364 Italian Bookshelf - Ibiblio

“Italian Bookshelf” Annali d’ italianistica 24 (2006) 389
and good, primarily in Gerusalemme liberata 4 and 9, as well as for his elaboration of the
epic poem, which subsumes the theoretical principles of earlier sacred poems, such as De
partu Virginis by Iacopo Sannazaro (1455/56-1530) and Christias by Marco Girolamo
Vida (1485-1566).
Luciana Borsetto’s vast erudition and analytical acumen come through very clearly
in the extensive introduction (1-62) and even more so in her commentary to each one of
the 371 octaves of the poem, filling approximately the bottom half of the two-hundred
pages of the volume that contain the edited text of the Angeleida (63-263). Two indices
conclude the volume: the second lists the names of biblical, Christian, and classical
figures (275-85); the first one identifies most of the references made in the commentary,
which include not only the works of Erasmo di Valvasone, but also — to mention but a
few — Homer, Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, Dante, Sannazaro, Vida,Tasso, and Milton.
In conclusion, Luciana Borsetto’s edited text of the Angeleida, with introduction and
commentary, will prove extremely useful to all scholars of the Renaissance, especially
those interested in epic poems derived from biblical themes. One cannot but hope that
Borsetto will further pursue her investigations into biblical and sacred poems, a
worthwhile project — “La tradizione del poema epico-narrativo nel Seicento italiano” —
coordinated by Guido Baldassarri of the University of Padua. To all these scholars we are
much indebted.
Dino S. Cervigni, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Arielle Saiber. Giordano Bruno and the Geometry of Language. Burlington, VT:
Ashgate, 2005. Pp. 202.
The product of Arielle Saiber’s dissertation research at Yale, Giordano Bruno and the
Geometry of Language explores the geometric rhetoric at the core of the works of the
16 th -century Italian poet and philosopher. Saiber contends that Bruno was a “poet and an
architect of ideas” who “made geometry speak and language display” (1). According to
Saiber, Bruno “forged a network of figurative vocabularies — of number, shape, space,
and word” — that extended and shaped the early modern imagination (2).
The work begins with a brief mention of “Editions, Translations, and Abbreviations
of Bruno’s Works,” particularly helpful to those searching for a Bruno biography, recent
critical editions of his works, and/or acceptable English translations. The author then
moves to an “Introduction,” laying out the intent of her work chapter by chapter.
Chapter one, “Axioms,” is designed to orient the reader. Saiber purports a mode of
analysis, which she aptly names “geometric reading,” and which examines a text’s
rhetorical devices in relation to notions of space. She analyzes tropes and how they relate
to Bruno’s and his contemporaries’ diverse views on the possibilities of an infinite
universe, a plurality of worlds, heliocentricity, and moral revisionism. In “Axioms,”
divided into two parts, Saiber summarizes myriad theoretical notions of space from
classical times up through Bruno’s life, and then passes to subsequent notions following
Bruno’s death up to our present day. Bruno employs geometry in his works because he
“saw geometry’s figures as equivalent to language’s figuratives, and he used both kinds
of figurations to signify, refer to one another, and indicate an integrated vision of the
universe and all that is in it” (17). Bruno’s language is, therefore, a vehicle through which
one gains access to the new ways of “perceiving shape and form” prevalent in the early
modern period (19).