This project aims to produce an English translation Giodarno Bruno's "DE VMBRIS IDEARVM" ("On the shadows of ideas").

• I took 5 semesters of Latin
• I do not have a degree in it
• I am likely to be extremely slow at this
• I do have some background in philosophy and 16-17th c. philosophy of science
• I greatly admire Bruno and detest the Catholic Church's execution of him
• I hope to share Bruno's genius with more people

Bruno was a very erudite human. He memorized (thanks to the techniques he enumerates here) most of the Classical literary canon. He can drop literally thousands of references. Know the story of Deucalion? Who fathered the child of Semele? He was also a religious scholar so was up on all the religious references and themes of the time. He was also a neo-Platonist mystic who inherited the knowledge of symbols, rites, and eccentricities of the Pythagorean and neo-Platonic movements. It's near impossible to know what symbols or phrases had an extra layer of meaning not available to me. Consider reading Paradise Lost by the similarly-erudite Milton. Those books are packed with footnotes to help the reader get all of Milton's references. Now put that text in Latin and you're on the par of this project.

I will create a page-per-page translation of the downloadable version. I will then translate the sentences with my reasoning. Hopefully when (not if) I err my logic will be documented and someone who knows better will be able to submit a pull request or make an amendment.

This is not a research-grade ready translation. It's probably not fit to cite or refer to reliably.

SALVETE