Biography of Giordano Bruno, Scientist and Philosopher

Early Life

Filippo (Giordano) Bruno was born in Nola, Italy in 1548; his father was Giovanni Bruno,
a soldier, and his mother was Fraulissa Savolino. In 1561, he enrolled in school at the
Monastery of Saint Domenico, best known for its famous member, Thomas Aquinas.
Around this time, he took the name Giordano Bruno and within a few years had become
a priest of the Dominican Order.

Life in the Dominican Order

Giordano Bruno was a brilliant though eccentric philosopher whose ideas rarely
coincided with those of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, he entered the
Dominican convent of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples in 1565 where he assumed
the name, Giordano. His outspoken and heretical beliefs were noted by his superiors,
but despite this, he was ordained as a priest in 1572 and sent back to Naples to
continue his studies.

While in Naples, Bruno discussed his heretical views aloud, including the Arian heresy
which stated that Christ was not divine. These actions led to steps being taken toward a
trial for heresy; as a result, he fled to Rome in 1576 and fled again in 1576 after some of
his forbidden writings were uncovered.

Leaving the Dominican order in 1576, Bruno wandered Europe as a traveling

philosopher, lecturing in various universities. His chief claim to fame was the Dominican
memory techniques he taught, bringing him to the attention of King Henry III of France
and Elizabeth I of England. Bruno's memory enhancement techniques, including
mnemonics, are described in his book The Art of Memory and are still used today.

Crossing Swords with the Church

In 1583 Bruno moved to London and then to Oxford, where he presented lectures
discussing the Copernican theory of a sun-centered universe. His ideas were met with a
hostile audience, and, as a result, he returned to London where he became familiar with
the major figures of the court of Elizabeth I.

While in London, he also wrote a number of satirical works as well as his 1584
book Dell Infinito, universo e mondi (Of Infinity, the Universe, and the World). The book
attacked the Aristotelian vision of the universe, and, building on the works of the Muslim
philosopher Averroës, suggested that religion is "a means to instruct and govern
ignorant people, philosophy as the discipline of the elect who are able to behave
themselves and govern others." He defended Copernicus and his sun-centered vision of
the universe, and further argued that" the universe was infinite, that it contained an
infinite number of worlds, and that these are all inhabited by intelligent beings."

Bruno continued his travels, writing, and lecturing in England and Germany, through
1591. Throughout his travels, Bruno both intrigued and angered local scholars. He was
excommunicated in Helmstedt and asked to leave Frankfurt am Main, finally settling at a
Carmelite monastery where he was described by the prior as “chiefly occupied in writing
and in the vain and chimerical imagining of novelties.”

Final Years

In August 1591, Bruno was invited to return to Italy and, in 1592, was denounced to the
Inquisition by a disgruntled student. Bruno was arrested and immediately turned over to
the Inquisition to be charged with heresy.

Bruno spent the next eight years in chains in Castel Sant’Angelo, not far from the
Vatican. He was routinely tortured and interrogated. This continued until his trial.
Despite his predicament, Bruno remained true to what he believed to be true, stating to
his Catholic Church judge, Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, "I neither ought to
recant nor will I." Even the death sentence handed down to him did not change his
attitude as he defiantly told his accusers, "In pronouncing my sentence, your fear is
greater than mine in hearing it."

Death

Immediately after the death sentence was handed down, Giordano Bruno was further
tortured. On February 19, 1600, he was driven through the streets of Rome, stripped of
his clothes and burned at the stake. Today, a monument stands in the Campo de Fiori
in Rome, with a statue of Bruno.

Legacy

Bruno’s legacy of freedom of thought and his cosmological ideas had a significant
impact on 17th and 18th century philosophical and scientific thought. On the other hand,
while some of his ideas had merit and could be considered "ahead of their time," others
were based largely on magic and the occult. In addition, Bruno's disregard for the
politics of the day was the direct cause of his death.

According to the Galileo Project, "It is often maintained that Bruno was executed
because of his Copernicanism and his belief in the infinity of inhabited worlds. In fact,
we do not know the exact grounds on which he was declared a heretic because his file
is missing from the records. Scientists such as Galileo and Johannes Kepler were not
sympathetic to Bruno in their writings."

Sources

 Aquilecchia, Giovanni. “Giordano Bruno.” Encyclopædia Britannica,

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 13 Feb. 2019,
www.britannica.com/biography/Giordano-Bruno.
 Knox, Dilwyn. “Giordano Bruno.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford
University, 30 May 2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/bruno/.
 The Galileo Project | Christianity | Giordano Bruno,
galileo.rice.edu/chr/bruno.html.