Francesco Giorgi

Francesco Giorgi

Francesco Giorgi Veneto (1466–1540) was an Italian Franciscan friar, and author of the work De harmonia mundi totius from 1525. In it Giorgio proposed an idea of the Universe created according to the universal system of proportion, which may be studied as laws of mathematics used by architects. The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy describes him as 'idiosyncratic'. He wrote also In Scripturam Sacram Problemata (1536). Giorgi is extensively discussed in Frances Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age That Giorgi was a Christian Cabalist is a statement that means, not merely that he was influenced vaguely by the Cabalist literature, but that he believed that Cabala could prove, or already had proved, the truth of Christianity. She also discusses Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in the light of the theory of Daniel Banes that Shakespeare was familiar with Giorgi's and related writings on the Cabala. A copy of De harmonia mundi is listed as once in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne. It is possible that Browne's copy was bequeathed to him from Arthur Dee. John Dee is also known to have possessed a copy of Giorgi's work.

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