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Nicholas of Cusa's Idea of Wisdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Eugene F. Rice Jr.
Eugene F. Rice Jr.*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

Like the Preacher, son of David, Nicholas of Cusa knew that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness and he gave his heart to search it out. In phrases reminiscent of the classical definition of philosophy, the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, and medieval venery, he pictured his intellectual life as a venatio sapientiae and himself as a keen and pious hunter. Virtually all his important philosophical and theological works, from the De docta ignorantia of 1440 to the De venatione sapientiae of 1463, document the chase. Wisdom is the principal subject of the dialogues Idiota de sapientia. And when the Pseudo-Petrarch incorporated most of the first of these two dialogues in his De vera sapientia (put together around 1470 and printed in all the collected editions of Petrarch's works), his definition of wisdom was given added publicity and authority.

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Traditio , Volume 13 , 1957 , pp. 345 - 368
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Vansteenberghe, Edmond, Le Cardinal Nicolas de Cues (1401–1464) (Lille 1920) remains the standard biography (Bibliography). Several good general treatments of Cusanus’ thought have appeared since Vansteenberghe: Rotta, P. Il cardinale Nicolò di Cusa. La vita ed il pensiero (Milan 1928); Peter Mennicken, Nikolaus von Kues (2nd. ed. Trier 1950); Henry Bett, Nicholas of Cusa (London 1932); and Maurice de Gandillac, La philosophic de Nicolas de Cues (Paris 1941) (Bibliography). The most significant recent monograph is Rudolf Haubst, Das Bild des Einen und Dreieinen Gottes in der Welt nach Nicolaus von Kues (Trier 1952) (Bibliography). To be noted also are the important and influential sections on Cusanus in Ernst Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance (Leipzig and Berlin 1927); Rudolph Stadelmann, Vom Geist des ausgehenden Mittelalters: Studien zur Geschichte der Weltanschauung von Nicolaus Cusanus bis Sebastian Frank (Halle 1929), and Mahnke, D., Unendliche Sphäre und Allmittelpunkt (Halle 1929).Google Scholar

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3 De sapientia 1 (H V 5.1–2). Cf. Prov. 1.20: ‘Sapientia foris praedicat; In plateis dat vocem suam’; and Eccles. 24.7: ‘Ego in altissimis habitavi, Et thronus meus in columna nubis.’Google Scholar

4 Ibid . (9.18–10, 15).Google Scholar

5 Sap. 6.13. Google Scholar

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7 De sapientia , 1 (H V 4.2–3).Google Scholar

8 Ibid. (3.4–9); 1 Cor. 3.19 and 1 Cor. 8.1.Google Scholar

9 Ibid. (5.4–6). Cf. Plato, Apol. 21D. See Gandillac's La philosophie de Nicholas de Cues 57–73 for a full analysis of the meaning and sources of the Cusan idiota and Stadelmann on the myth of Socrates in the fifteenth century, Vom Geist des ausgehenden Mittelalters 65–74.Google Scholar

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11 Ibid . 5 (P 115v). Cf. De sapientia 1 (H V 19.3–14): ‘orator. Habunde haec explanasti. Sed nunc te oro: nonne Deus est omnium principium? idiota. Quis haesitat? orator. Estne aliud sapientia aeterna quam Deus? idiota. Absit quod aliud, sed est Deus. orator. Nonne Deus Verbo cuncta formavit? idiota. Formavit. orator. Est Verbum Deus? idiota. Est. orator. Sic est et sapientia? idiota. Non est aliud dicere Deum omnia in sapientia fecisse quam Deum omnia Verbo creasse.’ De venatione sapientiae 15 (P 206v).Google Scholar

12 The Macro Plays . ed. Furnivall, F. J. and Pollard, A. W. (EETS Extr. Ser. 91; London 1904) 35. The Morality of Wisdom has been often studied. See Molloy, J. J. O.P., A Theological Interpretation of the Moral Play, Wisdom, Who Is Christ (Catholic Univ. of America Press 1952) and the works there cited. For the illustration see Des Mystikers Heinrich Seuse Pr, O. Deutsche Schriften, ed. Nikolaus Heller (Regensburg 1926) 142.Google Scholar

