess". "Paul", he added, "addressedthese
wordsnonaltumsapereto rich people, not to learnedmen". Not
of theNew Testament,Erasmus
in his owntranslation
surprisingly,
refusedto adopt the ambiguouswords of the Vulgateand wrote
animo,sed timeas". "What
instead,more precisely,"ne efferaris
is concernedhere",he explained,"is neitherlearningnorfoolishness,
but arroganceand modesty".' We will returnlaterto this defence
his clear
of learningby Erasmus. In any case, notwithstanding
of
the
of
the
the
Pauline
text,
misunderstanding
interpretation
passagepersisted.
The analogybetweenthe wordsof Pelagiusand thoseof Erasmus
is strikingindeed. Apparentlytherewas a persistenttendencyto
this specificpassage. At firstsightthis is difficult
misunderstand
to acceptbecauseall medievaland Renaissancecommentators
rightly
"noli altumsapere" as a warningagainstspiritualpride.
interpreted
But Romans xi. 20 was followedby two othermoral exhortations
in similarvein: "I say.. . to everyman.. . not to thinkof himself
more highlythan he ought to think.. ." (Romans xii. 3); and
"Mind not high things,but condescendto men of low estate"
(Romansxii. I6). The keywordin all passagesin the Greektextis
qOpov~tl) (ttzu\V'

Aoqp0'Et,

[q'

l5fra7 Ad
[z) i-d
v5TEpqmooVEmtv,
q'povo-v1-rES,,8

whichwas translatedby Jeromeas "sapere" ("noli altumsapere",

"non plus sapere quam oportetsapere", "non alta sapientessed
humilibusconsentientes").Alreadyin thethirdcenturyLactantius,
the Christianapologist,had writtenthat"sapere" meant"searching
6 Pelagius, Expositiones
tredecimepistolarumPauli, In epistolamad Romanos
(Patrologiae cursus completus, ed. J.-P. Migne, Series latina [hereafterP.L.],
Supplementum,i, ed. A. Hamman, Paris, 1958, col. II6I).
6 See Lorenzo Valla, In Novum Testamentum
annotationes... cum Erasmi
Praefatione(Basle, 1541), PP. I4Iv' I142r-v. See also, however,Valla's treatise,
De libero arbitrio, ed. M. Anfossi (Florence, 1934), PP. 50-2, where the
Pauline words are still recalled in an intellectualcontext- that is, an attack
againstthe loftyspeculationsof theologianson freewill and predestination.
7 See Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, Opera omnia, Io vols. (Leiden,
1703-6), x, col. 1726; vi, col. 625.
8 See King James' AuthorizedVersionof theHoly Bible, ed. W. C. Sanderson
(Philadelphia, 1964), PP. 789-90. For the Greek text,see Novum Testamentum
Graece et Latine, ed. A. Merk, 5th edn. (Rome, 1944).

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30

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 73

forthe truth".9 A centurylater,to Ambrosius,as we have seen,

"sapere" was just a synonymof "scire", thatis, "to know". It is
thatin Neo-Latinlanguagestheverbsused forknowledge
significant
are sapere,savoir,saber - even if in Italian, forinstance,the distinc-

tion between scienza and sapienza maintainsin some way the

distinctionbetween intellectualand moral levels.1' It is not
thenthatthewords"non plussaperequamoportetsapere"
surprising
as directedagainsttheintellec(Romansxii. 3) had been interpreted
tual curiosity
of hereticsaboutmattersof religion. Even commentatorssuch as Smaragdusor RabanusMaurus,who had rightly
inter"noli
altum
as
an
of
"do
not
be
preted
equivalent
sapere"
proud",
eventuallyconnectedit some pages laterto "non plus saperequam
oportetsapere"withan intellectual
meaning." Removedfromtheir
propercontext,St. Paul's words"noli altumsapere" were quoted
forcenturiesand centuries,by lay as well as ecclesiasticalwriters,
as the standardauthorityagainst any attemptto overcomethe
boundariesof humanintellect,as we shall see later,forinstance,in
De imitatione
Christi. At theend of thefifteenth
centuryone ofthe
firstItalian translatorsof the Bible, Nicol6 Malermi,could write
"non voleresaperele chosealte" - thatis, "do notseekto knowhigh

