Geometria ancillaTheologiae –Theologia ancilla Geometriae. A ‘circular’ Question in Cusanus’ Philosophy

The aim of this article is to emphasize how and why in the mathematical enigma of squaring the circle Cusanus found a complementum to the higher theological truths: “si sic est in mathematicis, sic erit verius in theologicis”. In mathematical figures ,subtracted from the change that marks the sensitive reality and therefore provided with greater certainty, the truth shines( splendet) not in the way of a distant image(remota similitude),but as the brightest among the approximations(fulgida propinquitas): the certainty of mathematics represents, in Nicholas’ eyes, the starting point of theological speculations, a sort of introduction (adsimilatio) to higher views.