He was interested in
philosophy, and was an expert on the
art of memory; he wrote books on
mnemonic technique, which
Frances Yates contends may have been disguised
Hermetic tracts. The writings attributed to
Hermes Trismegistus had played an important role in the
Renaissance Neoplatonic revival. At that time they were thought to date uniformly to the earliest days of ancient
Egypt and to encode a form of "pristine wisdom" ("prisca philosophia"). They are now believed to date mostly from about 300 A.D. and are associated with
Neoplatonism.
Woodcut illustration of one of Giordano Bruno's mnemonic devices: in the spandrels are the four classical elements: earth, air fire, water
While the
Hermetic Tradition was a major influence on Bruno, he also absorbed and developed the heliocentric ideas of
Copernicus, though he claimed that his own mystical understanding of heliocentrism was far more important than
Copernicus's understanding, which Bruno considered merely mathematical. Other significant influences included
Thomas Aquinas, whose works he had to study in depth as a novice and for whom he always expressed a curiously deep admiration
[2],
Averroes, whose idea of a universal mind resonates through Bruno's work,
Duns Scotus, the Renaissance Neoplatonist
Marsilio Ficino, the Spanish
Ramon Llull and, last but certainly not least,
Nicholas of Cusa's ideas on infinity and indeterminacy, particularly the idea of an infinite universe where the Earth is elevated to the divine status of a star. Bruno developed a
pantheistic hylozoistic system, essentially incompatible with orthodox Christian
Trinitarian beliefs.
In 1576 he left Naples to avoid the attention of the
Inquisition. He left
Rome for the same reason and abandoned the Dominican order. He travelled to
Geneva and briefly joined the
Calvinists, before he was
excommunicated, ostensibly for slandering the philosophy professor Antoine de la Faye. After Bruno apologized his excommunication was revoked, but in autumn 1579, deeply disappointed by Calvinist intolerance, he left for
France.
He went first to
Lyon, but he could not find work there and in late 1579 he arrived in
Toulouse, at that time a Catholic stronghold, where he obtained a position as lecturer of philosophy. After the bitter experience in Geneva, he also tried to revert to mainstream Catholicism, but he was denied absolution by the Jesuit priest that he approached. After religious strife broke out in
Toulouse in summer 1581, he moved to
Paris, where first he held a cycle of thirty lectures on theological topics. At this time, 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. His talents attracted the benevolent attention of the king
Henry III, who supported a conciliatory, middle-of-the-road cultural policy between Catholic and Protestant extremism.
In
Paris he enjoyed the protection of his powerful French patrons. During this period, he published several works on mnemonics, a.o. "De umbris idearum" (The Shadows of Ideas, 1582), "Ars Memoriae" (The Art of Memory, 1582), "Cantus Circaeus" (Circe's Song, 1582), based on his model of organised knowledge, opposed to that of
Petrus Ramus. In
1582 Bruno also published a comedy summarizing some of his philosophical positions, titled "Il Candelaio" ("The Torchbearer").
Travel years
In April 1583, he went to
England with letters of recommendation from Henry III, working for the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau. There he became acquainted with the poet
Philip Sidney and with the Hermetic circle around
John Dee. He also unsuccessfully sought a teaching position at
Oxford, where however he held lectures. His views spurred controversy, notably with
John Underhill, Rector of Lincoln College and from 1589 bishop of Oxford, and
George Abbot, who later became 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.”
[3] and who reports accusations of plagiarising
Ficino's work. Still, the English period was a fruitful one. During that time Bruno completed and published some of his most important works, the "Italian Dialogues," including the cosmological tracts "La Cena de le Ceneri" (The Ash Wednesday Supper, 1584), "De la Causa, Principio et Uno" (On Cause, Prime Origin and the One, 1584), "De l'Infinito Universo et Mondi" (On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, 1584) as well as "Lo Spaccio de la Bestia Trionfante" (The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, 1584) and "De gl' Heroici Furori" (On Heroic Frenzies, 1585). Some of the works that Bruno published in London, notably the "The Ash Wednesday Supper," appear to have given offense. It was not the first time, nor was it to be the last, that Bruno's controversial views coupled with his abrasive sarcasm lost him the support of his friends.
In October 1585, after the French embassy in London was attacked by a mob, he returned to
Paris with Castelnau, finding a tense political situation. Moreover, his 120 theses against
Aristotelian natural science and his pamphlets against the mathematician
Fabrizio Mordente soon put him in ill favor. In
1586, following a violent quarrel about Mordente's invention, "the differential compass," he left
France for
Germany.
