Giordano Bruno, El Hereje Impenitente

by Michael White

Filosofo, cientifico, erudito y mistico, Giordano Bruno (Nola, Napoles, 1548-Roma, 1600) siguio los pasos de Leonardo da Vinci y abrio los senderos del conocimiento que despues recorreria Newton, arrojando la luz de la razon en una epoca de oscuridad. Bruno, sediento de saber cuando imperaba la ignorancia, puso en cuestion los dogmas de la Iglesia pero, sobre todo, lanzo una hipotesis que desperto la ira de las autoridades eclesiasticas: la posible existencia de infinitos mundos en los que criaturas como nosotros vivirian y rendirian culto a su propio dios.Michel White centra sus investigaciones en los ultimos anos de Bruno, cuando este se enfrenta a una lucha desigual contra la Inquisicion y, rebelde, defiende sus teorias aunque ello le cueste su vida."Por una parte la devocion religiosa nos ha dado obras magnificas que enaltecen y alimentan nuestro espiritu. Por otra, produce la caza de brujas, los horrores de la Inquisicion, las guerras de religion, las bombas de Irlanda del Norte y los ninos que mueren en Palestina."

Genres: History, Religion, Biography, Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Italy

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Michael White was a British writer who was based in Perth, Australia. He studied at King's College London (1977–1982) and was a chemistry lecturer at d'Overbroeck's College, Oxford (1984–1991).
He was a science editor of British GQ, a columnist for the Sunday Express in London and, 'in a previous incarnation', he was a member of Colour Me Pop. Colour Me Pop featured on the "Europe in the Year Zero" EP in 1982 with Yazoo and Sudeten Creche and he was then a member of the group The Thompson Twins (1982). He moved to Australia in 2002 and was made an Honorary Research Fellow at Curtin University in 2005.
He was the author of thirty-five books: these include Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science; Leonardo: The First Scientist; Tolkien: A Biography; and C. S. Lewis: The Boy Who Chronicled Narnia. His first novel Equinox – thriller, an occult mystery reached the Top Ten in the bestseller list in the UK and has been translated into 35 languages. His non-fiction production included the biography Galileo: Antichrist. Novels following Equinox include The Medici Secret, The Borgia Ring and The Art of Murder.
White wrote under two further names, Tom West and Sam Fisher. He used the latter pseudonym to publish the E-Force trilogy, State of Emergency, Aftershock, and Nano.
A further novel by White, The Venetian Detective, features characters including Galileo and Elizabeth.
White wrote a biography of Isaac Newton, The Last Sorcerer. He was both short-listed and long-listed for the Aventis prize. Rivals was short-listed in 2002, and The Fruits of War long-listed in 2006. He was also nominated for the Ned Kelly Prize for First Novel (for Equinox in 2007).

Reviews

[Jamie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lion cornered by jackals. That is how I think of Giordano Bruno, one of the great men of the Renaissance, a profound, original thinker, a seeker of Truth with a capital T, and a visionary who saw the essential unity of all creation. So of course he was excommunicated, betrayed to the Inquisition, imprisoned and tortured for seven years, and finally burned at the stake. The Jackals won, at least in the short term, but they could no more destroy his ideas than the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. destroyed the civil rights movement.

Schooled as a monk, he got into trouble early by asking hard questions, and reading banned books such those of Erasmus, who was himself almost excommunicated for pointing out superstition and corruption in the Church. Threatened with being denounced to the local version of the Inquisition, he fled the monastery and began a peripatetic life trying to stay one step ahead of those who wanted to silence him. He was a brilliant and persuasive lecturer, and gained influential followers everywhere he went. He was contemporary with Isaac Newton, and shared with him a deep interest in the occult (Newton is often called both the last medieval mind and the first modern one.) Occult studies seemed to offer an alternative path to knowledge that could grant deep insight in the essential truths of the universe, and from there lead to physical control over the elements.

Bruno was an authority on the occult science of memory, which is not one of the things that we think of today as occult. He was born within a few years of Gutenberg’s printing press, which led to a vast diffusion of books and the knowledge they contained, so even in his lifetime the need for people to be able to memorize large amounts of information was starting to fade. He taught memory as an occult discipline, a way to expand one’s understanding of the interconnectedness of knowledge, and thus a gateway to a deeper appreciation of reality.

Although he always considered himself a good Catholic, his views were far from orthodox, in an age when orthodoxy was more important than understanding, and people were killed for much more minor deviations from dogma that Bruno’s beliefs. He thought the Council of Nicea in 325 AD had made a grave error when they accepted the concept of the Trinity, where Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were three and yet one. The Trinity has puzzled many people over the years, the idea that god sacrificed himself to himself to save mankind, whom he created flawed yet would punish for their flaws. Whatever happened to the idea of simple forgiveness? Bruno leaned toward Arianism, which held that god was god, the one and only, and Jesus was his divine but subordinatee first creation.