things".12

So we have a slip - not an individualslip, but a collectiveor

the "slipping"of St. Paul's words
nearlycollectiveone. Certainly,
froma moralto an intellectual
meaninghad been aided by linguistic
ii. 7 (ed. S. Brandt and G. Laubmann,
9 Lactantius, Divinae Institutiones,
C.S.E.L., xix, Vienna, 1890, p. 125): "sapere id est veritatemquaerere.. .'
10 G.
Luck, "Zur Geschichte des Begriffs 'sapientia' ", Archiv fiir
ix (1964), pp. 203-15. See also E. F. Rice, The Renaissance
Begriffsgeschichte,
Idea of Wisdom(Cambridge, Mass., 1958).
11Smaragdus, Collectiones epistolarumet evangeliorumde temporeet de
sanctis,Dominica prima post Theophania (P.L., cii, Paris, 1851, cols. 76-7);
Rabanus Maurus, Enarrationumin epistolasbeati Pauli libri triginta,vi. II;
vii. 12 (P.L., cxi, Paris, 1864, cols. 1532, 1544-46). See also Primasius,
Commentariain epistolas S. Pauli, Epistola ad Romanos, xi; xii (P.L., lxviii,
Paris, 1866, cols. 491, 494); Luculentius, In aliquot novi Testamentipartes
iii (P.L., lxxii, Paris, 1849, cols. 813-14); Alulfus, De expositione
commentarii,
novi Testamenti,vi. 29 (P.L., lxxix, Paris, 1849, col. 1304); Sedulius Scotus,
in
Collectanea omnesB. Pauli epistolas,i. I I; i. 12 (P.L., ciii, Paris, 1864, cols.
105, III); Bruno the Carthusian, Expositio in epistolas Pauli, Epistola ad
Romanos, II, 12 (P.L., cliii, Paris, 1854, cols. 96, 102); Hugh of Saint Victor,
Quaestioneset decisionesin epistolas D. Pauli, In epistolam ad Romanos, q.
cclxxxviii (P.L., clxxv, Paris, 1854, cols. 502-3); William abbot of Saint
Theodoric prope Remos, Expositio in epistolamad Romanos, vi. II; vii. 12
(P.L., clxxx, Paris, 1855, cols. 662, 672); Herveus Burgidolensis,Commentaria
in epistolasdivi Pauli, Expositio in epistolamad Romanos, I I; 12 (P.L., clxxxi,
Paris, 1854, cols. 754, 765-6). All interpretedRom. xii. 3 as referringto
knowledge (illicit curiosity,etc.). Some of them (Luculentius, William of
Saint Theodoric, Herveus Burgidolensis) explicitlyrecalled, in this context,
Rom. xi. 20.
trans. Nicol6 Malermi (Venice, 1507 edn.),
12 Biblia vulgare historiata...,
p. clxxv.

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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

31

and textualfactors.13 Butthefactthatthewords"nolialtumsapere"

had been interpreted
as a warningagainstthe illicitknowledgeof
"high things"pointsalso to moreprofoundelements.14
Humanbeingsrepresent
in termsofopposites.
realityto themselves
That is to say, theycut the flowof theirperceptionsaccordingto
tidy,polarcategories:lightand dark,hotand cold - highand low.'"
The old dictumascribedto Heraclitusthatrealityis a struggleof
intothelanguageofhis
opposites- a dictumwhichHegeltranslated
own dialecticalconception- can also be read in a different
(and
equallyanachronistic)
key. A famousbiologistonce observedthat
the obsessionwithpolarityhas deep biologicalroots. The human
mind,he said,is likea computerworkingon thebasis ofa yes-or-no,
all-or-nothing
logic. Even ifmodernphysicshas becomesufficiently
to supersedethis kind of logic, humanbeings
unanthropomorphic
still behave and thinkin a different
way. To them,reality- as
reflectedin language,and subsequentlyin thought- is not a continuum,but a realmof distinct,primarily
polarcategories.16
These categories,of course,have a culturalor symbolicmeaning,
as wellas a biologicalone. Anthropologists
havebegunto elucidate
the variablemeaningof some of them - the oppositionbetween
rightand left,for instance.17 But none of these categoriesis so
universalas the oppositionbetweenhighand low. It is significant
thatwe say thatsomething
is "high" or "superior"- or conversely,
"base" or "inferior"- withoutconsideringwhy what we most
and so on) mustbe located"high". Even
praise(goodness,strength
we aretold,aresensitiveto theoppositionbetweenhighand
primates,
low. But the strongculturalvalue ascribedto this opposition,in
everysociety,as faras I know,pointsperhapsto a different
factor,
human- in fact,the mostdecisivefactorin the history
specifically
of homosapiens.'8 The prolongedinfancyof man, the exceptional
slownessof his physicaland intellectualdevelopment,is perhaps
13 See S. Timpanaro, II lapsus freudiano: psicanalisi e critica testuale
(Florence, 1974).
of this kind of slip I took as a model Erwin Panofsky's
14 In the treatment
"Et in Arcadia ego. On the ConceptionofTransience in Poussin and Watteau",
in R. Klibansky and H. J. Paton (eds.), Philosophy& History: Essays Presented
to 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 of
in Early Greek Thought(Cambridge, 1966).
Argumentation
16 See L. von
"An Essay on Relativityof Categories", Philosophy
Bertalanffy,
of Science, xxii (1955), PP. 243-63. For a recent discussion, see H. Gipper,
Gibt es ein sprachlichesRelativitdtsprinzip?Untersuchungen
zur Sapir-WhorfHypothese(Frankfurtam Main, 1972), with bibliography.
R.
Needham
(ed.), Right and Left (Chicago, 1973).
17
18 See G. Roheim, "Primitive
High Gods", in his The Panic of Gods and
OtherEssays (New York, 1972), pp. 52-3 and passim (unconvincingbut highly
Some
stimulating).
psychologicalimplicationsof the archetypeof "verticality"
are stressed by J. Laponce, "Hirschman's Voice and Exit Model as a Spatial
xiii no. 3 (1974), pp. 67-81.
Archetype",Social Science Information,