13 De sapientia 1 (H V 19.20–21): ‘… et hic Deus est verbum, sapientia seu Filius Patris, et potest dici unitatis seu entitatis aequalitas.’ Cribrationis Alchoran 2.3 (P 134v): ‘Diuinam igitur mentem in qua omnia quae creari possunt aeternaliter consistunt christiani patrem et creatorem appellant. Artem vero eius omnipotentiae, seu sapientiam, siue scientiam, eius filium vocant, per quem omnia facit; and De ludo globi 2 (P 161v). See Vansteenberghe, , Nicolas de Cues 294ff. and Haubst, Das Bild des Einen und Dreieinen Gottes for analyses of Cusanus’ doctrine of the Trinity and its sources.Google Scholar

14 De pace fidei 7 (P 116v).Google Scholar

16 De docta ignorantia 1.8 (H I 17.9–12): ‘Aequalitas vero essendi est, quod in re neque plus neque minus est; nihil ultra, nihil infra. Si enim in re magis est, monstruosum est; si minus est, nec est.’ Cf. De venatione sapientiae 23 (P 210v).Google Scholar

16 De pace fidei 8 (P 117r).Google Scholar

17 De sapientia 1 (H V 20.9–12).Google Scholar

18 De posset (P 182v): ‘Oportet ergo quod forma quae penitus nullo alio indiget, quoniam infinitae perfectionis, in se omnium formarum formabilium complicet perfectiones, quoniam est actu ipse essendi thesaurus, a qua emanant omnia quae sunt, quemadmodum ipsa ab aeterno thesauro sapientiae concepta vel reposita sunt.’Google Scholar

19 De sapientia 1 (H V 13.9–10; 17.4); Ibid. 2 (32.25).Google Scholar

20 Vier Predigten im Geiste Eckharts , ed. Josef Koch (Cusanus-Texte 1.2–5; Sb. Akad. Heidelberg 1936/1937, Abh.2) 80: ‘Et nota, quod quamdiu aliquis sapiens potuit esse sapientior, non fuit Sapientia recepta, sed participatio eius. Sapientia autem absoluta, quae est ars omnipotentiae, non fuit neque in angelis neque hominibus neque prophetis, uti est, recepta.’Google Scholar

21 De pace fidei 12 (P 119r).Google Scholar

22 De sapientia 2 (H V 32.14–15).Google Scholar

23 De pace fidei 12 (P 119r).Google Scholar

24 De sapientia 2 (H V 32.19–21).Google Scholar

25 Ibid. (18.13–14); Sap. 1.4.Google Scholar

26 Ibid. (5.17–18); De quaerendo Deum, ed. Alfred Petzelt, Nicolaus von Cues: Texte seiner philosophischen Schriften nach der Ausgabe von Paris 1514, sowie nach der Drucklegung von Basel 1565 (Stuttgart 1949) I 218. This edition is henceforth referred to as Petzelt. All references are to vol. I.Google Scholar

27 De pace fidei 8 (P 117r-v).Google Scholar

28 De filiatione Dei (Petzelt 236): ‘Unde, uti Deus est ipsa rerum omnium essentia, ita et intellectus Dei similitudo rerum omnium similitudo. Cognitio autem per similitudinem est. Intellectus autem cum sit intellectualis viva Dei similitudo, omnia in se uno cognoscit …’. The Cribrationis Alchoran 2.6 (P. 135r-v) works out an image of the Trinity in the intellectus. Google Scholar

29 De sapientia 1 (H V 16.8–10; 17.1–7). Cf. De mente 5 (H V 65.17–18): ‘Unde mens est viva descriptio aeternae et infinitae sapientiae.’Google Scholar

30 Koch, , Vier Predigten im Geiste Eckharts 80: ‘Unde adhuc Sapientia creavit aliqua capacia Sapientiae, quae habent similitudinem eius magis propriam, et sunt intellectuales naturae … Et quamvis illa, quae sic sunt capacia Sapientiae, sint ipsius Sapientiae propria et ad illa tamquam in sui capacia proprius descenderit, tamen illa sua propria ipsam non receperunt.’Google Scholar

