 A MERICAN C U S A N U S S O C I E T Y 

2017 NEWSLETTER Volume XXXIV

Editor: Meredith Ziebart

Bernkastel, Roman-origin medieval castle above town of Bernkastel-Kues

Photo: Il Kim
 AMERICAN CUSANUS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 
Volume XXXIV December 2017

Table of Contents

1. 2016 ACS Business Meeting Sessions of the American Cusanus Society at

Reports the 52nd Annual Congress on Medieval
Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 11-14, 2017
American Cusanus Society Business
Meeting at Western Michigan University, Conference Program .......................................27
May 11, 2017...........................................................2 Abstracts .............................................................27
Banquet Address: Tamara Albertini .............29
2. Recent Conferences

Watanabe Lecture and Celebration of 3. Book Descriptions & Reviews

Kiyomi Koizumi Watanabe, September 23-
24, 2017 Gettysburg, PA
Conference Report .............................................3
Gettysburg 2017 Toast: A Personal Recollection
of Morimichi Watanabe and Kiyomi Koizumi
Watanabe, Il Kim ..................................................5
Renaissance Society of America
Annual Meeting, March 30-April 1, 2017
Chicago, Il
Conference Program .........................................8
Abstracts ...............................................................9
Presentations:
The Helix and the Circle in Cusanus’ De ludo globi,
Paula Pico Estrada ..............................................12
Isabelle Moulin, ed., Participation et vision de Dieu
chez Nicolas de Cues ...............................................37
Marica Costigliolo, The Western Perception of Islam
between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: The
Work of Nicholas of Cusa ......................................41
Thomas Leinkauf, Sein und Denken: Die
Bedeutung und Funktion der artes liberales im
Denkansatz des Cusanus ........................................43
David Albertson, Mathematical Theologies: Nicholas
of Cusa and the Legacy of Thierry of Chartres .........44
Peter Casarella, Word as Bread: Language and
Theology in Nicholas of Cusa ..................................44
Richard J. Serina, Jr., Nicholas of Cusa’s Brixen
Sermons and Late Medieval Church Reform ............47

The Council’s Warlords: Milanese Appropriations of the 4. Bibliography .............................................49