Woodcut from "Articuli centum et sexaginta adversus huius tempestatis mathematicos atque philosophos," Prague 1588
In Germany he failed to obtain a teaching position at
Marburg, but 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, where he obtained 300
taler from
Rudolf II, but no teaching position. He went on to serve briefly as a professor in
Helmstedt, but had to flee again when he was
excommunicated by the
Lutherans, continuing the pattern of Bruno's gaining favor from lay authorities before falling foul of the
ecclesiastics of whatever hue.
He went first to
Padua, where he taught briefly, and applied unsuccessfully for the chair of mathematics, which was assigned instead to
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.
The monument to Bruno in the place he was executed, Campo de' Fiori in Rome.
Close-up of the statue
Trial and deathIn Rome he was imprisoned for seven years during his lengthy trial, lastly in the
Tower of Nona. Some important documents about the trial are lost, but others have been preserved, among them a summary of the proceedings that was rediscovered in 1940.
[4] 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. Luigi Firpo lists them as follows:
[5] 1-Holding opinions contrary to the
Catholic Faith and speaking against it and its ministers
3-Holding erroneous opinions about
Christ.
5-Claiming the existence of a plurality of worlds and their eternity.
7-Dealing in magics and divination.
8-Denying the Virginity of Mary.
Bruno continued his Venetian defensive strategy, which consisted in bowing to the Church's dogmatic teachings, while trying to preserve the basis of his philosophy. In particular Bruno held firm to his belief in the plurality of worlds, although he was admonished to abandon it. His trial was overseen by the inquisitor Cardinal
Bellarmine, who demanded a full recantation, which Bruno eventually refused. Instead he appealed in vain to
Pope Clement VIII, hoping to save his life through a partial recantation. The Pope expressed himself in favor of a guilty verdict. Consequently, Bruno was declared a
heretic, handed over to secular authorities on February 8 1600. At his trial he listened to the verdict on his knees, then stood up and said: "Perhaps you, my judges, pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it." A month or so later he was brought to the
Campo de' Fiori, a central Roman market square, his tongue in a
gag, tied to a pole naked and
burned at the stake, on February 17, 1600.
All his works were placed on the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum in
1603. Four hundred years after his execution, official expression of "profound sorrow" and acknowledgement of error at Bruno's condemnation to death was made, during the papacy of
John Paul II. Attempts were made by a group of professors in the Catholic Theological Faculty at Naples, led by the Nolan
Domenico Sorrentino, to obtain a full rehabilitation from the Catholic authorities.
Some authors have characterized Bruno as a "martyr of
science", making a parallel to the
Galileo affair. They assert that, even though Bruno's theological beliefs were an important factor in his heresy trial, his
Copernicanism and cosmological beliefs also played a significant role for the outcome. Others oppose such views, and claim this alleged connection to be exaggerated, or outright false.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "…in 1600 there was no official Catholic position on the Copernican system, and it was certainly not a heresy. When…Bruno…was burned at the stake as a heretic, it had nothing to do with his writings in support of Copernican cosmology."
[9] Similarly, the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) asserts that "Bruno was not condemned for his defence of the Copernican system of astronomy, nor for his doctrine of the plurality of inhabited worlds, but for his theological errors, among which were the following: that Christ was not God but merely an unusually skilful magician, that the Holy Ghost is the soul of the world, that the Devil will be saved, etc."
[10] However, the webpage of the Vatican Secret Archives about Bruno's trial differs in perspective: "In the same rooms where Giordano Bruno was questioned, for the same important reasons of the relationship between science and faith, at the dawning of the new astronomy and at the decline of Aristotle’s philosophy, sixteen years later, Cardinal Bellarmino, who then contested Bruno’s heretical theses, summoned Galileo Galilei, who also faced a famous inquisitorial trial, which, luckily for him, ended with a simple abjuration."
[11]
Cosmology before Bruno
According to
Aristotle and
Plato, the universe was a
finite sphere. Its ultimate limit was the primum mobile, whose diurnal rotation was conferred upon it by a
transcendental God, not part of the universe, a motionless
prime mover and
first cause. The fixed
stars were part of this celestial sphere, all at the same fixed distance from the immobile earth at the center of the sphere.
Ptolemy had numbered these at 1,022, grouped into 48
constellations. The
planets were each fixed to a transparent sphere.
In the first half of the 15th century
Nicolaus Cusanus reissued the ideas formulated in
Antiquity by
Democritus and
Lucretius and dropped the Aristotelean
cosmos. He envisioned an infinite universe, whose center was everywhere and circumference nowhere, with countless rotating stars the
Earth being one of them, of equal importance. He also considered neither the rotation orbits were circular, nor the movement was uniform.