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32

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 73

forthisimmediateidentification
of "high"withstrength,
responsible
goodnessand so on. To thepowerlesshumanchildtheoverpowering
adultis the incarnation
of all "values".
This is, of course,purespeculation. But we knowfora factthat
everycivilizationlocatedthe sourceof cosmicpower- God - in
the skies.19 Moreover,the symbolismof "highness"is deeplyconnectedto secularpower- as Indo-Europeanlanguagesstillshow.
And ifwe returnto thepassagein theVulgatewithwhichwe started,
we can see thatthe warningagainstknowledgeof "high" thingshas
been referred
to various(but intertwined)
levelsof reality. Cosmic
to lookintotheskies,as wellas intothesecrets
reality:it is forbidden
of Nature (arcana naturae). Religiousreality:it is forbiddento
knowthe secretsof God (arcanaDei) like predestination,
the Trinitariandogmaand so on. Politicalreality:it is forbidden
to knowthe
secretsof power(arcana inzperil),
thatis, the mysteries
of politics.
In fact,we have here some different
aspectsof reality,all of them
- or, to
but intertwined
implyinga definitehierarchy;different,
by the meansof
put it in a morepreciseway,mutuallyreinforcing
analogy.
know - perhapsbetterthan historians- the
Anthropologists
of
danger projectingour own categorieson to distantcultures. But
in thiscase we can be quite confident,
of the
becausetherecurrence
Pauline words"noli altumsapere" in different
contextsreflectsan
assumption:the existenceof a separatesphereof
implicit,unifying
"highness" (cosmic, religious,political) which was forbiddento
humanknowledge.
is quiteevident.
The ideologicalmeaningofthistripleexhortation
It tendedto maintainthe existingsocial and politicalhierarchy
by
condemningsubversivepoliticalthinkerswho triedto penetratethe
thepoweroftheChurch
oftheState. It tendedtoreinforce
mysteries
traditional
dogmasfromthe intellectual
(or churches),subtracting
it tended
of someimportance,
curiosityof heretics. As a side effect
thinkers
to discourageindependent
whowouldhavedaredto question
thetime-honoured
imageofthecosmos,whichwasbased,bytheway,
on the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic
assumptionof a strongopposition
between incorruptibleskies and a corruptiblesublunar (that is,
earthly)world.
contradicts
This emphasison thelimitsofhumanreasonapparently
the nineteenth-century
image of the Renaissanceas a sharp break
fromthe traditional
"medieval"world. In fact,thisimagewas not
totallywrong onlyover-simplified.It willbe usefulhereto discuss the case of Erasmus. The defenceof learningimpliedin his
remarkabout the correctmeaningof St. Paul's words"noli altum
11

See R. Pettazzoni, L'onniscienzadi Dio (Turin, 1955).

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HIGH ANDLOW: THE THEMEOF FORBIDDENKNOWLEDGE

33

sapere" was a consciousdeparturefromthe traditionin whichhe

Christi
ofThomas
had beenreared. In thefamoustractDe imitatione
a Kempis we can read the followingpassage: "Do not yourself
boastabout anyartor science,but fearwhathas been said to you".
Fear (time):and the textcontinued:"Noli altumsapere,but confess
yourown ignorance".20Once more,we can see how this passage
was relevantto a whole world-view. Should we call it medieval?
This is of coursea vague,catch-allword. There is no doubtthat
the Brothersof the Common Life praised monasticvirtues,like
as againstthe intellectual
humility,
pridewhichtheyascribedto the
scholastictradition. However,their earlyfollower,Erasmus,did
not identifyhimselfeitherwithmonasticism
or withscholasticism.
in fact,he rejectedboth as "barbarisms". His
In his Antibarbari,
defenceoflearningwas connectedto a different,
humanistic
tradition.
It is truethatthetheological
disputesbetweenCatholicandProtestant
followingthe onset of the Reformationelicited from Erasmus,
moreand moreoften,the quotationof an old dictum:"Quae supra
nos, ea nihil ad nos (we have not to care about thingswhichare
above us)". He was not returning,of course, to the tradition
of monasticintellectualhumility. The dictumitself,ascribedto
Socrates,expresseda different
feeling. With true Socraticirony,
Erasmus ambiguouslyreferredto the limitsof humanknowledge,
thesimplicity
of Christ'smessagewiththesubtlespeculacontrasting
tionsof theologiansof bothparties.2"
This Socraticmotto,"quae supranos, ea nihilad nos", is often
- thosecommonplaceillustrated
manuals
quotedin emblem-books
read by cultivatedEuropeanpeoplein the sixteenth
and, evenmore
widely,in the seventeenth
centuries."2If we look at them,we can
finda largenumberof imagesand mottoesrelatingto the themeof
forbiddenknowledgeof "high things". What unifiesthemis the
- of the Paulinewords
recurrent
quotation- dulymisunderstood
and classical
"noli altumsapere". In a typicalblendof Christianity
culture,these words were used, for instance,as a captionforthe
20
"Noli ergo extolli de ulla arte vel scientia: sed potius time de data tibi
notitia....
Noli altum sapere (Rom. II. 20): sed ignorantiamtuam magis
fatere": Thomas a Kempis, De imitationeChristi libri quattuor,editio ad
codicemautographumexacta (Rome, 1925), p. 6.
21 See Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, Opus epistolarum,
ed. P. S. and
H. M. Allen, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1906-58), v, pp. 176-7 (to John Carondelet).
See also ibid.,pp. 338-9, and Opera omnia,ii, col. 250. On the dictum "Quae
supra nos, ea nihil ad nos", see A. Otto, Die Sprichwirterundsprichwi6rterlichen
Redensartender Rdmer (Leipzig, 1890o),p. 335. I intend to study its use by
Renaissance and post-Renaissance sceptics in a broader context.
22 See M. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century
Imagery, 2 vols. (London,
1939-47; 2nd edn., Rome, 1964-74), i, passim; reviewby W. S. Heckscher and
C. F. Bunker of Emblemata: Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst
des XVI. und XVII.
ed. A. Henkel and A. Sch6ne, RenaissanceQuarterly,xxiii (1970),
Jahrhunderts,
pp. 59-80.