He believed that the universe is infinite, with an infinite number of worlds, and did not believe in god as an individual being or in divine judgment of any kind. It’s no wonder he agitated so many people.

Part of his appeal was from the novelty of his beliefs, and part of it was from his reputation as an occult magus, but he was also a compelling orator. Both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England were students of his, but they could never give him the level of support he really wanted, which was nothing less than a revolution in beliefs that would sweep away the world’s existing religions and replace them with his vision of universal harmony and justice. None of his followers were ready to go down the path of overturning society altogether.

When he realized that he was not going to be able to use the kings and queens of his day to put his revolution into effect he decided that he needed to convince the pope. Bruno was certain that if he could just meet the pope in person he could persuade him to dissolve the existing Catholic church and create a new religion.

It’s not hard to see how this was going to end. The Catholic church had long since ceased being the humble representative of Christ on earth, and was now a powerful state in its own right, and it was infamously, scandalously corrupt. The princes of the church, with their palaces and their whores, were never going to give that up for the sake of mere religion. Popes had been murdered for proposing far more minor reforms.

Was Bruno mad? It has certainly been argued that he was, but the record of his responses to the Inquisition’s questioning show him presenting his arguments forcefully and cogently. It appears that he was so consumed by his vision of Truth that he was willing to risk anything and everything for it. He was brave to the point of foolhardiness. When he was invited back to Italy his friends tried to dissuade him from going, because the invitation seemed like an obvious trap. He went anyway. It was a trap.

He never got to see the pope, but he did get to see the Church at its inhuman worst, in the form of the Roman Inquisition. The book describes the forms of torture that were routinely used, and they make for horrific, stomach-churning reading. The Gestapo and the KGB torturers were no more brutal; the difference was that the Inquisition tortured in the name of love, in an attempt to bring the sinners back into the bosom of the Church. Reading it made me want to vomit.

Saint Augustine was used to justify the Inquisition based on his interpretation of Luke 14:23 (“And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled”), which he said permitted violence and murder against heretics and unbelievers.

Bruno was immediately recognized as a martyr to the cause of Truth, an intellectual giant murdered by ignorant pygmies terrified that they would lose their privileges and their loot. His syncretic views of science fell out of favor in the coming age of math and engineering, but in the 20th century his teachings found a following as strict Newtonianism gave way to the uncertainties of quantum mechanics and relativity. Almost all of his books are still in print today, and no one remembers his murderers.

[Danial ABDL · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
اول فکر میکردم با به کتاب نمایش گونه طرفم. ولی از دقت و تحقیقی بودن کتاب و اطلاعات فوق العاده ای که درباره قرون وسطی و دانش اون زمان میداد واقعا لذت بردم.

[Labijose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me hizo interesarme por uno de los personajes más fascinantes de la historia.

[Zeynab__ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“من از مرگ نهراسیده‌ام، به همتایانم تسلیم نشده‌ام، به دلیل طبیعت قاطعم مرگی شجاعانه را ترجیح داده‌ام بر زندگی بدون مبارزه.”

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whereas this does not go into much detail on Bruno's writings, I found it an informative (and disturbing) account of what the Inquisition did to those who doubted Church dogma. It is an account of his life, not his philosophy. Despite some surprisingly modern sounding ideas, Bruno was not a scientist. He was a philosopher, but, as this biography demonstrates, he was a man of remarkable intelligence and courage. He dared to challenge violently enforced concepts that did not make sense, he did not back down, and he paid for it in 1600 with an ugly death. I recommend this one, in part because it is a well written book, but also because Giordano Bruno was a man history must not forget.

[Pejman Norouzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتابی جذاب که روایتی مستدل(تا حد امکان) با ارجاع به نوشته‌های تاریخی و اسناد از زندگی «جوردانو برونو »می‌دهد. البته که غرض فقط زندگینامه‌ی او نیست و مروری جامعه شناسانه و تاریخی به عصر او و رخدادهای تقابلی بین کلیسا و‌دانشگران نیز هست. متن کتاب روایتی جذاب و پر کشش است که حتی به عنوان یک رمان هم میتوان آن را خواند و به پیش برد.

[Zahra Majdabadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

بسیار مبارزه کرده‌ام. فکر می‌کردم می‌توانم پیروز شوم و هم تقدیر و هم طبیعت اشتیاق و توانم را سرکوب کردند.

