Giordano Bruno

This e-text is based on the 1903 edition of the original book. Minor punctuation errors have been tacitly corrected. Inconsistencies in hyphenation, ligatures, and accented forms, such as 'sun-flower/sunflower', 'formulæ/formulae', 'Combinatoriâ/Combinatoria', etc., have been retained. Missing footnote numbers have been added according to sequence.

The Table of Contents has been changed regarding the content of the first section 'Biographies, Works, and Essays.'

Italic text in the original version has been placed between underscores (italic); passages in small caps have been symbolised by forward slashes (/small caps/). [oe] represents the respective ligature, ^{text} signifies a superscript passage.

The following passages have been corrected:

# p. 16: 'Beza' --> 'Béza'; 'before Venetian tribunal' --> 'before the Venetian tribunal' # p. 18 (sidenote): 'Circuæs' --> 'Circæus' # p. 30: 'Artic' --> 'Arctic'; 'terrestial' --> 'terrestrial' # p. 37: 'Mauvissère' --> 'Mauvissière' # p. 64: 'aquaintance' --> 'acquaintance' # p. 71: 'bann' --> 'ban' # p. 131: 'fanastic' --> 'fantastic' # p. 252: 'philosphy' --> 'philosophy' # p. 295: 'allmighty' --> 'almighty' # p. 330: 'intuites' --> 'intuits' # p. 348: 'docrine' --> 'doctrine' # p. 353: 'Carriére' --> 'Carrière' # Index, Bartholmèss, Christian: ' 2, 16, 20, ...' --> '5, 16, 20, ...'

GIORDANO BRUNO

[Illustration]

[Illustration: Giordano Bruno.

Statue by Ettore Ferrari.]

GIORDANO BRUNO

BY

J. LEWIS McINTYRE

M.A. EDIN. AND OXON.: D.SC. EDIN.: ANDERSON LECTURER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN

London MACMILLAN AND CO., /Limited/ NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1903

All rights reserved

To

MY WIFE

PREFACE

This volume attempts to do justice to a philosopher who has hardly received in England the consideration he deserves. Apart from the Life of Giordano Bruno, by I. Frith (Mrs. Oppenheim), in the English and Foreign Philosophical Library, 1887, there has been no complete work in our language upon the poet, teacher, and martyr of Nola, while his philosophy has been treated only in occasional articles and reviews. Yet he is recognised by the more liberal-minded among Italians as the greatest and most daring thinker their country has produced. The pathos of his life and death has perhaps caused his image to stand out more strongly in the minds of his countrymen than that of any other of their leaders of thought. A movement of popular enthusiasm, begun in 1876, resulted, on 9th June 1889, in the unveiling of a statue in Rome in the Campo dei Fiori, the place on which Bruno was burned. Both in France and in Germany he has been recognised as the prophet, if not as the actual founder, of modern philosophy, and as one of the earliest apostles of freedom of thought and of speech in modern times.

The first part of the present work--the Life of Bruno--is based upon the documents published by Berti, Dufour, and others, and on the personal references in Bruno's own works. I have tried to throw some light on Bruno's life in England, on his relations with the French Ambassador, Mauvissière, and on his share in some of the literary movements of the time. I have, however, been no more successful than others in finding any documents referring directly to Bruno's visit to England.