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PAST AND PRESENT

34

NUMBER

73

GreekmythsofPrometheus
and Icarus. Icarus,fallingfromthesky,
and Prometheus,
punishedforhavingstolenfromthe skythe divine
fire(see Plates I and 2), were seen as symbolsof astrologers,
of
of hereticaltheologians,
of philosophers
astronomers,
proneto bold
speculations,of unnamed political theorists.23Sometimesit is
theobscureallusionsimpliedin theseemblempossibleto disentangle
- perhapsthemostfamousamongthem,
books. Alciati'sEmblemata
withnearone hundrededitionsin variouslanguages- containsan
emblemwhich depicts Prometheusin chains,an eagle devouring
his liver. The mottois theone whichwe havealreadyseen: "Quae
supranos, ea nihilad nos (we have not to care about thingswhich
are above us)". The verse commentary
reads: "rodunturvariis
sciredeumquevices",
prudentumpectoracuris/ qui coeli affectant
of whicha literaltranslationcould be: "the heartsof the learned
men who want to investigatethe natureof the skies and of gods
are gnawed[thatis, tormented]
by everykindoftrouble". Alciati's
echoed
a
commentary
passage in De fato, a philosophicaltreatise
about free will and predestination
composed some years earlier
by Pietro Pomponazzi, and then circulatingin manuscript.
"Prometheusvere est philosophus",Pomponazzihad written,"qui,
dum vult scire Dei archana, perpetuis curis et cogitationibus
roditur.. .", thatis "Truly,Prometheusis thephilosopher
who,as
tormented
thesecretsof God, is continuously
he wantsto investigate
worries
andthoughts". Pomponazzi's
[literally,
gnawed]bytroubling
heroic self-imagehad become, in Alciati's emblem,a polemical
invective.24

Emblem-books,being centredon images,could easilyovercome

Both Icarus and Prometheusare included in Andrea Alciati's Emblematum

liber(Augsburg, 1531), probablythe earliestand certainlythe most influential
collection of emblems. It must be noted, however, that in the firstedition
the poem In astrologoswas illustratedby an astrologerabout to stumble while
he gazes at the stars (see Plate 3). In later editions the astrologer(Thales
according to an old tradition)was replaced by Icarus. The text of the poem
is as follows:
Icare per superos qui raptus et adra, donec
In mare praecipitemcera liquata daret.
Nunc te cera eadem fervensqueresuscitatignis,
Exemplo ut doceas dogmata certa tuo.
Astrologuscaveat quicquam praedicere,praeceps
Nam cadet impostordum super astra vehit.
A near literaltranslationwould be: "Wax meltingmade you, Icarus, while you
were flyingaloft,fall headlong into the sea. Now the same wax and the burning
fire revive you, to teach with your example a well-definedtruth. Let the
astrologerbeware of making predictions,for the imposter,while flyingover
the stars,will fall headlong to earth."
24 See Alciati, Emblematum
liber,pp. 55-6; P. Pomponazzi, Libri quinquede
fato, de libero arbitrioet de praedestinatione,ed. R. Lemay (Lugano, 1957),
p. 262. See in general O. Raggio, "The Myth of Prometheus: Its Survival
and Metamorphoses up to the Eighteenth Century", Ji. of the Warburg
and CourtauldInstitutes,xxi (1958), pp. 44-62; R. Trousson, Le themede Pro2 vols. (Geneva, 1964) (verysuperficial).
europdenne,
m'thdedans la litterature
23

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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