31 De pace fidei 6 (P 115v): ‘Puto verissime omnes homines natura appetere sapientiam …’; De sapientia 1 (H V 9.19–10.1): ‘Unde sapientia, quam omnes homines, cum natura scire desiderent … ’.Google Scholar

32 Ibid . Cf. De venatione sapientiae 1 (P 201v); Sermon, Qui manducat hunc panem (Excitationes 6; P II 106v).Google Scholar

33 Ibid. 12 (119r-v).Google Scholar

34 De sapientia 1 (H V 16.10–11).Google Scholar

35 Die Auslegung des Vaterunsers in vier Predigten . ed. Koch, J. and Teske, H.(Cusanus-Texte 1.6; Sb. Akad. Heidelberg 1938–39, Abh. 4 [1940]) 16: ‘Et sicut intellectus non est satiabilis nisi per Verbum et Sapientiam aeternam Patris, ita nec voluntas non est quietabilis nisi in Spiritu Sancto, in quo adipiscitur regnum pacis, cuius non est finis.’ Cf. De docta ignorantia 3.10 (H I 149.27–150.4).Google Scholar

36 De sapientia 1 (H V 16.12–18).Google Scholar

37 Ibid. (22.20–23.3).Google Scholar

38 Apologia Doctae ignorantiae (H II 15.4–10).Google Scholar

39 Hoffman, Ernst, Nikolaus von Cues: Zwei Vorträge (Heidelberg 1947) 20.Google Scholar

40 Apologia Doctae ignorantiae (H II 15.10–13). Cf. De coniecturis 1.7–10 (Petzelt 129–138).Google Scholar

41 De coniecturis 1.8 (Petzelt 133): ‘Unde cum quaestiones omnes a ratione investigativa progredientes ab intelligentia omne id sint, quod sunt, non potest quaestio de intelligentia formari, in qua ipsa praesuppositive non resplendeat. Ratio enim de intelligentia investigans, quam nullo sensibili signo compraehendit, quomodo hanc inchoaret inquisitionem sine lncitativo lumine intelligentiae ipsam irradiantis? Habet se igitur intelligentia ad rationem, quasi Deus ipse ad intelligentiam.’ De quaerendo Deum (Petzelt 215–216): ‘Sicut igitur ratio discretiva est, quae in oculo discernit visibilia, ita intellectualis spiritus est, qui in ratione intelligit et divinus spiritus est, quiilluminat intellectum. (…) Pari quidem modo de intellectu idipsum concipe, qui lumen est rationis discretivae, et ab illo te eleva in Deum, qui lumen est intellectus.’ Cf. Vansteenberghe, Nicolas de Cues 381–382.Google Scholar

42 De visione Dei 22 (P 111v): ‘Illuminat enim verbum dei intellectum sicut lumen solis hunc mundum. (…) Nam & fontem luminis in lumine illo intellectuali video, verbum scilicet dei, quod est veritas illuminans omnem intellectum.’ De coniecturis 1.9 (Petzelt 134): ‘Deus lumen est intelligentiae, quia eius est unitas; ita quidem intelligentia animae lumen, quia eius unitas. (…) Deus igitur forma intelligentiae est, intelligentia animae, anima corporis.’Google Scholar

43 Ibid. 24 (P. 113r): ‘Pascitur autem intellectus per verbum vitae, sub cuius influentia constituitur, sicut motores orbium. (…) Perficitur autem intellectus per verbum dei & crescit; & fit continue capacior et aptior atque verbo similior. (…) Oportet autem omnem intellectum per fidem verbo dei se subiicere & attentissime internam illam summi magistri doctrinam audire, & audiendo quid in eo loquatur dominus perficietur.’Google Scholar

44 De coniecturis 1.13 (Petzelt 145–46).Google Scholar

45 De docta ignorantia 3.11 (H 1151.26–152.9). The text is a mistranslation of Isaiah 7.9. It goes back to the Septuagint and is frequently quoted by Augustine in this form. Cf. De filiatione Dei (Petzelt 224): ‘Nihil enim sine fide attingitur, quae primo in itinere viatorem collocat.’Google Scholar

