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<strong>Cause</strong>, principle and unity<br />
POLIINNIO. Quidni? per quandam analogiam [Why not? by a certain<br />
analogy].<br />
GERVASIO. Per quandam analogiam, I believe you to be a great monarch,<br />
but if you were a woman, I would ask you if you have a place to lodge a baby,<br />
or stick one of those plants Diogenes speaks of. 7<br />
POLIINNIO. Ha, ha! Quodammodo facete [Quite prettily put]. But such<br />
questions are not befitting a sage and scholar.<br />
GERVASIO. If I were a scholar, and if I considered myself wise, I would<br />
not come here to learn with you.<br />
POLIINNIO. You, yes, but I do not come to learn, for nunc meum est<br />
docere; mea quoque interest eos qui docere volunt iudicare [my office now is to<br />
teach; my concern is also to pass judgement on those who wish to teach].<br />
Hence, I come with another purpose than that which must bring you,<br />
whose role is that of apprentice, novice and disciple.<br />
GERVASIO. For what purpose?<br />
POLIINNIO. To judge, I said.<br />
GERVASIO. Indeed, for one of your sort it is better to judge the sciences<br />
and doctrines than for others, since you are the only ones to whom the liberality<br />
of the stars and the munificence of fate have bequeathed the power<br />
to draw out the sap from words.<br />
POLIINNIO. And consequently also from thoughts, which are bound<br />
to words.<br />
GERVASIO. As soul to body.<br />
POLIINNIO. Words that, rightly understood, give a thorough grasp of<br />
the sense: thus, from a knowledge of languages (in which I, more than anyone<br />
else in this city, am expert, and in which I count myself no less learned<br />
than any who run minerval schools) is derived the knowledge of all science.<br />
GERVASIO. So, all who understand Italian will grasp the Nolan’s<br />
philosophy?<br />
POLIINNIO. Yes, but it also takes some exercise and judgement.<br />
GERVASIO. A while ago, I thought that this exercise was the main thing,<br />
because someone who knows no Greek can nonetheless comprehend all<br />
Aristotle’s meaning, and also pick out many of his errors. Similarly we<br />
see that the idolatry surrounding the authority of that philosopher (mainly<br />
regarding natural things) has been entirely abolished among all who<br />
grasp the notions of this other sect; a man who knows no Greek, nor<br />
Arabic, nor perhaps Latin, like Paracelsus, can have a better knowledge of<br />
7 Alludes to the obscene saying of Diogenes, ‘planto hominem’.<br />
52