35

linguisticboundaries,even whentheywerenot writtenin the internationallanguageof Latin. But theirwide European circulation
boundaries. In
overcamenot onlynational,but also confessional,
wisdom",
fact,theyusuallyappealedto a deeperlevelof"conventional
based on unconscious or semi-consciouscultural assumptions,
amongwhichwas the idea of the analogyof cosmic,religiousand
- the analogyon whichthe "noli altumsapere"
politicalhierarchies
was based.
prohibition
limitsimposed
However,at a certainpointsomeof thetraditional
on humanknowledgewereovercome. We have onlyto remember
the incredibleprogressmade by astronomicalscience from the
oftheseventeenth
menlikeGalileoor
century. Certainly,
beginning
Kepler did not hesitateto look at the skies,even exploitingsuch
new artificial
devicesas the telescope. Arcananaturae,the secrets
of Nature,beganto be unveiled:whatthenwas the impactof these
discoverieson theold interrelated
on knowing
scientific
prohibitions
the secretsof God and the secretsof
arcanaDei and arcanaimperii,
power? Recentdiscussionoftheseproblemshas mainlyemphasized
the relevanceof a specificintellectualor religiousoutlook- Puritanism,forinstance- to theprogressof scientific
thought. We will
to
however
an
alternative
route.
take,
briefly,
try
"Hath yourraisingup of the earthinto heaven",Loyola asked
Copernicusin JohnDonne's IgnatiusHis Conclave,"broughtmento
thatconfidence,
thattheybuild newtowersor threatenGod againe?
Or do theyout of thismotionof the earthconclude,thatthereis no
of sin?""25 These were,accordingto
hell, or denythe punishment
thismostperceptiveof contemporary
of
minds,two possibleeffects
the "new science": blasphemousintellectual
prideon the one hand,
cohesivesocial forceas religion,on
or rejectionof such a powerful,
the other.Puttingaside the formerreactionforthe moment,let us
on thelatter.
concentrate
The possibilityof drawingsubversiveanalogiesfromthe "new
was not,I suspect,confined
science"to religiousand politicalmatters
to learnedcircles. We shouldrecallthe wordsof the leaderof one
unsuccessfullower-classconspiracyagainstthe papal government,
CostantinoSacardino. This man, hangedas an atheistin Bologna
in 1619, was in the habit of saying:"Only fools believethat hell
does exist. Princeswantus to believeit, because theywantto do
as theyplease. But now,at last,all thecommonpeoplehaveopened
their eyes (ma ... hormai tutta la colombara ha aperto li occhi)".2G
25 John Donne, Ignatius His Conclave, in his CompletePoetry and Selected
Prose, 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,the lower classes in
society. See also R. Campeggi, Racconto de gli hereticiiconomiastigiustiziati
in Bologna a gloria di Dio della B. Vergineet per honoredella patria (Bologna,
I intend to discuss Sacardino's case in a forthcomingarticle.
1622).

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PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 73
36
In thesesame yearsFrenchand Italianintellectual
groupsknownas
"libertins&rudits"claimedthat religionwas a lie, albeit a useful
one: withoutit,themasseswouldhavebehavedbadly,and thewhole
of societywould have fallenapart.27 A man like Sacardino- a
ofParacelsianmedicine
clown,whowasalsoa practitioner
professional
- explicitlyreversedthis aristocratic
theory. The attitudeof the
commonpeople- thiswas his hopefulassumption- had changed.
They no longergazed passivelyat the great deeds of kings and
politiciansin thetheatreoftheworld. Theyhad begunto penetrate
into the secretsof power- discoveringthe secretof secrets,the
politicaluse of religion.
"Do they",as Donne had asked,"out of thismotionof the earth
conclude,that thereis no hell, or deny the punishmentof sin?"
In fact,Sacardinodid. Of course,thereis no evidencethathe knew
anythingabout the Copernican system. But I wonder if his
beliefshad
consciousnessof livingin a new era,in whichtraditional
been shattered- "hormaituttala colombaraha apertoli occhi" of whatwas goingon in therealmof science.
was reallyindependent
Sacardino'scase is, as faras I know,quiteexceptional. Moreover
a lower-classrevolution,such as thatof whichhe dreamed,would
have been, in seventeenth-century
Europe, obviouslydoomed to
failure. A successfulanalogyfromthe "new science" of natureto
the scienceof societycould be related,as it was by Hobbes, onlyto
realities,suchas theabsolutestates. It
alreadyexistingand powerful
thatthiskindof analogywas labelled"atheistic"- a
is significant
vague termwhichcould covernot onlyreligiousbut also political
matters. Thus we haveherea further
proofofwhatwe havealready
said about the deep interrelationbetween the three levels of
- cosmic,religiousand political. It is usefulto remember
knowledge
in thiscontexttheinvectiveof Simpliciusin Galileo'sDialogo sopra
tendsto the
delmondo:"This mannerofthinking
sistemi
i duemassimi
and to thedisorderand upsetting
ofall naturalphilosophy
subversion
of Heaven and Earthand the wholeUniverse".28 This fearof the
subversiveimplicationsof the new heliocentricsystem,which
Galileo ascribedto thefollowersof theold, Aristotelian
cosmology,
was not a rhetorical
exaggeration.In factit was echoedsomeyears
laterby Descartesin his Discoursde la mithode:
I cannot in any way approve of those turbulentand unrestfulspirits
...
who, being called neitherby birthnor fortuneto the managementof public
affairs,never fail to have always in theirminds some new reforms. And if
27 See R. Pintard, Le libertinagedruditdans la premieremoitiddu XVIIe
sidcle,2 vols. (Paris, 1943), i, passim.
28 Galileo Galilei, Dialogue on the Great World Systems,in the Salusbury
Translation,ed. G. de Santillana (Chicago, 1953), P. 45; Dialogo sopra i due
massimisistemidel mondo,ed. L. Sosio (Turin, 1970), p. 47.

