 There is still another sense in which the notion of matter retains a function in Taurellus’s metaphysics. This becomes clear when Taurellus suggests a metaphorical usage of the notion of prime matter. As he puts it, with respect to God prime matter is “the NOTHING” (in capital letters) out of which God creates the world (PT). The connection that Taurellus establishes between the notion of prime matter and the notion of nothing strongly differs from the use of the term “nothing” that often designates matter in the Neoplatonic tradition (see Bovillus 1510: fol. 63v–64r). Taurellus denies that prime matter is a constituent of created beings and holds that immaterial forms have active and passive characteristics of their own. His point is not that matter, due to its lack of determination, is “close to” nothing, nor that matter is undetermined except for its three-dimensional characteristics. Rather, when he calls prime matter “nothing” he has in mind a strict identity statement. This is why it is a suitable metaphor for what is there before the divine act of creation, namely, no created being. Prime matter in this metaphorical sense is absolute non-being.