BRUNO, GIORDANO

Philosopher and poet; b. Nola, 1548; d. Rome, Feb. 17, 1600. A Dominican priest, Bruno lived until 1576 in various priories in the kingdom of Naples, where he acquired a vast knowledge of philosophy, theology, and science, and became well versed in Latin and Italian letters. He conceived culture as a single common tradition containing all religious and profane doctrines, the authentic understanding of this tradition being possible only through a philosophical interpretation known only to dominant personalities. An impetuous and intolerant love for knowledge led him to attack the supine ignorance of the unlearned and the pedantic, whom he regarded as deforming the true meaning of teachings through grotesque attempts at interpretation. His violent and imprudent criticisms

against every doctrinal profession not illumined by philosophical and personal knowledge, his rejection of all authority other than reason itself, and his independent and rebellious position made him an object of condemnation and persecution in many countries and led to a tragic end.

Life and Works. Bruno fled his priory in 1576 to avoid a trial for heresy consequent upon his disrespect for current religious opinions and wandered for 15 years through many European states, testing contemporary cultures as well as various religious positions. After traveling through northern Italy in 1579, he vainly sought refuge in Calvinistic Geneva, where he was pursued by a penal lawsuit. He successfully commented upon Aristotle at the University of Toulouse from 1579 to 1581. During his consequent sojourn in Paris, he published his first important group of writings, wherein he delineated a new method for memorization and tried to develop the combinative art projected by R. lull. After an unsuccessful attempt at teaching at Oxford, he continued his abundant literary activity in London from 1583 until 1585.

In his Cena delle Ceneri Bruno originated a completely new cosmological conception based upon the Copernican criticism of geocentricity: space is infinite, without an absolute horizon or center. This concept is amplified in his De linfinito, universo e mondi, innumerable heavenly bodies move through interminable space, and various living forms populate the stars. The universal meaning of life in Bruno's conception of the universe is the soul; his cosmological teaching relies upon a metaphysics of living and generating nature, which, as an image of and emanation from God, divinely forms and gathers all things into one organic totality. This manifests itself in each living thing, in which it interiorly acts and guides, as the soul does in relation to the body. The dialogue De la causa, principio e uno explains the principal concepts upon which his unitary view of life hinges. In Spaccio della bestia trionfante, Cabala del cavallo pegaseo, and Asino cillenico, Bruno astutely used symbols to criticize positive religions by citing superstitious aspects and advancing the idea of a purely rational interpretation of traditional teachings. In another Italian dialogue, entitled Gli eroici furori, he exalted Platonic love, which enables the soul of the philosopher to rise to the contemplation of God through wisdom.

Upon returning to Paris in 1586, Bruno advanced a series of criticisms against Aristotle's philosophy in his 120 articles De Nature et Mundo adversus Peripateticos and in his Camoeracensis Acrotismus. Leaving Paris to avoid the resentment aroused by some disputes, he went into Lutheran Germany, where after a vain attempt at Marburg, he gained acclaim at the University of Wittenberg. While pursuing his research relevant to the Lullian art, he continued to study Aristotle until 1588. In 1589 he made a short visit to Prague and benefited from the liberality of Rudolph II of Hapsburg. Then he stayed at Helmstdt, where his independent conduct soon brought on an excommunication enforced by the Lutheran religious authorities of the city. His sojourn at Frankfurt am Main from 1590 to 1591 enabled him to compose a series of poems in classical Latin. These, published in Frankfurt in 1591 as De minimo, De monade, and De innumerabilibus sive de immenso, manifest the power of his imagination in reference to metaphysics. Here, starting with original interpretations about the meaning of geometric figures and mathematical functions, he tried to explore what is infinitely great and what is infinitely small in the cosmos. The metaphysical synthesis entitled Summa terminorum metaphysicorum ad capessendum logicae et philosophiae studium he composed at Zurich; this was published there by one of his disciples in 1595.

Condemnation and Critique. Bruno's speculative work was interrupted by a tragic event. Invited to Venice by the patrician Giovanni Mocenigo, who wanted to learn the mnemonic and Lullian arts, Bruno was betrayed by his host and in 1592 given over to the Inquisition. Accused of heresy and incarcerated in Venice, then in Rome, he refused to retract his teachings and was burned at the stake in the Roman Campo dei Fiori.

Bruno's teaching cannot be separated from his impetuous, genial, and confused personality, wherein a generous love for wisdom hid under a violent and intolerant temperament. He did not know how to assume social responsibility during an era that was painfully disturbed by complex changes, during which Europe gradually over-came the torment of a religious and moral crisis. It is difficult, then, to synthesize his teaching in brief formulas, inasmuch as it is involved with polemics and affected by personal and historical circumstances. Later the name of Giordano Bruno was unduly used as a symbol for movements against the Church, and he was called the precursor of immanentistic, romantic, and scientistic positions hardly reconcilable with the historical truth about him.

Bibliography: Works. Opere italiane, ed. g. gentile and v. spampanato, 3 v.; Opera latine conscripta, ed. f. fiorentino et al., 3 v.. Literature. Copleston v. 3. a. guzzo, Enciclopedia filosofica, 4 v. (Venice-Rome 1957) 1:807–820. v. salvestrini, Bibliografia di Giordano Bruno (1582–1950) (2d ed. Florence 1958). v. spampanato, Vita di Giordano Bruno, con documenti editi e inediti, 2 v. (Messina 1921–23); Documenti sulla vita di Giordano Bruno (Florence 1933). a. mercati, Il sommario del processo di Giordano Bruno. f. a. yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. i. l. horowitz, The Renaissance Philosophy of Giordano Bruno (New York 1952).

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