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Giordano Bruno was born named Filippo in Nola,
in Campania, the son of Giovanni Bruno, a soldier. In 1572 he
was ordained a priest. He was interested in philosophy and was
an expert in the art of memory. Bruno was also heavily influenced
by the ideas of Copernicus and by the newly rediscovered ideas
of Plato. In 1576, Bruno
left Naples to avoid the attention of the Inquisition. He left
Rome for the same reason and abandoned the Dominican order. He
was forced to leave for France. For seven years, he enjoyed the
protection of powerful French
patrons,
including Henry III.
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published 20 books, including several on memory training. In 1583,
he went to England with letters
of recommendation from Henry III. He sought a teaching position at
Oxford, but appears to have given offense and was denied a position
there (and elsewhere in England). Giordano returned to Italy, first
to Padua, where he taught briefly, but the chair went instead to
Galileo
Galilei,
so he continued on to Venice. Bruno attempted to leave Venice but
was arrested on May 22, 1592, and tried before being
extradited for trial in Rome in 1593. His trial was overseen by
the inquisitor, Cardinal Saint Robert Bellarmine, who demanded a
full recantation, which Bruno refused. Consequently,
he was declared a heretic and handed over to secular authorities
on January 8, 1600 and burned at the stake on February 17, 1600,
in Campo de' Fiori, a popular Roman square. At his trial, he said:
Perhaps
you, my judges, pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear
than I receive it. 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.
(Courtesy of www.wikipedia.org) |