Conciliar Authority, Thomas Woelki ...................17

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Volume XXXIV
The paper thus discusses strategies and potentials of
secular appropriation of the conciliar authority.
Solving the Schism of Basel: Interests, Reasoning,
Practice
Ursula A. Giessmann, Universität zu Köln
In 1439 the Council of Basel elected Pope Felix V, the
former Duke of Savoia, Amadeus VIII, effecting a
quadruple schism: The Council of Basel vs. the Council
of Ferrara/Florence and Pope Eugenius IV vs. Pope
Felix V. Felix’s pontificate was characterised by
amalgamating the papal authority and the territorial
interests of Savoia. He supplied the papal décor out of
Savoyian stocks and regarded his former duchy as
patrimonium ecclesiae. Considering this, ending the
fourfold schism of Basel required a solution for both the
ecclesiastical and the territorial question. This paper will
explore the territorial interests and reasoning of the
main actors, France, Savoy and Rome, who forced Felix
V. to resign, by looking at the diplomatic practice and
communicative actions over the period of negotiations
(1446-49).
Presentations:
The H elix and the Circle in Cusanus’ De ludo
globi
Paula Pico Estrada, Universidad Nacional de San
Martín
In Book I of De anima, Aristotle criticizes the Platonic
notion of soul as a self-moving substance. According to
Aristotle, although the soul is the origin of psychic
movement, it neither moves itself nor has the capacity
to do so: what moves is the composite of soul and body,
i.e., the animated being. In his dialogue De ludo globi
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December 2017
(1463), Cusanus tries to reconcile the Platonic and
Aristotelian notions of “soul.” As in most of his
metaphysical speculations, he uses geometrical figures
as symbols, in this case the circle and the helix. Each
shape represents a different type of movement through
which a line proceeds from a point: helicoidal
movement symbolizes the motion of the soul-animated
body, and circular movement represents its perpetual
activity.
Many different themes unfold from this premise,
making De ludo globi a rich and complex work. This
presentation is limited to one of these themes, freedom.
First, I will introduce the symbolic purpose of De ludo
globi; then, I will describe the symbolism of the ball and
its movements. Finally, I will show how both
movements relate to the exercise of freedom.
1. The Bowling Game as a Symbol
De ludo globi is a dialogue in two volumes, conceived as
a device that should direct the human mind toward
examining its own activity, so that it can use itself as an
image to investigate symbolically its unattainable
exemplar, that is, the truth or God. The bowling game
that gives title to the book consists in throwing a ball
and moving it towards a goal. While rolling towards that
goal, the ball has to cross nine concentric circles which
have been drawn on the floor. The winner is the player
whose ball arrives closest to the center. Given the
aforesaid objective of the dialogue, the game depicted in
it is a symbol, and it represents the movement of the
human soul to the kingdom of life, in which reside
eternal happiness and eternal rest. This kingdom is
presided over by Jesus Christ, who “when He was like
unto us, He moved the bowling-ball of His own person
in such a way that it would come to rest at the Center of
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Volume XXXIV
Life.” 2 Thus, He left us His example, so that we would
do as He did and so that the ball each of us moves would
follow His ball’s path. It goes without saying (although
Cusanus does say it) that it is impossible for another ball
to come to rest at the same place where Christ’s ball
rests.
Although I summarized it here by way of
introduction, the symbolism of the game is not
explained until the end of Book I. The first step that the
Cardinal, the character that represents Cusanus, urges
John, his interlocutor, 3 to take consists of empirically
observing the ball and its movement; in other words, to
observe the bare facts that later will be taken in a
symbolic sense. The ball, Cusanus shows John, does not
roll in a straight line; rather, its movement is helicoidal
– this slight deviation being the result of the concave
shape that characterizes one of its halves. As a
consequence of this, the convex part of the ball is
heavier than the concave and slows down the ball’s
movement. Indeed, the helicoidal or spiral movement
goes backwards, towards the place where it began, and
then it goes forwards, leaving the starting point behind:
It has “the involute movement of a curve”. On account
of its shape, no bowling ball can move either in a
perfectly straight or in a perfectly circular way. 4
A second fact can be inferred from observation: The
ball is set in motion by the player, who impresses in it a
certain force which enables it to move in the direction
of his choice. Therefore the ball’s movement is not
natural but violent. Although the roundness of the ball
endowes it with a natural propensity to roll – by virtue
of which, when thrown in a straight line, it rolls
2 De ludo globi (h IX, 51). Translation: Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas
of Cusa: Metaphysical Speculations: Volume II (Minneapolis:
Arthur J. Banning Press, 2000), 1207.
3On the identification of this character, see Jasper Hopkins,
Nicholas of Cusa: Metaphysical Speculations: Volume II, n. 2, 1253.
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December 2017
according to the force that was implanted in it – that
rectilinear motion is not natural to it. The ball’s nature
