Thesis 11>68
Latin
Qui sciuerit quid sit denarius in Arithmetica formali, et cognouerit naturam primi numeri spherici, sciet illud quod ego adhuc apud aliquem Cabalistam non legi, et est quod sit fundamentum secreti magni Iobelei in Cabala.
The 1486 print reads 'formabili' where the Emendationes errorum itself corrects to 'formali'; the 1487 print already carries the emended reading (farmer1998:27945).
English
Whoever knows what the ten is in formal arithmetic, and understands the nature of the first spherical number, will know something I myself have not yet read in any Cabalist: the foundation of the Cabala's great secret of the jubilee.
A 'spherical number' (5 or 6) is one whose powers always end in that same digit; the 'great jubilee' is a standard name for the third sefirah, one of whose names is Teshuvah (farmer1998:27954).
Discussed in
- Jean-Marc Mandosio, Beyond Pico della Mirandola: John Dee's formal numbers and real cabala (2012)
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)
Farmer's cross-references
- 1>5 De quaestione illa, Vtrum sit unum esse in Christo_aut plura esse, dico Scotum et Thomam non discordare.
- 28.42 Ideo Ioseph ossibus tantum sepultus est et non corpore, quia eius ossa erant uirtutes et militie arboris superioris uocati Sadich influentis
- 6>5 Cum dixit Abucaten causam primam superiorem esse omni narratione, non tam propter id habet ueritatem quod primo affert, quia scilicet causam
- 7>9 Per arithmeticam non materialem, sed formalem, habetur optima uia ad prophetiam naturalem.