[Skallagrimsen]

I sense a growing awareness and appreciation for the Renaissance philosopher, rebel, and martyr of free thought, Giordano Bruno. It seems I catch references to him more often than I used to, and in disparate and sometimes rather unlikely sources. The better part of an episode of the Cosmos reboot, for example, was devoted to Bruno, and while I wasn't quite thrilled by its depiction of him, I'm still grateful to it for encouraging this welcome surge of interest.

For a better, more balanced, and far more rigorous introduction to Bruno's life, death, and legacy, I recommend The Pope and the Heretic: The True Story of Giordano Bruno, the Man Who Dared to Defy the Roman Inquisition. Michael White makes a compelling case that Bruno, "philosopher of the infinite," was one of the most visionary geniuses of one of Europe's most outstanding centuries, as well as one of its most courageous and inspiring figures. As far as I know, it is the first and only popular biography of Bruno ever to be available in English. If so, it was long, long overdue.

[Mohammad Mirzaali · Rating 3 out of 5]

جوردانو برونو یه کشیش عارف و فیلسوفی بوده تو قرن شونزده که به نظرای بدعت‌آمیزی رسیده بوده
مثلان می‌گفته حضرت عیسا نمی‌تونسته واقعاً خدا باشه
یا تبدیل نان و شراب به گوشت و خون ممکن نیست تو عشای ربانی
دادگاه تفتیش عقاید می‌گیردش و کتاب داستان مقدمات و خود محاکمه‌اشُ روایت می‌کنه
پره از نکات جالب راجع به حال-و-هوای رنسانس و کلیسا و عرفانای قدیمی و غیره اس

[Paulomonic · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author seems to be incapable of hiding a profound dislike for the Catholic Church as a whole, without circumscribing his dislike to the wrongs this institution did within the context of the topic at hand. Kind of disliking mustaches, due to the Hitlers of this world. Other than that, not much more could have been said about Bruno, but more could have been said about his ideas.

[Farkhondeh Nazarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

از نظر نوشتار روون و جالب بود. زندگی برونو رو هم خیلی خوب و کامل توضیح داده بود. اما حرف زیادی در مورد افکار و عقاید برونو نداشت. کاش درمورد این بیشتر حرف زده بود.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

On one occasion, while living as a teacher of English in Vicenza, Italy in the late 1980s, I was a guest at a student's house when a towering local priest arrived to bless the house! When introduced to me, and acknowledging my own particular version of Christian values, he laughed, and said ''Ahh!...a heretic!!''. My reply was quite tongue-in-cheek: ''Absolutely!...once a heretic...always a heretic!...but, relax sir...you don't have to call the Inquisition!''.
This short study of Bruno Giordano by iconoclast Michael White, illustrates the evils of the Roman Catholic hierarchy of the late 16th century which lead inexorably to one of the great heretics of history's vicious ''trial'' & sadistic execution by the Lord's fire! in Rome in February 1600. It is not for the casual reader, requiring an open mind about religious fervour, as it dissects Giordano's writings & life as an itinerant monk cum heretic, spending time in rebellious Venice, and even as far as the court of Elizabeth I in the foggy island off the north coast of France...an island of Protestant heretics like me! (despite my surname!). Giordano's controversial & adventurous life has inspired S.J.Parris to pen a series of exciting novels set around Bruno's days in England in the 1580s...& his determination to defy dogma & drastic interpretations of Christianity inspires me to continue my own defiance of religious bigotry & persecution. This book captures some of the madness of the late Renaissance, before rational thought began to infiltrate the higher echelons of religious & scientific debate...& gave the world Liebniz, Newton & Voltaire. A nod should be given to men like Giordano & Gallileo for having the backbone to stand & speak volumes about the universes around us...and within us all.
''Once a heretic...''

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruno was a visionary and philosopher who challenged everything, including the Catholic Church. Arrested and tortured by the inquisition, he ultimately was burned at the stake as a heretic. His influence was not diminished by his death. His view of the world,the universe as heliocentric paralelled that of Galileo.

While aware of the brutality of the Inquisition, the perverse nature of their ways was astonishing to me. Two priests were allowed to witness torture so that they could absove one another of the brutaland inhumane treatment of prisoners.

This is a clear and honest portrayal of a brilliant intellect, man of science, strong in conviction right up to the moment of his death.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

"در سرتاسر قرون وسطا، کلیسای رم به گونه‌ای فزایندهٔ سیاسی و این‌جهانی شد و امور دینی را در امور غیردینی ادغام کرد به طوری که پاپ، هم به رهبر حکومت و هم به رهبر دینی بدل شد. کلیسا به منظور تأمین بودجه برای جاه‌طلبی پاپ دست و دلبازانه از الهیات چشم می‌پوشید و هرگاه نظام اعتقادی ساختگی‌اش نابسنده از آب درمی‌آمد کاردینال‌ها دامنهٔ تفسیر کتاب مقدس را تا حد نقض آن گسترش می‌دادند. شاید وقیحانه‌ترین نمود این امر استفادهٔ روزافزون از «آمرزش» جهت افزایش وجوه خزانهٔ پاپ بود. گناهکاران به واسطهٔ نظام آمرزش می‌توانستند برای بخشوده شدن گناهانشان پول بدهند و پاپ‌هایی که پی‌درپی به رهبریت دینی درآمدند به قدری این روند را دستکاری کردند که این ترفند ساده در زمان نهضت اصلاح دین منبع عمده‌ای از درآمد واتیکان را فراهم می‌کرد."

