The maximum clock frequency for the MAX7219ENG is 10MHz.
The MAX7219ENG can be initialized by sending a shutdown command (0x0C) followed by a display-test command (0x0F) and then setting the brightness and scan-limit registers.
The No-Op command (0x00) is used to synchronize the data transmission and can be used to insert a delay between commands.
The brightness of the display can be adjusted by writing a value between 0x00 (minimum brightness) and 0x0F (maximum brightness) to the brightness register (0x0A).