46 Koch, , Vier Predigten im Geiste Eckharts 124.Google Scholar

47 De dato Patris luminum 5 (Petzelt 251–252); De venatione sapientiae 25 (P. 211r): ‘Nexus igitur naturalis intellectualis naturae ad sapientiam inclinatae ipsam naturam intellectualem non solum vt sit conseruat, sed etiam ad id quod naturaliter amat, vt illi connectatur adaptat. Spiritus igitur sapientiae in spiritum intellectus, vt desideratum in desiderans, secundum feruorem desiderii descendit, et conuertit spiritum intelligentiae ad se… & in hoc amoris nexu foelicitatur intellectus & viuit foeliciter.’Google Scholar

48 Ecclus. 1.1; James 1.5; 3.5. Cf. Prov. 2.6; Eccles. 2.26; Sap. 7.7; 8.21. Google Scholar

49 De dato Patris luminum 1 (Petzelt 239–42); De quaerendo Deum (Petzelt 218): ‘Sed illi, qui dixerunt non posse attingere sapientiam et vitam intellectualem perennem, nisi daretur dono gratiae, ac quod tanta esset bonitas Dei cunctipotentis, quod exaudiret invocantes nomen suum, salvi facti sunt.’ De pace fidei 12 (P 119r): ‘Omnis autem sapientia in omnibus sapientibus ab illa est quae est per se sapientia, quoniam illa deus.’Google Scholar

50 De quaerendo Deum (Petzelt 220).Google Scholar

51 Sermon Puer crescebat (Exercitationes 8; P II 157r-v). Google Scholar

52 De posset (P178r): ‘Est enim deus occultus & absconditus ab oculis omnium sapientium, sed reuelat se paruulis seu humilibus, quibus dat gratiam. Est vnus ostensor magister scilicet Ihesus Christus.’ De docta ignorantia 3.11 (H I 152.19–23): ‘Maxima enim et profundissima Dei mysteria in mundo ambulantibus, quamquam sapientibus abscondita, parvulis et humilibus in fide Iesu revelantur, quoniam Iesus est, in quo omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiarum absconditi sunt, sine quo nemo quidquam facere potest.’Google Scholar

53 De quaerendo Deum (Petzelt 217); De beryllo 38 (P 192v).Google Scholar

54 ‘Dies Sanctificatus’ vom Jahre 1439, ed. Ernst Hoffmann and Raymond Klibansky (Cusanus-Texte 1.1; Sb. Akad. Heidelberg 1928/29, Abh. 3) 28. Google Scholar

55 De posset (P 178r).Google Scholar

56 De visione Dei (P 113r). Google Scholar

57 De sapientia 1 (H V 8.23–9.2; 13.5).Google Scholar

58 De mente 3 (H V 57.18–22); De docta ignorantia 1.11.5 (H I 22.4–6).Google Scholar

59 De filiatione Dei (Petzelt 236).Google Scholar

60 Johannes Wenck (E. Vansteenberghe, ‘Le “De ignota litteratura” de Jean Wenck de Herrenberg,’ Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters 8 [1909–10] 24–26) accused Nicholas of Cusa of pantheism because he said that God is absoluta omnium quidditas, falling thus into the errors of the Beghards, who taught that God was all things formaliter, and of Eckhart, who rashly equated God and being (esse). Cusanus answered: ‘Nam Deus est quidditas omnium quidditatum et absoluta omnium quidditas sicut absoluta entitas entium et absoluta vita viventium. (…) Nec hoc dicere est confundere aut destruere quidditates rerum, sed construere, ut intelligunt sapientes’ (Apologia Doctae ignorantiae, H II 33.20–25). Google Scholar

61 Compendium 10 (P 172v-73r).Google Scholar

62 De visione Dei 20 (P 110r); De docta ignorantia 1.11 (H I 22.11–16); Apologia Doctae ignorantiae (H II 11.14–15).Google Scholar