is forced when it is thrown in a straight line. A sign of
this is the fact that the duration of its rectilinear
movement depends on an element that is not inherent
to the ball itself, i.e., the strength of the force that set it
in motion. 5
This observation raises the question of what the ball’s
natural movement is. It must be a type of movement
whose duration depends on the very nature of the ball,
that is, its roundness. Such a movement will therefore
be circular, the type of movement by virtue of which the
ball rotates around its own inner axis. If the ball were a
perfectly round sphere, undetermined by any external
condition, it would, once set in a circular motion, go on
moving perpetually. 6
John and the Cardinal are aware that the perpetual
movement of a perfect sphere is a purely theoretical
hypothesis. Indeed, according to the doctrine of learned
ignorance, no perfection exists in the world of
multiplicity. Accordingly, neither fully spherical balls
nor perfectly flat surfaces can be found here, neither
imperturbable climates nor flawless throws, all of these
being factors that modify the ball’s movement. 7 That
which is perfectly spherical is nothing but a symbol to
propel intellectual speculation.
2. The Bowling-Ball’s Movements as Symbols
From them on, both interlocutors take the bowling-ball
as a symbol, finding in its helicoidal and circular
movements suitable metaphors for expressing the
4 De ludo globi (h IX, 4).
5 De ludo globi (h IX, 5).
6 De ludo globi (h IX, 21).
7 De ludo globi (h IX, 5-9).
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mind’s activity, both as the form of a body and as a self-
subsistent substance. The ball is a symbol of the soul, or
rather, of the human mind, 8 which is created together
with the body but it is separable from it. 9 Therefore, the
bowling-ball – the one that can be empirically observed
– symbolizes the mind as it enlivens the body, while the
perfectly round sphere symbolizes the mind as it is in
itself. That the human mind is a living power, having
been created together with the body, is expressed by
Cusanus in the following formula: “…there is created in
you a self-moving motion: viz., the rational soul, which
moves itself and all that constitutes you.” 10
The mind, therefore, has two types of movement: one
by which it moves itself; another by which it moves “all
that constitutes you” (cuncta tua), that is, the human
being in body and soul. The difference between moving
itself and moving the human being as a whole stands out
due to its dualism. It would seem to imply that the body
is something alien to the mind’s true nature. Cusanus
attributes it to “the Platonists” and adheres to it, 11 but
he will also argue in favor of the substantial union
between body and soul, using Aristotelian vocabulary to
do so.
The general picture that is deduced from the
symbolism of the bowling-ball seems to confirm
Cusanus’ Platonic mistrust of the body. Because of its
convex part, the ball’s movement is slow and goes
backwards before advancing. Even when it advances, it
cannot follow a straight line. And even if it did follow a
straight line, this rectilinear movement would never be
8 In the dialogue Idiota. De mente (h V, 57) Cusanus calls the
mind “soul” only when it animates a body but in De ludo globi
he uses the term “soul” equivocally. I will follow Idiota. De
mente, calling the mind “soul” only when referring to its role
as form of an animated body.
9 De ludo globi (h IX, 25).
De ludo globi (h IX, 22). “Sed creatus est in te motus seipsum
10
movens secundum Platonicos; qui est anima rationalis
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December 2017
the ball’s natural movement, which, due to the ball’s
essential roundness, is circular. As said above, the
bowling-ball’s movement is caused by an external
element, the player’s strength, which implants its own
force in the ball. Therefore, its movement is “accidental
and violent” (accidentalis et violentus). 12
As with the bowling-ball, the body’s movement is
accidental. This means that it happens or falls upon the
body (accidit), and that its falling upon occurs by virtue
of another. Indeed, considered in itself, the body is only
matter and it is not alive. All of its movement, which is
to say, its life, comes from the mind. When the body
decays and the mind withdraws, life – which belongs to
the mind rather than the body – withdraws along with
it. This is symbolically expressed by the bowling-ball
ceasing its movement when the impetus impressed on it
ceases. There is an important difference between the
symbol and the reality it signifies: the mind’s movement
never ceases. In the case of human beings, what fails is
matter, not the power that has been created together
with it.
The mind’s movement or, in Cusanus’ more specific
words, “the intellectual movement of the human
soul” 13, is exercised independently of the body and does
not cease because it is a substantial movement. This
means that it exists in itself; and, being a movement, the
fact that it exists in itself means that, once created, it
moves itself. This substantial movement does not
movens se et cuncta tua”. Translation: Jasper Hopkins,
Nicholas of Cusa: Metaphysical Speculations: Volume II, 1192.
11 De ludo globi (h IX, 22).
12 De ludo globi (h IX, 23).
13 De ludo globi (h IX, 24).
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Volume XXXIV
happen to the mind (if so, it would be accidental), but
rather is the mind:
For movement does not happen to that whose
nature is movement – as is true of the nature of the
intellect, which cannot be intellect apart from
intellectual motion, through which the intellect is in