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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

37

I thoughtthat in this treatisethere was contained the smallest justification

forthis folly,I should be verysorryto allow it to be published.29

This cautiousremarkthrowssome additionallighton Descartes's

decisionnot to publish his own treatiseLe mondeafterGalileo's
condemnation
by the Roman Church. He was highlyconsciousof
the politicalimplicationsof the new science- even if he was far
them.
fromsupporting
The condemnationof the heliocentricsystemby the Roman
Churchhas been judged eitheras an act of blind intoleranceor of
stubbornpedantry. The possibilitycannotbe excluded,however,
that it was dictatedalso by an obscurefear of the religiousand
of the new cosmology.30In the middleof the
politicalimplications
seventeenthcenturyan Italian Jesuit,Cardinal SforzaPallavicino,
adopteda moreflexibleattitudetowardsscientific
progress. He too
to theold analogybetweenarcananaturaeand arcanaimperii,
referred
the secretsof Natureand the secretsof politicalpower,but sharply
opposed the formerto the latter. It was possible to predictthe
behaviourof Nature,because naturallaws were few, simple and
unbreakable. But to predictthebehaviourofkingsand princes,was
- as it wouldbe to predictGod's inscrutablewill.31
sheertemerity
In the same vein VirgilioMalvezzi, a noblemanwho was also a
relativeof SforzaPallavicino,wrotethat"whosoeverexplainsnatural
eventsby referring
them to God, is a poor philosopher[natural
thatis, scientist];but whoeverdoes notreferto God to
philosopher,
explainpoliticalevents,is a bad Christian".32 So we have,on the
onehand,therealmofsciencewhichis,in principle,
opento everyone,
evento artisansand peasants,becauseas SforzaPallavicinoremarked
thatis, science]lives in the
"philosophy[againnaturalphilosophy,
as wellas in booksand in academies".
shopsand in thecountryside,
On theotherhand,we havetherealmof politics,whichis forbidden
to "privatemen" who tryto penetrateinto the secretsof power.
In thiswaythesharpoppositionbetweenNature'spredictability
and
the unpredictability
of politicsleads to (or maybe is dictatedby)
a verydifferent
issue- the needto preventthe commonpeoplefrom
in
intervening politicaldecisions. At the same time,however,the
subtle distinctiontraced by Sforza Pallavicinoimplied a realistic
appraisalof the natureof scientificprogress,thoughhe cautioned
ofignoring
the"gatesofhumanknowledge".33
againstthepretension
29 Rend Descartes, Discourseon Method...
, trans.E. S. Haldane and G. R. T.
Ross (Great Books of the WesternWorld, xxxi, Chicago, 1952), P. 45.
30 Some reactionsto the idea of a pluralityof worlds as an extensionof the
Copernican cosmologyhave been discussed by P. Rossi, "Nobility of Man and
Pluralityof Worlds", in A. G. Debus (ed.), Science,Medicine and Societyin the
Renaissance: Essays toHonor WalterPagel, 2 vols. (London, I1972),ii, pp. 131-62.
31 Sforza Pallavicino, Del bene(Rome,
1644), PP. 346-7.
32 VirgilioMalvezzi, Davide perseguitato
(Bologna, 1634), P. 3.
Del
bene,pp. 248, 168.
33 Pallavicino,

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PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 73
38
This overcoming
oftheold limitswas dulyregistered
in theemblematic literature. During the seventeenthcentury Icarus and
Prometheus
becamesymbolsof a powerfulintellectual
drivetowards
discovery. In a dramaticshiftof values,"boldness","curiosity",34
and "intellectualpride" - vices traditionally
associatedwiththese
myths- werenow seen as virtues. JohnDonne foresawit: "Hath
your raisingup of the earth into heaven broughtmen to that
that theybuild new towersor threatenGod againe?"
confidence,
- liketheTitansorthebuilders
Icarusand Prometheus
oftheTower
of Babel - had also been defeated:but theirdefeathad been a
gloriousone. In fact,in an emblem-bookof the late seventeenth
Prometheus
was no moredepictedas a defeatedgod,chained
century,
to the mountain. His hand touchingthe sun was matchedby the
proudmotto"Nil mortalibusarduum"(See Plate 4) - "nothingis
too difficult
for humanbeings".35 Even Icarus's flightno longer
conformedto the new attitudes:in anotheremblem-bookIcarus
appears as a winged young man, quietly swimmingin the air.
(See Plate 5.) The caption "Nil linquereinausum (Dare everything)" related Icarus's flightto Columbus's discoveryof a new
world.36 DanielloBartoli,theItalianJesuit,comparedColumbusto
Icarus, concluding:"withouthis boldness,we would have neither
Americanspices, nor Americanmines"."3 The very notionsof
"risk" and "novelty" were now seen as positive values based on commerce.
appropriate,in fact,to a societyincreasingly
A new culture,centredon the affirmation
of new social values,was
emerging.
If we returnonce againto the Paulinewords"noli altumsapere",
it willbe clearwhyin thisperiodtheyno longerseemedacceptable.
Indeed we can followalmoststep by step how this time-honoured
mottowas at last dropped. At the beginningof the seventeenth
writtenby a young
century,in a widelyread Dutch emblem-book
lawyer,FlorentiusSchoonhovius,we can findonce more the old
exhortation"noli altum sapere", in a slightlymodifiedform:
"altum saperepericulosum(it is dangerousto knowhighthings)".
to Icarus. A lengthy
(See Plate 6.) Once morethemottoreferred
34 On curiosity,see the importantbook by H. Blumenberg,Der Prozess der
theoretischen
Neugierde(Frankfurtam Main, 1973).
dell'universonella morte di Filippo
35 Marcello Marciano, Pompe funebri
Quarto il Grande re delle Spagne ... (Naples, I666), p. IoI, and plate facing
p. 102; the emblem was dedicated to the Emperor Matthias. The motto
echoes Horace (Carmina, i. 3. 37).
36 See Anselme de Boot,
Symbola varia diversorumPrincipum,Archiducum,
Ducum, Comitum& MarchionumtotiusItaliae, cumfacili isagoge(Amsterdam,
1686), pp. 292-4. The Latin motto "Nil linquere inausum" echoes Virgil
(Aeneis,vii. 308).
37Daniello Bartoli, Dell'huomo di letteredifesoet emendato(Rome, 1645),
pp. 154-6.

