Noun

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.