act. And so, intellectual motion is substantial, self-
moving motion. Therefore, it never fails.14
The substantial nature of the intellectual movement is
symbolized by the perfectly round sphere. Once put in
motion by divine creation, its movement is perpetual
because it is circular, that is, natural to its essential
roundness. I will return to the metaphor of circularity in
the next section, because it is key to understanding the
mind’s freedom. First, I would like to conclude this
section by describing the way in which Cusanus explains
the substantial union of body and soul, since it also has
an effect on freedom.
So far, Cusanus has used the terms “substance” and
“accident” to underline the difference between body
and soul. Although this use does not change, and in De
ludo globi there is more than one passage where the mind
as it is in itself is differentiated from the human being as
a whole, 15 Cusanus explicitly asserts that minds do not
just happen to fall into bodies but, having both been
created together, the former are the substantial form of
the latter. Even if this expression seems unequivocally
to refer to the Aristotelian tradition, the use that
Cusanus makes of it here is in the service of an idea that
is peculiarly his, namely, the idea that lower levels of
being are enfolded in the higher ones. As is well known,
he generally uses two related concepts to develop this
14 De ludo globi (h IX, 24). “Non enim illi accidit motus, cuius natura
est motus, uti de natura intellectus, qui non potest esse intellectus sine
motu intellectuali, per quem est actu. Ideo intellectualis motus est
substantialis seipsum movens. Numquam igitur deficit.” Translation:
Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa: Metaphysical Speculations:
Volume II, 1192.
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December 2017
idea: the coupling complicatio-explicatio. The role of the
soul as the substantial form of the body is therefore
understood by Cusanus in the sense that that which
makes dead matter a human body is enfolded in the
mind and, in this sense, the body is the unfolding of the
mind.
Cusanus does not postulate the existence of different
kinds of soul. The body is animated by the mind, the
essence of which is intellectual; and the nutritive,
sensitive, and rational activities are its different
manifestations. The immortal movement of the intellect
enfolds all the possibilities of life and unfolds them
while it is united to a body. Thus, it unfolds the nutritive
power that drives growth and reproduction, the
sensitive power that drives locomotion and perception,
and the rational power that discriminates and
compares. 16 While unfolding itself in these activities, the
mind never ceases to be intellect. It is at the same time
the condition of possibility and the ultimate goal of its
own movement.
According to Cusanus, then, the substantial unity of
body and soul is based on the substantial unity of the
mind. Because the mind is “a power of many powers” 17,
a power that enfolds the nutritive, sensitive, and rational
functions, its union with the body with which it was
created is substantial. By unfolding itself, the mind both
enlivens and forms the body and thus, by virtue of the
process set in motion by its unfolding, the mind can
return to itself. Once separated from the body, it retains
the nutritive and sensitive functions, even if it does not
exercise them. These, therefore, are not alien to it but
are rather its own. All the activities of the body are
enfolded in the mind “in the way that a trigon is present
15 Cf., for instance, De ludo globi (h IX, 29).
16 De ludo globi (IX, 37).
17 De ludo globi (IX, 38).
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in a tetragon”. 18 The metaphor is used by Aristotle in
Book II of De anima (414b 28-32) to illustrate the nested
hierarchy of the soul’s activities, and Cusanus
acknowledges his authorship, while combining with a
Platonic conception of the soul as an independent
substance.
3. The Helicoidal and Circular Movements as
Symbols of Freedom
When discussing the relationship between mind and
body, Cusanus made clear that, while movement
happens to the body, the mind is nothing but movement
itself. (Actually, the movement that happens to the body
is its being animated by the mind.) Now, the mind is
movement because it is triune, and because it is a triune
movement, it is free. In this it is the image of its
exemplar.
When Cusanus writes in De docta ignorantia that the name
“oneness” is the closest to the unnameable God, 19 it is
not only because oneness precedes and begets without
confusing itself with multiplicity, but rather because
oneness, considered in itself, is nothing but abundance
of identity with itself. Indeed, because oneness is
infinite, it is beyond all opposition, which it moreover
enfolds; there does not exist anything other than the
infinite which could put a limit to it.
Being absolute (i.e., free from any links), oneness is
beyond all possible comparison: It is not more or less
than something other, but completely equal to itself.
Consequently, it can be said that oneness’ abundance
begets the perfect equality of itself, to which it is bound
by an also perfect nexus. Three infinites are one infinite;
as Cusanus puts it in De visione Dei, the infinite is not
18 De ludo globi (h IX, 38).
19 De docta ignorantia I (h I, 77).
20 De visione dei (h VI, 71).
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multipliable. 20 There is only one infinite and it is triune.
Just as the full perfection of infinite oneness entails its
being infinitely trine, infinite triunity, insofar as it is
