The Life and Times of Giordano Bruno
Bruno, born in 1548, became an ordained priest in 1572 at the age of 24. At the monestary, Bruno kept a copy of the banned writings of Erasmus; it was discovered, and when he learned that an indictment was being prepared against him in Naples he fled, shedding his religious habit. For a time, he wandered. He first went to the Genoese port of Noli, then to Savona, then Turin, and finally to Venice, where he published his "The Signs of the Times". From Venice he went to Padua where he met fellow Dominicans who convinced him to wear his priest's habit again. From Padua he went to Bergamo and then across the Alps to Chambéry and Lyon. His movements after this time are obscure.
In 1579 he arrived in Geneva. Things apparently went well for Bruno for a time, as he entered his name in the Rector's Book of the University of Geneva in May of 1579. But he could not long remain silent. In August he published an attack on the work of Antoine de la Faye, a distinguished professor. He and the printer were promptly arrested. Rather than apologizing, Bruno insisted on continuing to defend his publication. He was refused the right to take sacrament. Though this was eventually reversed, Geneva was no longer safe for him.
He left for France, arriving first in Lyon, and then in Toulouse, where he took his doctorate in theology and was elected by students to lecture in philosophy. It seems he also attempted at this time to return to the Catholic fold, but was denied absolution by the Jesuit priest he approached. When religious strife broke out in the summer of 1581, he relocated to Paris. There he held a cycle of thirty lectures on theological topics, and he also began to gain fame for his prodigious memory. Bruno's feats of memory were based, at least in part, on his elaborate system of mnemonics, but some of his contemporaries found it easier to attribute them to magical powers.
In Paris, Bruno enjoyed the protection of his powerful French patrons. During this period, he published several works on mnemonics, including De Umbris Idearum (On The Shadows of Ideas, 1582), Ars Memoriae (The Art of Memory, 1582), and Cantus Circaeus (Circe's Song, 1582). All of these were based on his mnemonic models of organized knowledge and experience, as opposed to the simplistic logic-based mnemonic techniques then becoming popular. Bruno also published a comedy summarizing some of his philosophical positions, titled Il Candelaio (The Torchbearer, 1582).
In April 1583, Bruno went to England with letters of recommendation from Henry III himself. There he became acquainted with the poet Philip Sidney and other members of the Hermetic circle. He also lectured at Oxford, and unsuccessfully sought a teaching position there. His views spurred controversy, notably with the Rector of Lincoln College, with the bishop of Oxford, and with the Archbishop of Canterbury who poked fun at Bruno for supporting “the opinion of Copernicus that the earth did go round, and the heavens did stand still; whereas in truth it was his own head which rather did run round, and his brains did not stand still.” During this time Bruno completed and published some of his most important works, the "Italian Dialogues", including the cosmological tracts "On Cause, Principle and Unity" and "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds". Some of the works that Bruno published in London, notably the The Ash Wednesday Supper, appear to have given offense.
In October 1585, his 120 theses against Aristotelian natural science and his pamphlets against the mathematician Fabrizio Mordente put him in ill favor. In 1586, following a violent quarrel about Mordente's invention, the "Differential Compass", he left France for Germany.
In Germany he was granted permission to teach at Wittenberg, where he lectured on Aristotle for two years. However, with a change of intellectual climate there, he was no longer welcome, and went in 1588 to Prague, but was unable to secure a position. He went on to serve briefly as a professor in Helmstedt, but had to flee again when he was excommunicated by the Lutherans.
The year 1591 found him in Frankfurt. During this period he produced several Latin works: De Magia (On Magic), Theses De Magia (Theses On Magic) and De Vinculis In Genere (A General Account of Bonding), and De Imaginum, Signorum, Et Idearum Compositione (On The Composition of Signs, Images and Ideas). Apparently, during the Frankfurt Book Fair, he received an invitation to Venice from the patrician Giovanni Mocenigo, who wished to be instructed in the art of memory, and also heard of a vacant chair in mathematics at the University of Padua.
