«... per speculum et in aenigmate...»

This essay, drawing on Aby Warburg’s brilliant insight, intends to show that images are the true foundation of the “nova filosofia”. Images are a cornerstone of Bruno’s ontology and they are essential to the understanding of both his conception of the infinite universe and the innumerable worlds, and his new epistemology, as delineated in the Furori. In this work, Bruno presents a series of images which mark the journey of the ‘furioso’ towards the truth. From this point of view, images – whose relevance in Bruno’s mnemotechnical works has already been pointed out – can be considered as the theoretical foundation of the whole Brunian philosophy and his most powerful contribution to Renaissance thought.