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39
emblem's
the
Schoonhovius
the
target:
by
explained
commentary
too curioustheologianswho quarrelledabout such divine secrets
as predestination,
freewill,Adam'sfall. How muchbetterit would
be, the authorexclaimed,if they would leave aside such useless,
abstrusediscussions,and be satisfiedmerelywiththe Bible. In this
way,he continued,our prosperouscountrywould not run the risk
of beingruinedby religiousstrife.3s
What Schoonhoviuswas referring
to was at thattimea burning
issue. In 1618 religiousdebatesin the Dutch republicwere at a
turning point. The followersof Calvin's strict doctrine of
were encounteringincreasingoppositionfromthe
predestination
milder Arminians. This theologicaldebate had strongpolitical
overtonessincethe Arminians,
advocatedreligious
beinga minority,
toleration. For this reasontheywere backed by men like Oldenbarneveltwho wanted to challenge the political power of the
Calvinistministers.39 A synodwassummonedin Dordrechtto settle
the whole issue. At that verymomentSchoonhoviusdecided to
as a plea forreligiouspeace.
publishhis emblem-book,
BoththefallingIcarus as a symbolof curioustheologians
and the
motto"nolialtumsapere"werecirculating
widelyamongtheseDutch
oftheconsul
religiousgroups. In February1618thebrother-in-law
ofHaarlemwrotea letterbitterly
thoseinsanetheologians
condemning
who,likeIcarus,miserably
fall,havingdaredto flytoo high,towards
forbiddentargets. Some yearsearlierCasaubon,the greatclassical
had writtento Grotius,the politicalwriterwho was the
philologist,
most prominentArminian,remarkingthat it would be usefulto
and aboveall to Arminians,
ifsomerestraint
was put on
Christianity,
curioustheologians
who seek(he added,obviouslyechoingSt. Paul's
Epistleto the Romans,xii. 3) to knowmorethanwe shouldknow,
"sapientessupraid quod oportetsapere".40
Schoonhovius'semblemwas therefore
an alreadyfamiliar
striking
note. But its context was somewhat new. If we look at
Schoonhovius's
volumewe can see, firstofall, facingthefirstpageof
text,a portraitof the youngauthor,framedby the words"sapere
aude" (see Plate 7); afterthat, threeemblems: "nosce te ipsum
(know yourself)";"sapiens supra fortunam(the wise man cannot
be defeatedby chance)"; and "altum sapere periculosum",which
we have alreadyseen. The sequencewas centredon the themeof
knowledge,withevidentStoic overtones. The meaningof the first
HIGH AND LOW: THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

3s See Florentius Schoonhovius, Emblemata... partimmoraliapartimetiam

civilia (Gouda, I618; later editions, Leiden, 1626; Amsterdam, 1635-48).
39See D. Nobbs, Theocracy and Toleration: A Study of the Disputes in
Dutch Calvinismfrom16oo to 1650 (Cambridge, 1938).
ac eruditorum
virorumEpistolae ecclesiasticaeet theologicae...
40 Praestantium
[ed. ChristianHartsoekerand Philip a Limborch],2nd edn. (Amsterdam,1684),
pp. 492, 378.