relational, entails movement – an eternal movement that
eternally returns to itself.
This relation between oneness and itself is better
symbolized by human intellectual activity, which is also
triune. Undeniably, intellectual activity entails three
parties: one that understands, a second one that is
understood, and the action of understanding. When
self-knowledge is examined, it can be seen that these
three parties are but one. The intellect is at the same time
the one that understands, the one that is understood,
and the understanding itself. 21 This relationship that the
mind has with itself is both self-subsistent and free,
because in it the mind is moved only by itself. In De ludo
globi, it is symbolized by the circle.
So long as the mind animates a body, this free
movement is constricted. Even so, it manifests itself in
the fact that many of the appetites and impulses, the
satisfaction of which is demanded by our animal nature,
are susceptible to being governed by the human mind.
By virtue of its activity as a soul, the human mind can
rule the animal impulses and transmute them into moral
virtues. Thus the mind can impose its own rule on
nature, and it is interesting to note that this happens not
only with good deeds – as in the case of the moral
virtues – but also in evil ones. Abstinence and chastity
are the examples Cusanus gives of the former; sins
against human nature and suicide are examples of the
latter. In all of these cases, the human spirit is moved
not by nature, but by itself. 22 This is the struggle that the
bowling game represents: imperfect balls rolling
21 Cf. De docta ignorantia I (h I, 28).
22 De ludo globi (h IX, 36).
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helicoidally towards the truth, their natural movement
distorted by their heavy bodies.
From the above it follows that the mind can exercise
its intrinsic freedom – which consists in a self-subsistent
activity – to the extent that it becomes independent of
the body. This free, self-subsistent activity is creation.
Made in the image and likeness of the first principle, the
mind is a free creative power. Cusanus has already said
in Idiota De mente: while God creates beings, the mind
creates concepts. 23 The key to the likeness between
image and exemplar lies in the fact that, when the mind
creates, it exerts itself in a world that is purely
intellectual, no matter if its creatures show themselves
in the perceptual world or not. When creating, the mind
moves in a dimension that is disengaged both from
perceptual experience and from the soul’s bodily
appetites. Because creation is a purely intellectual
exercise, it is the activity that best shows the mind’s
structure, that is, its triunity. As it happens, in order for
something to be created it has to be thought of,
considered, and determined. 24
To think of, to consider, and to determine are
therefore the three activities that result in the mind’s
creative concept. The relationship between these
activities shows that the human mind is both one and
three. No new concept can be defined (i.e., determined)
if it has not been carefully pondered (i.e., considered)
and it cannot be pondered if the idea of it has not come
to the mind (i.e., has been thought of). The same can be
said from a different perspective: no new idea has been
thought of unless it was considered and determined as
23 Idiota. De mente (h V, 58)
24 De ludo globi (h IX, 31).
25De ludo globi (h IX, 28). “… In the case of that movement
which is inventive of what is new, the soul can be moved only
by itself.” Translation: Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa:
Metaphysical Speculations: Volume II, 1195.
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December 2017
well. If the stages of considering and determining were
not involved in the creation of a concept, it would not
be a new concept, but rather a fleeting fancy. Therefore,
each new concept, in order to be complete, must involve
its having been thought of, considered, and determined
– three activities that relate to one another in a circular
way. The fact that the creative process is circular reveals
its essential note, which is freedom. Because it is
circular, the mind’s movement is not prompted by any
other end than the thought process itself. 25 In that self-
determination lies the mind’s freedom – or rather, that
self-determination is the mind’s freedom.
To conclude, I would like to underline that the fact
that the mind’s essential movement is circular does not
imply that it can achieve its goal without the
intervention of the perceptual world. Indeed, the mind
needs to be stimulated by perception and unfold itself
in the world in order for it to be able to go back to itself.
Because human beings are limited creatures, their
essential circular movement must be awakened by the
helicoidal one.
The Council’s Warlords: Milanese Appropriations
of the Conciliar Authority (1433-1435)
Thomas Woelki, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
At the beginning of December 1433, a scandal shocked
the Council of Basel: letters from Venice and Rome
reported military invasions of the papal states. 26 In
26 A detailed account of the events is given in the cronicle of
John of Segovia; Monumenta Conciliorum generalium seculi decimi
quinti, vol. I-IV, Wien/Basel 1857-1936 (= MC), II, 529-534;
Deutsche Reichstagsakten. Ältere Reihe, vol I-XXII, München
1867 sqq. (= RTA), XI, 149-156 nr. 73-77. Beyond that the
Venetian instructions for ambassadors contain important
material; RTA XI, 156-160 nr. 78, 339-344 nr. 183. For a
detailed discussion of the topic see Noël Valois, La crise