In the second half of the 16th century, the theories of
Copernicus began diffusing through Europe. Copernicus conserved the idea of planets fixed to solid spheres, but considered the apparent motion of the stars to be an illusion caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis; he also preserved the notion of an immobile center, but it was the
Sun rather than the Earth. Copernicus also argued the Earth was a planet orbiting the Sun once every year. However he maintained the
Ptolemaic hypothesis that the orbits of the planets were composed of perfect circles—
deferents and
epicycles—and that the stars were fixed on a stationary outer sphere.
Bruno believed, as is now universally accepted, that the Earth revolves and that the apparent diurnal rotation of the heavens is an illusion caused by the rotation of the Earth around its
axis. He also saw no reason to believe that the
stellar region was finite, or that all stars were equidistant from a single
center of the universe.
In
1584, Bruno published two important philosophical dialogues, in which he argued against the planetary spheres. (Two years later, Rothmann did the same in
1586, as did
Tycho Brahe in
1587.) Bruno's infinite universe was filled with a substance -- a "pure air,"
aether, or spiritus -- that offered no resistance to the heavenly bodies which, in Bruno's view, rather than being fixed, moved under their own
impetus. Most dramatically, he completely abandoned the idea of a
hierarchical universe. The Earth was just one more heavenly body, as was the Sun. God had no particular relation to one part of the infinite universe more than any other. God, according to Bruno, was as present on Earth as in the Heavens, an
immanent God, the One subsuming in itself the multiplicity of existence, rather than a remote heavenly deity.
Bruno also affirmed that the universe was
homogeneous, made up everywhere of the
four elements (water, earth, fire, and air), rather than having the stars be composed of a separate
quintessence. Essentially, the same
physical laws would operate everywhere, although the use of that term is anachronistic.
Space and
time were both conceived as infinite. There was no room in his stable and permanent universe for the
Christian notions of divine
Creation and
Last Judgement.
Under this model, the Sun was simply one more star, and the stars all
suns, each with its own planets. Bruno saw a
solar system of a sun/star with planets as the fundamental unit of the universe. According to Bruno, infinite God necessarily created an infinite universe, formed of an infinite number of solar systems, separated by vast regions full of Aether, because empty space could not exist. (Bruno did not arrive at the concept of a
galaxy.)
Comets were part of a synodus ex mundis of stars, and not -- as other authors sustained at the time -- ephemeral creations, divine instruments, or heavenly messengers. Each comet was a world, a permanent celestial body, formed of the four elements.
Bruno's cosmology is marked by infinitude, homogeneity, and
isotropy, with planetary systems distributed evenly throughout.
Matter follows an active
animistic principle: it is
intelligent and discontinuous in structure, made up of discrete
atoms. This animism (and a corresponding disdain for mathematics as a means to understanding) is the most dramatic respect in which Bruno's cosmology differs from what today passes for a common-sense picture of the universe.
During the later 16th century, and throughout the 17th century, Bruno's ideas were held up for ridicule, debate, or inspiration.
Margaret Cavendish, for example, wrote an entire series of poems against "atoms" and "infinite worlds" in Poems and Fancies in 1664. Bruno's true, if partial, rehabilitation would have to wait for the implications of
Newtonian cosmology.
Bruno's overall contribution to the birth of modern science is still controversial. Some scholars follow
Frances Yates stressing the importance of Bruno's ideas about the universe being infinite and lacking structure as a crucial crosspoint between the old and the new. Others disagree. Others yet see in Bruno's idea of multiple worlds instantiating the infinite possibilities of a pristine, indivisible One a forerunner of
Everett's
Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
[12] Ægypt, a four-volume novel by
John Crowley, includes a major storyline following the adventures of Giordano Bruno, positing among other things two meetings between Bruno and Dr. John Dee.
More Light (1987), a play by British playwright
Snoo Wilson, has Giordano Bruno as its protagonist and includes Queen
Elizabeth I of England and a female
Shakespeare among its characters.
The Last Confession by Australian author
Morris West (The Devil's Advocate, The Shoes of the Fisherman, The Ambassadors) is a fictional account of Giordano Bruno's imprisonment before he is convicted of heresy and burned at the stake during the Inquisition in 1600.
Czesław Miłosz's poem "Campo di Fiori" interweaves the Italian masses indifference to the burning of Giordano Bruno with the Poles' indifference to the Germans' suppression of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Margaret Gabrielle Long, writing as Marjorie Bowen, used a fictionalized version of Bruno ("Brother Felipe Bruno") as the protagonist of the novel The Triumphant Beast (1934).
The
Romanian-born
Israeli writer and poet
Yotam Reuveni recounted that during his youth at the city of
Iaşi,
Moldavia, pupils at the local highschool greatly venerated Giordano Bruno and had the habit of putting a finger inside the flame of a burning candle, as an act of solidarity with their burnt hero. ("האש של ג'ורדנו ברונו" Hebrew: "Giordano Bruno's Fire", article published in
Haaretz on March 3, 2000, marking the 400th anniversary of his execution).
