The Forbidden Universe (49 page)

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Authors: Lynn Picknett,Clive Prince

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Chapter Three

1 Ferris, pp. 85–6.

2 Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, p. 360.

3
Ibid
., p. 363.

4 Mason, p. 462.

5
Ibid
., p. 468.

6 See Morley for a translation of
City of the Sun
.

7 Interviewed in Burstein and de Keijzer, p. 242.

8 Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, p. 233.

9 Quoted in Olaf Pedersen, ‘Galileo’s Religion’, in Coyne (ed.), p. 75.

10 In his notes to Galileo, Salusbury translation, p. 15.

11 Oxford University science historian Allan Chapman, quoted in Couper and Henbest, p. 154.

12 In his forward to Stillman Drake’s translation of Galileo, p. xvii.

13 Pedersen, ‘Galileo’s Religion’, in Coyne (ed.), pp. 80–1.

14 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 80.

15 Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, p. 383.

16 This was in a conversation in 1610 with Martin Hasdale, the librarian at Rudolph II’s court, who relayed Kepler’s remarks to Galileo in a letter. (Singer,
Giordano Bruno
, p. 189.)

17 Bruno,
The Ash Wednesday Supper
, pp. 122–3.

18 Quoted in Finocchario, p. 88.

19 Pedersen, ‘Galileo’s Religion’, in Coyne (ed.), p. 97.

20
Ibid
., p. 92.

21 Finocchiaro, p. 13.

22 Quoted in Pedersen, ‘Galileo’s Religion’, in Coyne (ed.), p. 81.

23
Ibid
., p. 97.

24 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 81.

25 Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, p. 361.

Chapter Four

1 Fowden, p. xxii.

2 Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, p. 21.

3 From Thomas Vaughan’s 1652 English translation of the
Fama
, reproduced in the appendix to Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, p. 238.

4 See Churton,
The Golden Builders
, pp. 105–17.

5 Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, p. 250.

6 Churton,
The Golden Builders
, p. 93.

7
Ibid
., p. 132.

8 Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, p. 47.

9 Churton,
The Golden Builders
, p. 131.

10
Ibid
., p. 143.

11 Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541) – he adopted the name Paracelcus to show he was greater than Celsus, the Roman author of a classic encyclopaedia of medicine – was a Swiss botanist, herbalist and physician. He was heavily influenced by the works of Pico and Ficino, applying the principles of Hermeticism and
talismanic
magic to healing. His ideas about the combination and manipulation of the elements also led to him to alchemy. Some think that Christian Rosenkreutz was intended to represent Paracelsus, despite the fact that the
Fama
explicitly says that he wasn’t a member of the Rosicrucian fraternity, although adding that it did allow him access to the book containing their accumulated wisdom, the ‘Book M’.

12 Churton,
The Golden Builders
, p. 157.

13 See Yates,
The Art of Memory
, chapters XV and XVI.

14 Quoted in Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, pp. 101–2.

15
Ibid
., p. 136.

16 Purver, p. 223.

17 Quoted in Tompkins, p. 86.

18 Quoted in Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, p. 445. (Our translation from the French.)

19 Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, p. 113.

Chapter Five

1 Couturat, p. 131.

2 Yates,
The Art of Memory
, pp. 387–8.

3
Ibid
., p. 382.

4 Quoted in the online Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz.

5 Standford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy website: plato.stanford.edu/entries/cambridge-platonists.

6 See Yates,
The Art of Memory
, p. 388, and Atanasijevic, p. xviii.

7 Yates,
The Art of Memory
, p. 388.

8 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 385.

9 Quoted in
ibid
.

10 Strange Science website: www.strangescience.net/kircher.htm.

11 Quoted in Tompkins, p. 90.

12
Ibid
., p. 97.

13 Interviewed in Burstein and de Keijzer, pp. 239–40.

14 See ‘Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk’ in Hecksher. This is a reproduction of an article that appeared in
The Art Bulletin
in 1947.