63 De docta ignorantia 1.1 (H I 5.23–6.2); De mente 2 (H V 54.19–21).Google Scholar

64 Ibid. 1.3 (H I 9.24–26): ‘Quidditas ergo rerum, quae est entium veritas, in sua puritate inattingibilis est et per omnes philosophos investigata, sed per neminem, uti est, reperta …’; De Genesi (Petzelt 267): ‘Manifestum est igitur neque in parte neque in toto posse aliquid quidditatis per hominem attingi.’Google Scholar

65 De visione Dei 9 (P 103r). Cf. Apologia Doctae ignorantiae (H. II 11.28–12.3).Google Scholar

66 De mente 3 (H V 56.22–23): ‘Et cum Verbum Dei sit praecisio omnis nominis nominabilis, solum in Verbo omnia et quodlibet sciri posse constat.’Google Scholar

67 Apologia Doctae ignorantiae (H II 3.15–17). Cf. De docta ignorantia 1.17 (H I 35.5–8) and Stadelmann, Vom Geist des ausgehenden Mittelalters 44–65.Google Scholar

68 De visione Dei 17 (P fol. 108r); Apologia Doctae ignorantiae (H II 13.4ff).Google Scholar

69 De sapientia 2 (H V 26.11–14): ‘Omnis quaestio de Deo praesupponit quaesitum, et id est respondendum, quod in omni quaestione de Deo quaestio praesupponit; nam Deus in omni terminorum significatione significatur, licet sit insignificabilis.’Google Scholar

70 Sermon Tu quis es (Basel 354): ‘Et intellectualis natura, quae ipsum esse scit & incomprehensibilem: tanto se reperit perfectiorem, quanto scit ipsum magis incomprehensibilem. Incomprehensibilis enim, hac scientia ignorantiae acceditur,’ Google Scholar

71 De sapienta 2 (H V 35.8ff.); De docta ignorantia 1.21 (H I 43.10–17).Google Scholar

72 Ibid. (36.18–37.12); De docta ignorantia 1.14 (H I 28.3–8).Google Scholar

78 Ibid. (36.5–12; 38.1–19); De docta ignorantia I 17 (H I 33.14–15). This is the same ascent from the wisdom revealed in the sensible world to Wisdom itself whose stages Cusanus described in the De venatione sapientiae 11 (P 205r): ‘… tres sunt regiones sapientiae. Prima: in qua ipsa reperitur vti est aeternaliter. Secunda: in qua reperitur in perpetua similitudine. Tertia: in qua in temporali fluxu similitudinis lucet a remotis.’Google Scholar

74 Ibid. (38.20–39.3): ‘Sic nunc habes id, quod in aeterna sapientia contemplari conceditur, ut intuearis omnia in simplicissima rectitudine verissime, praecisissime, inconfuse et perfectissime, licet medio aenigmatico, sine quo in hoc mundo Dei visio esse nequit, quousque concesserit Deus, ut absque aenigmate nobis visibilis reddatur. Et haec est facilitas difficilium sapientiae, quam pro tua ferventia et devotione Deus in dies tibi et mihi clariorem quaeso faciat, quousque nos in gloriosam fruitionem veritatis transferat aeternaliter remansuros. Amen.’Google Scholar

75 Ibid. (I 12.15–13.7).Google Scholar

76 Repub , 5.22; 478 E - 480 A; 7.3: 517 B-C; Protagoras 352 D.Google Scholar

77 Metaph. 1.2: 983a.6–7; Eth. Nic. 6.7: 1141b. 6.Google Scholar

78 De finibus 1.13.42.Google Scholar

79 Sextus, , Adversus physicos 1.13; Cicero, De off. 2.2.5.Google Scholar

80 On Augustine's idea of wisdom: Gilson, E., Introduction à l'étude de saint Augustin (3rd. ed. Paris 1949) 140-163; H.-I. Marrou, Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris 1937) 368–76 and 561–69; Schmaus, M. Die psychologische Trinitätslehre des hl. Augustinus (Münsterische Beiträge zur Theologie 11; 1927) 285–91; Edward, F. Cranz, ‘Saint Augustine and Nicholas of Cusa in the Tradition of Western Thought,’ Speculum 28 (1953) 306–310.Google Scholar

