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Giordano Bruno
(1548-1600)
Italian natural philosopher
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History of ideas
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Survey works
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Legenda: Oxford, 2014  
ISBN: 978-1-907975-75-2

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), who died at the stake in 1600, is one of the best known symbols of anti-establishment thought. The theme of this volume, which is offered as a collection of essays to honour distinguished Bruno scholar Hilary Gatti, reflects her constant interest in the principles of cultural freedom and independent thinking. Several essays deal with Bruno himself, including an analysis of the Eroici furori, and studies of his reception in relation to the group known as the Novatores and to English historical and literary figures (the Second Earl of Essex; Shakespeare and Ben Jonson) following Bruno’s stay in England. The authors and texts discussed here are linked by a relentless interest in the question of authority and originality, and they range from literary figures such as Alberti (1404-72) and Vasari (1511-74) to major scholars such as Athanasius Kircher (1601-80) and controversial philosophers and scientists who, like Bruno, were condemned by the Church, such as Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639), Giulio Cesare Vanini (1585-1619), the proponents of early modern psychology, and the ‘New Philosophers’ condemned by the Holy Office. Taken together, these chapters show how much that was new and revolutionary in early modern culture came from its confrontation with the past.

Martin McLaughlin is Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian at Oxford. Elisabetta Tarantino has taught for several years in Italian Departments across the UK.

With the contributions:

Martin McLaughlin, Elisabetta Tarantino — Introduction
Martin McLaughlin — Alberti’s Musca: Lucian, Humanism and the Comic Tradition
Lina Bolzoni — Literary texts and Michelangelo’s ‘visibile parlare’ in Vasari’s Lives
Daniel Garber — Bruno among the Novatores
Elisabetta Tarantino — Bruno’s Candelaio, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson: Building on Hilary Gatti’s Work
Eugenio Canone — The Heresy of Love: A Reading of Giordano Bruno’s Eroici Furori
Tiziana Provvidera — Giordano Bruno and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
Letizia Panizza — Giulio Cesare Vanini and Lucian
Germana Ernst — ‘Maculae Galilei me perplexum habent.’ Campanella, Sun-spots and Pythagorean temptations
Leen Spruit — Catholic Censorship of Early Modern Psychology
Marta Fattori — The ‘New Philosophy’ Condemned by the Holy Office: the Affair of Mademoiselle de Bourignon
Ingrid Rowland — Giordano Bruno and Athanasius Kircher on the Atmosphere