15 Quoted in Tompkins, p. 88.

16 Tod Marder, ‘A Bernini Expert Reflects on Dan Brown’s Use of the Baroque Master’, in Burstein and de Keijzer, p. 255.

17 Tompkins, p. 97.

18 Quoted in Ingrid D. Rowland, ‘Athanasius Kircher, Giordano Bruno, and the
Panspermia
of the Infinite Universe’, in Findlen (ed.),
Athanasius Kircher
, p. 56.

19 See Picknett,
Mary Magdalene
, pp. 27–9.

20 Tompkins, p. 100.

21 Ingrid D. Rowland, ‘Athanasius Kircher, Giordano Bruno, and the
Panspermia
of the Infinite Universe’, in Findlen (ed.),
Athanasius Kircher
, pp. 201–2.

Chapter Six

1 Quoted in Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, p. 186.

2 Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, online: plato.stanford.edu/entries/cambridge-platonists.

3 Quoted in Dobbs,
The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy
, p. 115.

4 P. M. Rattansi, ‘Some Evaluations of Reason in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy’, in Teich and Young (eds.), p. 151.

5 Quoted in Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, p. 424.

6 Purver, p. 217.

7 Quoted in
ibid
., pp. 221–2.

8 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 219.

9 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 198.

10 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 199.

11 Bacon, p. 67.

12 Rossi, pp. 13–14.

13 Tuveson, p. 52.

14 Bacon, p. ix.

15 J. R. Ravetz, ‘Francis Bacon and the Reform of Philosophy’, in Debus (ed.),
Science, Medicine and Society in the Renaissance
, vol. II, p. 101.

16 Bacon, p. 1.

17
Ibid
., pp. 2–3.

18
Ibid
., p. 3.

19 E.g. Tuveson, pp. 170–9, Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, chapter XV.

20 Lomas, p. 320.

21 From Lomas’ lecture ‘Sir Robert Moray – Soldier, Scientists, Spy, Freemason and Founder of the Royal Society’, given at Gresham College, 4 April 2007. A transcript is available on the Gresham College website: www.gresham.ac.uk/event.aspPageId=45&EventId=589.

22 Quoted in Purver, p. 221.

23 Quoted in
ibid
., pp. 221–2.

24 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 232.

25 Quoted in
ibid
.

26 Quoted in Bluhm, p. 185.

27
Ibid
., pp. 183–6.

28 Gribbin, p. 229.

29 Lord Rees, today’s President of the Royal Society, quoted in Bragg, p. 22.

30 Gribbin, pp. 238–9.

31 Hollis, p. 262.

32 Richard S. Westfall, ‘Newton and the Hermetic Tradition’, in Debus (ed.),
Science, Medicine and Society in the Renaissance
, vol. II, pp. 185–6.

33 ‘Newton, the Man’ in Keynes, p. 363.

34
Ibid
., p. 366.

35 Quoted in Yates,
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
, p. 200.

36 McGuire and Rattansi, p. 109.

37
Ibid
., p. 127.

38
Ibid
., p. 124.

39 Westfall, ‘Newton and the Hermetic Tradition’, in Debus (ed.),
Science, Medicine and Society in the Renaissance
, vol. II, p. 193.

40 Dobbs,
The Janus Face of Genius
, p. 68.

41
Ibid
., pp. 185–6.

42 Quoted in Westfall,
Never at Rest
, p. 434.

43 Westfall, ‘Newton and the Hermetic Tradition’, in Debus (ed.), vol. II, pp. 194–5.

44 Hitchens, p. 65.

Chapter Seven

1 Fowden, pp. 68–74.

2 See below, p. 185.

3 Festugière, p. 102.

4 Luckert, p. 55.

5 Lurker, p. 121.

6
Ibid
.

7 Ray, p. 65.

8
Ibid
., p. 160.

9 Fowden, p. 34.

10 Lurker, pp. 69–70.

11 Ray, p. 165.

12 Fowden, p. 27.

13
Ibid
., pp. 40–1.

14 According to Plutarch (p. 161) the establishing of the Serapis cult was the work of Manetho and a member of the family that held the hereditary priesthood of the Greek mystery centre of Eleusis, which makes sense if it was to be a ‘hybrid’ cult for Egyptians and Greeks. Although some doubt Plutarch’s story, Manetho was certainly associated with the cult – see J. Gwyn Griffith’s notes to
ibid
., pp. 387–8.

