Bruno, (Filippo) Giordano

BRUNO, (FILIPPO) GIORDANO: Italian philosopher of the Renaissance; b. at Nola (14 m. e.n.e. of Naples), Campania, 1548; burned at the stake at Rome Feb. 17, 1600. He joined the Dominicans at Naples at the age of fourteen or fifteen, but study and reflection and particularly the influence of the works of Nicholas of Cusa and Raymond Lully made him doubtful of dogma and restive under the strict rules of his order. In 1576 he fled to Rome and thenceforth led a wandering life. He first visited various cities of North Italy; about 1580 he reached Geneva, stayed there two years, and went on to Paris through Lyons and Toulouse; at Paris he gave lectures on philosophy; from 1583 to 1585 he was in England, where he had the friendship of such men as Sir Philip Sidney, and composed his most important works; between 1586 and 1588 he was lecturing at Wittenberg; he visited Prague, Helmstädt, Frankfort, Zurich, and Padua, and reached Venice early in 1592. Here he was arrested in May, tried before the Inquisition, and his case adjourned to Rome, Jan., 1593. On Jan. 7, 1600, after a confinement of seven years, he was condemned as an apostate and heretic and given over to the civil authorities for execution. He was the first philosopher to espouse the Copernican hypothesis; in his metaphysical interpretation of it he radically opposed the philosophy and science of his time, and subverted also the most cherished teachings of the Church. His fundamental principle, as against Aristotle, was the absolute boundlessness of the universe. The supernatural in its traditional sense was thus eliminated. No heaven existed separate from the universe. The world—the phenomenal aspect of the universe—and God are not the same, but God is identified with the universe; or God may be designated as matter conceived of in extended substance, essentially immaterial, the immanent cause or soul of the world. Later philosophers, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Boehme, and Hegel owe much to Bruno. Just three hundred years after his execution, Feb. 17, 1900, on the very spot where he was burned, a monument was dedicated to his memory.

Bruno's most important works were the Spaccio della bestia trionfante (Paris, 1584); Della causa, principio ed uno, and Del infinito universo e mondi (Venice, 1584); De triplici minimo et mensura, and De monade numero et figura (Frankfort, 1591). His Italian works were edited by Wagner (2 vols., Leipsic, 1830) and by Paul de Lagarde (2 vols., Göttingen, 1888); his Latin works by Fiorentino (2 vols., Naples, 1879–91) and by Tocco (Florence, 1889). The Della causa has been translated into German by Lasson (3d ed., Leipsic, 1902), and a German translation of his collected philosophical works begun by L. Kuhlenbeck (Jena, 1904, vol. v., 1907), who has also edited Lichtstrahlen aus Giordano Bruno's Werken (Leipsic, 1891). There is an English translation of "The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast" by W. Morehead (London, 1713; only 50 copies printed and now extremely rare), and of the "Heroic Enthusiasts" (Gli eroici furori, Paris, 1558) by L. Williams (London, 1887); a general account and synopsis of the "Infinite Universe," written by Bruno in his dedication of the work to Lord Castelnau, was translated by John Toland and printed, with a Latin essay on the death of Bruno (in A Collection of Several Pieces of Mr. John Toland, vol. i., London, 1726, pp. 304–349).

Bibliography: On the life of Bruno a noteworthy production is J. L. McIntyre, Giordano Bruno, London, 1903. Phases of his life and philosophy are presented in F. J. Clemens, Giordano Bruno und Nicolaus von Cusa, eine philosophische Abhandlung, Bonn, 1847; C. J. G. Bartholmess, Jordano Bruno, 2 vols., Paris, 1846–47; D. Berti, Vita di Giordano Bruno, Milan, 1868; Mrs. Besant, Giordano Bruno, London, 1877; R. Mariano, Giordano Bruno, la vita e l’uomo, Rome, 1881 (important); M. Carriere, Die philosophische Weltanschauung der Reformationszeit, Leipsic, 1887 (the work of a specialist); Miss I. Frith, Life of Giordano Bruno, London, 1887; D. Berti, Giordano Bruno, . . . sua vita e sua dottrina, Turin, 1889; R. Landseck, Bruno der Märtyrer der neuen Weltanschauung, Leipsic, 1890; J. Owen, Giordano Bruno, in Skeptics of the Italian Renaissance, London, 1893; H. Brunnhofer, Giordano Bruno's Weltanschauung und Verhängniss, Leipsic, 1899; G. Louis, Giordano Bruno. Seine Weltanschauung und Lebensauffassung, Berlin, 1900; A. Riehl, Giordano Bruno, Leipsic, 1900, Eng, transl., London, 1905. Consult also the works on the History of Philosophy, by Ueberweg, Ebrard, etc.