81 Sum. theol. 1.q.1 art. 1 and 6; 2.1 q.57 art. 2; In Isaiam prophetam expositio 3.1; In Boet. de Trin. q. 2 art. 2, resp. ad 1. Cf. Rose, Sister M. Emmanuella Brennan, The Intellectual Virtues according to the Philosophy of St. Thomas (Catholic Univ. of America Press 1941) 44–52 (and the literature there cited) and M.-D. Chenu, La Théologie comme science au XIII e siècle (2nd ed. Paris 1943) 107.Google Scholar

82 De visione Dei 9 (P 103v). Cf. Uebinger, J. ‘Der Begriff docta ignorantia in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung,’ Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 8 (1894) 10–25; Vansteenberghe, E. Autour de la docte ignorance: Une controverse sur la théologie mystique au XV e siècle (Münster 1914); and Baur, L., Nicolaus Cusanus and Ps. Dionysius im Lichte der Zitate und Randbemerkungen des Cusanus (Cusanus-Texte 3.1; Sb. Akad. Heidelberg 1941, Abh. 4) 84.Google Scholar

83 Apologia Doctae ignorantiae (H II 6.7–12). Cf. Ernst Hoffman, ‘Die Vorgeschichte der cusanischen coincidentia oppositorum,’ prefacing Karl Fleischmann's translation Über den Beryll (Leipzig 1938), and Paul Wilpert, ‘Das Problem der coincidentia oppositorum in der Philosophie des Nikolaus von Cues,’ in Humanismus, Mystik und Kunst ed. Koch, J. 39–55.Google Scholar

84 See among others: Francesco Novati, Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati (Rome 1891–1905) III 458.7–11: ‘nonne legisti apud Ciceronem nostrum sapientiam esse rerum divinarum et humanarum scientiam cognitionemque, que cuiusque rei causa sit?’; Reuchlin, Breviloquus vocabularius (Basel,. Amerbach, J. 1478): ‘… sapientia est rerum divinarum et humanarum cognitio’; Guillaume Budé, De philologia libri II (Paris, Badius Ascensius 1532) 5.5: ‘Ita haec quam graui nomine ac specioso vocamus philosophiam quasi Studium sapientiae, quod rerum vtique humanarum intelligentiam diuinarumque consectatur, & praefert, sapientiae quidem titulum sibi tueri potest …’; Sir Thomas Elyot, Bibliotheca Eliothae. Eliotis Librairie ed. Thomas Cooper (London 1548): ‘the knowlage of thynges diuine and humaine, wysedome, sapience’; Louis Le Caron, Les Dialogves (Paris 1556) 54v: ‘… sagesse, laquelle elle dit estre la congnoissance des choses diuines & humaines & de leurs causes …’.Google Scholar

85 For example, Erasmus, ready as usual with the memorable phrase, defined wisdom as virtus cum eruditione liberali coniuncta (Liber apologeticus … in quo refelluntur rationes inepte barbarorum contra poesim et literaturam secularem pugnantium, in Albert Hyma, The Youth of Erasmus [Univ. of Michigan Press 1930] Appendix B, 315); Cardanus said it was bene ac diu vivere (De sapientia 1, in Opera omnia, ed. Carolus Sponsius [Lyons 1663] I 497 col. 1); and Charron completed the identification of wisdom and prudence: ‘Ainsi nous disons que sagesse est preude prudence, c'est-à-dire preud'hommie avec habilité, probité bien advisée’ (De la Sagesse [Paris 1836] 702). Google Scholar

86 I have in mind the Aristotelian definitions of Bruni (Hans Baron, Leonardo Bruni Aretino humanistisch-philosophische Schriften [Berlin and Leipzig 1928] 29.25–26; 39.8–16) and Pontano (Opera omnia [Florence 1520] II 61r ff.) and the Platonic one of Cardinal Sadoleto in his De laudibus philosophiae. Google Scholar

87 The point is made in Bovillus’ De sapiente, Elyot's Of The knowledg which maketh a wise man: A disputacion Platonike, by Sadoleto, Vives, Erasmus, Cardanus and others. Charron put it perfectly when he called wisdom the ‘excellence and perfection of man as man …’ in the preface to the 1604 edition of De la Sagesse. Google Scholar