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PAST AND PRESENT

40

NUMBER 73

withthelastone, "altumsapere
contrasted
motto,however,strongly
periculosum".
"Sapere aude" is taken from Horace's Epistle to Lollius.4'
Literallyit means"dare to be wise". Horaceaddressesthesewords
to a foolwho hesitatesto crossa riverbecausehe is waitingforthe
flowingwaterto stop. The passagewas originallyconcernedwith
commonsense - not withknowledge. But we can easilysurmise
thatthemeaningof Horace'swordsin Schoonhovius's
emblem-book
was different.Here too "sapere" slipped from a moral to an
intellectuallevel, underthe attractionof the nearbymotto"altum
sapere periculosum".42The result was a somewhat uneasy
balance: "it is dangerousto knowhighthings",but "dare to know".
To understand
we haveto
fullythemeaningofthislastexhortation
recallthatin thisperiodEuropeanintellectuals
moreand morefelt
themselvesto be part of a cosmopolitanrespublicaliteratorum,
a
commonwealthof intellectuals.43In this contexttheirallegiance
to fellowintellectuals
to themthantheirreligious
wasmoreimportant
or politicalcommitment.We could even say that the searchfor
in
truthwas becominga peculiarreligion,a politicalcommitment
itself. But this emphasison the spiritof researchdid not concern
autetiamdissentiendi
everyone. "Hic verolibertasaliquainquirendi,
doctisomninoconcedendaest (we have to give some freedomof
wroteConrad
inquiry,and evenofdissent,aboveall to intellectuals)",
the
of
at
Arminian
Leiden, to
Vorstius,
theology
professor
Casaubon,"otherwisewe will look as if we werestoppingthe slow
marchof the truth".44
So, freedomof inquirywas to be givenabove all - or shouldwe
say only?- to a specificsocial group: thatis, intellectuals.It is
was thenemerging,
possibleto say thata new imageof intellectuals
an imagewhich,forbetteror worse,is stillalive.
"Altumsaperepericulosum":the searchfortruthcan have some
dangeroussocial implications- as the Dutch case would prove.
In the synodof Dordrechtthe Arminiansweredefeated. One year
later,in 1619, the theologicalvictoryof Calvinistorthodoxywas
matched by a political one. Oldenbarneveltwas put to death;
- or Remonstrants,
as theywerecalled- fledinto
manyArminians
to
France.
exile,mainly
Schoonhovius,
bythe
perhapsdisillusioned
forsookCalvinismand
religiousstrugglesof his fellow-believers,
Horace, Epistolae, i. 2. 40 ("ad Lollium").
This evidence confirmsthe highly perceptive hypothesisformulatedby
L. Firpo, "Ancora a proposito di 'Sapere aude!' ", Rivista storica italiana,
lxxii (I96o), pp. 114-17.
P4 See C. Vivanti, "Dalla repubblica cristiana all'Europa dei dotti", in his
Lotta politica e pace religiosain Francia fra Cinque e Seicento (Turin, 1963),
pp. 325-62.
virorumEpistolae,p. 288.
44 Praestantiumac eruditorum
41

42

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HIGH AND LOW: THE THEME OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

41

became a Catholic. Nor, incidentally,

did he produce any more
emblem-books.But the diffusionof the new meaning of the
Horatianwords"sapere aude (dare to know)" continued. Indeed,
they were chosen as a personalmotto by Gassendi, the French
empiricistphilosopherconnected not only with the "libertins
erudits",but also withtheArminianexilesin Paris.45
At the beginningof the eighteenth
centurya book was printedin
Holland. Itstitlepagewasadornedbya vignette
ofa manclimbinga
highmountain. (See Plate 8.) On the top,surroundedby clouds,
can be seen a cornucopia. A wingedgod witha scythe- Father
Time - holds the man's hand, aiding him in his ascent. The
mottois "Dum audes,arduavinces(ifyouwilldare,youwillovercome
every difficulty)".The emblem artfullyhints at three different
mottoes,fusingthem into one: "Veritasfilia Temporis(Truth is
the daughterof Time)"; "altum sapere", because "ardua" means
also "high things"; and "sapere aude". In fact,we have Father
Time; we have height; we have boldness ("Dum audes...",
"ifyouwilldare.. ."). But whereis "sapere"? One has onlyto look
at the title of the book: Epistolaead SocietatemRegiamAnglicam
(Lettersto theEnglishRoyalSociety)by Antonvan Leeuwenhoek,46
thegreatDutch biologistwhowas thefirstscientist
to use themicroscope. So the vignette'smeaningcould be translatedin this way:
the timehas come; the secretsof Natureare no longersecrets;the
intellectual
boldnessofscientists
willput Nature'sgiftsat ourfeet.
The uneasybalancebetween"don't knowhighthings"and "dare
to know"had been broken. The eighteenth-century
historyof this
exhortationto overcomethe old limits of knowledgehas been
thattheHoratianmottowasregarded
traced.47 It is highlysignificant
as the veryexpressionof Enlightenment
values. "Was ist Aufkliirung?" -

"What is Enlightenment?" -

Kant asked at the

end of the century. His own answerwas sapereaude! - even if

he too emphasizedin his own way the limitsof humanknowledge.
But thisis a different
story.
Carlo Ginzburg
University
ofBologna

See Firpo, op. cit., pp. 116-17.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Epistolae ad SocietatemRegiam Anglicam et
alios illustresviros .. . (Leiden, 1719).
47 See F. Venturi, "Was ist Aufklirung? Sapere aude!", Rivista storica
italiana, lxxi (1959), pp. 119-28; and his Utopia and Reformin theEnlightenment
(Cambridge, 1971), PP. 5-9.
45
46

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