He went first to Padua, where he taught briefly, and applied unsuccessfully for the chair of mathematics, which was assigned instead to a man known as Galileo Galilei one year later. Bruno accepted Mocenigo's invitation and moved to Venice in March 1592. For about two months he functioned as an in-house tutor to Mocenigo. When Bruno announced his plan to leave Venice to his host, the latter, who was unhappy with the teachings he had received and had apparently developed a personal rancour towards Bruno, denounced him to the Venetian Inquisition, which had Bruno arrested on May 22, 1592. Among the numerous charges of blasphemy and heresy brought against him in Venice, based on Mocenigo's denunciation, was his belief in the plurality of worlds, as well as accusations of personal misconduct. Bruno defended himself skillfully, stressing the philosophical character of some of his positions, denying others and admitting that he had had doubts on some matters of dogma. The Roman Inquisition, however, asked for his transferral to Rome. After several months and some quibbling the Venetian authorities reluctantly consented and Bruno was sent to Rome in February 1593.
In Rome he was imprisoned for seven years during his lengthy trial. The numerous charges against Bruno, based on some of his books as well as on witness accounts, included blasphemy, immoral conduct, and heresy in matters of dogmatic theology, and involved some of the basic doctrines of his philosophy and cosmology, which included:
"Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam" (Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it). He was quickly turned over to the secular authorities and, on February 17, 1600 in the Campo de' Fiori, a central Roman market square, "his tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words" he was burned at the stake. When the fire had died out his ashes were dumped into the Tiber river. All Bruno's works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1603.
The Romanian-born poet Yotam Reuveny wrote on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Bruno's execution: "The so-called heretic Giordano Bruno was - and perhaps still is - the greatest of heroes for the pupils of No. 60 Highschool in Iasi, capital of Moldava in Romania. For us in this school, Bruno was the incarnation of total faith to one's ideals, whatever the price (...). He was at the center of our rite of passage - to hold a finger inside the flame of a burning candle and keep it there as long as you could possibly endure, in order to emulate Giordano Bruno and express our admiration for him."
source: wikipeida
Bronze statue of Giordano Bruno by Ettore Ferrari (1845-1929), Campo de' Fiori, Rome.
In 1579 he arrived in Geneva. Things apparently went well for Bruno for a time, as he entered his name in the Rector's Book of the University of Geneva in May of 1579. But he could not long remain silent. In August he published an attack on the work of Antoine de la Faye, a distinguished professor. He and the printer were promptly arrested. Rather than apologizing, Bruno insisted on continuing to defend his publication. He was refused the right to take sacrament. Though this was eventually reversed, Geneva was no longer safe for him.
He left for France, arriving first in Lyon, and then in Toulouse, where he took his doctorate in theology and was elected by students to lecture in philosophy. It seems he also attempted at this time to return to the Catholic fold, but was denied absolution by the Jesuit priest he approached. When religious strife broke out in the summer of 1581, he relocated to Paris. There he held a cycle of thirty lectures on theological topics, and he also began to gain fame for his prodigious memory. Bruno's feats of memory were based, at least in part, on his elaborate system of mnemonics, but some of his contemporaries found it easier to attribute them to magical powers.
In Paris, Bruno enjoyed the protection of his powerful French patrons. During this period, he published several works on mnemonics, including De Umbris Idearum (On The Shadows of Ideas, 1582), Ars Memoriae (The Art of Memory, 1582), and Cantus Circaeus (Circe's Song, 1582). All of these were based on his mnemonic models of organized knowledge and experience, as opposed to the simplistic logic-based mnemonic techniques then becoming popular. Bruno also published a comedy summarizing some of his philosophical positions, titled Il Candelaio (The Torchbearer, 1582).