Legacy
The 20-km diameter
crater Giordano Bruno, named in Bruno's honor, is located on the
moon at 103° east lunar
longitude, 36° north lunar
latitude. It is believed to have been created by a meteorite impact in 1178, witnessed by five English monks, as related in
Carl Sagan's Cosmos.
In
1926 the Theosophical Broadcasting Station Pty Ltd, owned by interests associated with the local branch of
Theosophical Society Adyar, was granted a radio broadcasting licence in
Sydney,
Australia. The station's call sign, "
2GB" was chosen to honour the Italian philosopher who was much admired by Theosophists. Although the ownership of the station subsequently passed to strictly commercial interests, the call sign is retained.
1
^ The Pope & the Heretic,
2
^ CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Giordano Bruno 3
^ [1] 4
^ Vatican Secret Archives: Summary of the trial against Giordano Bruno, Rome, 1597
5
^ Luigi Firpo, Il processo di Giordano Bruno, 1993
6
^ Site of Bruno's execution:
41°53′44″N, 12°28′20″E.
7
^Alan Powers, Bristol Community College, Campania Felix: Giordano Bruno’s Candelaio and Naples accessed
27 May 2007 8
^ Hans-Volkmar Findeisen: „Gegenpapst und Designer des Darwinismus“ – Wer kennt heute eigentlich noch Ernst Haeckel? (in German) accessed
27 May 2007 9
^ Sheila Rabin,
Nicolaus Copernicus in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online, accessed
19 November 2005).
10
^ Turner, William. "Giordano Bruno.” Catholic Encyclopedia. 1908. Online, accessed
2 Jan 2007, at
http://newadvent.org/cathen/03016a.htm.
11
^ Vatican Secret Archives accessed 3 November 2006.
12
^ [2] Max Tegmark, Parallel Universes, 2003
13
^ Thornton Wilder, "Giordano Bruno's Last Meal in Finnegans Wake", Hudson Review vol. XVI (Spring, 1963), p. 74-79.
reproduced online at TheModernWord.com.
References.
Wikisource has the text of the
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article
Bruno, Giordano.
The Acentric Labyrinth. Giordano Bruno's Prelude to Contemporary Cosmology, Ramon G. Mendoza PhD, 1995,
ISBN 1-85230-640-8.Cause, Principle and Unity : And Essays on Magic by Giordano Bruno,
ISBN 0-521-59658-0.The Cabala of Pegasus by Giordano Bruno,
ISBN 0-300-09217-2."
Writings of Giordano Bruno"
.The Pope & the Heretic, Michael White, 2002,
ISBN 0-06-018626-7.
.Giordano Bruno, J. Lewis McIntyre.
.Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science, Hilary Gatti, 2002,
ISBN 0-8014-8785-4.Giordano Bruno: His Life and Thought, With Annotated Translation of His Work -On the Infinite Universe and Worlds,Dorethea Singer,1950.
.Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher, John Kessler.
.Giordano Bruno, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Collier's Encyclopedia, Vol 4, 1987 ed., pg. 634
.
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition,
Frances Yates,
ISBN 0-226-95007-7.
Eros and Magic in the Renaissance,
Ioan P. Couliano,
ISBN 0-226-12315-4.
.Il processo di Giordano Bruno, Luigi Firpo, 1993
.Giordano Bruno,Il primo libro della Clavis Magna, ovvero, Il trattato sull'intelligenza artificiale, a cura di Claudio D'Antonio,
Di Renzo Editore.
.Giordano Bruno,Il secondo libro della Clavis Magna, ovvero, Il Sigillo dei Sigilli, a cura di Claudio D'Antonio,
Di Renzo Editore.
.Giordano Bruno, Il terzo libro della Clavis Magna, ovvero, La logica per immagini, a cura di Claudio D'Antonio,
Di Renzo Editore.Giordano Bruno, Il quarto libro della Clavis Magna, ovvero, L'arte di inventare con Trenta Statue, a cura di Claudio D'Antonio,
Di Renzo Editore.Giordano Bruno L'incantesimo di Circe, a cura di Claudio D'Antonio,
Di Renzo Editore.Giordano Bruno, De Umbris Idearum, a cura di Claudio D'Antonio,
Di Renzo Editore.Guido Del Giudice, La coincidenza degli opposti,
Di Renzo Editore,
ISBN 8883231104 , 2005
.Giordano Bruno, Due Orazioni: Oratio Valedictoria - Oratio Consolatoria, a cura di Guido del .Giudice,
Di Renzo Editore, 2007
Name: Giordano Bruno
Birth: 1548
Death: 17 February 1600
School/tradition ?
Main interests: Philosophy & Cosmology
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