Words and things were united in their resemblance. Renaissance man thought in terms of similitudes: the theatre of life, the mirror of nature. There were four ranges of resemblance.Aemulation was similitude within distance: the sky resembled a face because it had “eyes” — the sun and moon.Convenientia connected things near to one another, e.g. animal and plant, making a great “chain” of being.Analogy: a wider range based less on likeness than on similar relations.Sympathy likened anything to anything else in universal attraction, e.g. the fate of men to the course of the planets.A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating.
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