15 Iamblichus, p. 5.

16 Fowden, p. xxv.

17 Churton,
The Gnostic Philosophy
, p. 120.

18 Plotinus, p. 9.

19 Luckert, p. 261.

20
Ibid
., p. 262.

21 Quoted in
ibid
., p. 260.

22 See
ibid
., chapter 14.

23
Ibid
., p. 257.

24 Eunapius, ‘Lives of the Philosophers’, in Philostratus and Eunapius, pp. 419–25.

25 Herodotus, p. 130.

26 Luckert, p. 42.

27 E.g. Lurker, p. 99.

28 See Luckert, chapter 2.

29
Ibid
., p. 52.

30 Lurker, p. 31.

31 Lehner, p. 34.

32 Luckert, p. 52.

33
Ibid
., p. 45.

34
Ibid
., p. 57.

35 Campbell and Musès, p. 138.

Chapter Eight

1 ‘Humanism’ is a fluid term, coined in the mid-nineteenth century and applied not just to contemporary ideas but also retrospectively to earlier philosophers and social reformers. It is applied to any philosophy that places human beings at the centre of things, asserting not only their fundamental right to control their own destiny but also stressing their
ability
to do so. But beyond that, the precise definition varies depending on the era in question: the values and ideals of a twenty-first century humanist are very different from a fifteenth-century one. The biggest difference is that today’s humanism tends to eschew the metaphysical and religious. Under this definition, the likes of Pico, Ficino and Bruno qualify as humanists, but they would never have recognized the term.

2 Magee, p. 7.

3 P. M. Rattansi, ‘Some Evaluations of Reason in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy’, in Teich and Young (eds.), p. 149.

Chapter Nine

1 In the radio programme ‘The Multiverse’, part of the
In Our Time
series, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 21 February 2008.

2 Barrow and Tipler, p. 5.

3 Susskind, ‘A Universe Like No Other’, p. 38.

4 Weinberg,
The First Three Minutes
, p. 154.

5 Carr and Rees, p. 612.

6 Dyson, p. 44.

7 Quoted in Davies,
The Mind of God
, p. 199.

8 Stockwood (ed.), p. 64.

9 Davies,
The Mind of God
, Chapter 8.

10 Feynman, p. 12.

11 Davies,
The Mind of God
, p. 197.

12 In the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Multiverse’ (see note 1 above).

13 Hawking and Mlodinow, p. 161.

14 Davies,
The Goldilocks Enigma
, pp. 166–70.

15 Susskind, ‘A Universe Like No Other’, p. 37.

16
Ibid
., p. 39.

17 In the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Multiverse’ (see note 1 above).

18 Smolin,
The Trouble with Physics
, pp. 166–7.

19 Jeans, p. 96.

20 Davies,
The Mind of God
, p. 173.

21 In the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Multiverse’ (see note 1 above).

22 Carr, p. 14.

23
Ibid
.

24 Quoted in Smolin,
The Trouble With Physics
, p. 125.

25
Ibid
., pp. 158–9.

26 Al-Khalili, p. 23.

27 Smolin,
The Trouble with Physics
, p. 163.

28 Quoted in Malone, p. 191.

29 See Nick Bostrom, ‘Are We Living in
The Matrix
? The Simulation Argument’, in Yeffeth (ed.).

30 Davies,
The Goldilocks Enigma
, pp. 213–4.

31 Hawking, ‘The Grand Designer’, p. 25.

32 Al-Khalili, p. 23.

33 Weinberg,
Dreams of a Final Theory
, p. 182.

34 Susskind, ‘A Universe Like No Other’, p. 36.

35 Weinberg,
Dreams of a Final Theory
, p 182.

36 Hoyle, pp. 217–8.

37 Davies,
The Mind of God
, p. 16.

38 Quoted in Schönborn.

39
Ibid
.

40 Davies,
The Goldilocks Enigma
, pp. 228–30.

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