The six works read span the last quarter century of Nicholas’ life (1440-1463) and include On Learned Ignorance, Conjectures, The Layman: About Mind, The Vision of God, The Not Other, and The Hunt for Wisdom. These readings are explications of the text; they interpret each work as a whole and focus in particular on the themes that order the work and how these get played out in its details. The Introduction uses a brief early dialogue, On the Hidden God, to orient the reader by locating Nicholas’ work in relation to Plato’s famous image of the divided line. The book’s conclusion presents a reprise of the main ideas in each work and an appraisal of their import.
This books makes an important contribution to Cusanus studies, for no book-length scholarly work in English reads and comments on Nicholas’ individual works. Reading Cusanus provides a much-needed introduction to this great philosopher, theologian, and mystic.