In April 1583, Bruno went to England with letters of recommendation from Henry III himself. There he became acquainted with the poet Philip Sidney and other members of the Hermetic circle. He also lectured at Oxford, and unsuccessfully sought a teaching position there. His views spurred controversy, notably with the Rector of Lincoln College, with the bishop of Oxford, and with the Archbishop of Canterbury who poked fun at Bruno for supporting “the opinion of Copernicus that the earth did go round, and the heavens did stand still; whereas in truth it was his own head which rather did run round, and his brains did not stand still.” During this time Bruno completed and published some of his most important works, the "Italian Dialogues", including the cosmological tracts "On Cause, Principle and Unity" and "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds". Some of the works that Bruno published in London, notably the The Ash Wednesday Supper, appear to have given offense.
In October 1585, his 120 theses against Aristotelian natural science and his pamphlets against the mathematician Fabrizio Mordente put him in ill favor. In 1586, following a violent quarrel about Mordente's invention, the "Differential Compass", he left France for Germany.
In Germany he was granted permission to teach at Wittenberg, where he lectured on Aristotle for two years. However, with a change of intellectual climate there, he was no longer welcome, and went in 1588 to Prague, but was unable to secure a position. He went on to serve briefly as a professor in Helmstedt, but had to flee again when he was excommunicated by the Lutherans.
The year 1591 found him in Frankfurt. During this period he produced several Latin works: De Magia (On Magic), Theses De Magia (Theses On Magic) and De Vinculis In Genere (A General Account of Bonding), and De Imaginum, Signorum, Et Idearum Compositione (On The Composition of Signs, Images and Ideas). Apparently, during the Frankfurt Book Fair, he received an invitation to Venice from the patrician Giovanni Mocenigo, who wished to be instructed in the art of memory, and also heard of a vacant chair in mathematics at the University of Padua.
He went first to Padua, where he taught briefly, and applied unsuccessfully for the chair of mathematics, which was assigned instead to a man known as Galileo Galilei one year later. Bruno accepted Mocenigo's invitation and moved to Venice in March 1592. For about two months he functioned as an in-house tutor to Mocenigo. When Bruno announced his plan to leave Venice to his host, the latter, who was unhappy with the teachings he had received and had apparently developed a personal rancour towards Bruno, denounced him to the Venetian Inquisition, which had Bruno arrested on May 22, 1592. Among the numerous charges of blasphemy and heresy brought against him in Venice, based on Mocenigo's denunciation, was his belief in the plurality of worlds, as well as accusations of personal misconduct. Bruno defended himself skillfully, stressing the philosophical character of some of his positions, denying others and admitting that he had had doubts on some matters of dogma. The Roman Inquisition, however, asked for his transferral to Rome. After several months and some quibbling the Venetian authorities reluctantly consented and Bruno was sent to Rome in February 1593.
In Rome he was imprisoned for seven years during his lengthy trial. The numerous charges against Bruno, based on some of his books as well as on witness accounts, included blasphemy, immoral conduct, and heresy in matters of dogmatic theology, and involved some of the basic doctrines of his philosophy and cosmology, which included:
- Holding erroneous opinions about Transubstantiation and Mass.
- Claiming the existence of a plurality of worlds and their eternity.
- Believing in metempsychosis and in the transmigration of the human soul into brutes.
- Dealing in magics and divination.
"Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam" (Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it). He was quickly turned over to the secular authorities and, on February 17, 1600 in the Campo de' Fiori, a central Roman market square, "his tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words" he was burned at the stake. When the fire had died out his ashes were dumped into the Tiber river. All Bruno's works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1603.
The Romanian-born poet Yotam Reuveny wrote on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Bruno's execution: "The so-called heretic Giordano Bruno was - and perhaps still is - the greatest of heroes for the pupils of No. 60 Highschool in Iasi, capital of Moldava in Romania. For us in this school, Bruno was the incarnation of total faith to one's ideals, whatever the price (...). He was at the center of our rite of passage - to hold a finger inside the flame of a burning candle and keep it there as long as you could possibly endure, in order to emulate Giordano Bruno and express our admiration for him."
source: wikipeida
Bronze statue of Giordano Bruno by Ettore Ferrari (1845-1929), Campo de' Fiori, Rome.