[Daniel Gauss · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is too easy. Nothing about what Bruno really believed. Just a very light and breezy account of Bruno's life and very basic explanations of his ideas. You can dig deeper into Bruno through other books. I wouldn't recommend this one.

[Hamid Khani · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب خوبیه مخصوصا برای آشنایی با فلسفه فقط یه چند مورد نکته بود که از اسم های فلسفی استفاده شده بود که چون من آشنا نبودم متوجه نشدم درکل فکر میکنم نیاز به یک کتاب مقدماتی تر برای فلسفه خوانی داره بعد این کتاب رو باید. شروع کرد درکل کتاب توصیه میکنم

[Hulttio · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 26%

Overly simplistic and un-nuanced, and it tends to ramble on.

[Christian Schaefer · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the book contained several redeeming sections of detailed history--the trial recountings were particularly enthralling--the author's constant conjecturing made it a dissatisfying read. I understand that the subject matter requires such filling in of the blanks due to the availability of accounts and documents from the setting. Piecing together a story from four centuries ago from biased primary sources cannot be easy. I get that. But what puzzled me and contributed to my 2-star rating was the author's insistence in placing what were clearly his personal opinions at every possible opportunity.

I can also understand that it is not a matter of opinion but fact that the Catholic Church of this era conducted countless atrocities and sins in the name of doctrinal obedience and fortitude. What I found mystifying was that in the very first chapter of the book the author conspicuously took an anti-religious and anti-Catholic stance that stretched far beyond the context of time in which the preceding and occurring events of the book took place. Sure, that is his prerogative as it is his book, but to make these claims (as valid or invalid as they may be) and then back them up using an episode of extreme persecution in the Renaissance was an odd creative decision. The stances taken at the onset of the book did not seem to fit in the context of the rest of the book.

Finally, the last chapter in the book felt like a grasping of straws, trying to connect dots that may or may not have been there. The chapter is filled with "maybe's" and "its possible's" and "perhaps's." It felt more like an effort to get readers hooked on the topics of his other books than a succinct ending to the book.

I admit this book sparked a curiosity I will now pursue in the fields of philosophy, religious history, and occult history. It did a great job of framing the time period in which these events took place. However, I would not recommend this book.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about Bruno!

By the accident of hearing multiple pop culture references to The Nolan, I stumbled into learning about Giordano Bruno. I was absolutely wrong to have oversimplified his remembrance as one of a mad poet or yet another victim of the Church’s condemnation of the Copernican theory that the Earth revolves around the sun.

There’s so much more to him (and to the charges that led to his gruesome end), but here I’ll defer to a better review of the book than I have time to write at the moment: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Looking forward to a moment in his memory, and his legacy in freedom of thought, at Campo di Fiori in Rome.

[ناصر سليم]

۱۴۰۲/۲/۱۲

[Rafael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giordano Bruno, inspiration, defender of the infinite.

[Younus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, but very repetitive.

[Steve Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall an engaging book, but flawed.

White occasionally becomes an omniscient narrator. More often he resorts to speculation and interpretations of events and the reader has to either procure his sources or trust they support his claims and conjectures.

He casts Lord Cardinal Santoro di Santa Severina as a ruthless heavy with a record of murder equal to that of an SS officer on the Russian Front, but gives the reader no detailed account of his alleged crimes against humanity. I can find nothing to support White’s claim Severina depopulated whole villages in Italy. Perhaps he did...but don’t let me have a whiff of a meal without a taste. I would have loved to hear more about this.

He took me down another cul de sac with his observation on Bruno’s effect on the development of Leibniz’s calculus. On page 201 he writes:

“And Leibniz’s method is used instead of Newton’s system of representing mathematical terms was clumsy and unwieldy, whereas Leibniz’s notation was designed for ease of communication and efficiency of use. And this is because Leibniz was steeped in the tradition of memory enhancement using symbols as taught by Bruno.”

I’m certainly not a mathematician, and the work doesn’t seem to be written specifically for those who are highly numerate. Yet I was immediately lost, as I wasn’t given anything to solidify a connection between Leibniz’s formula and Bruno’s described methods of memory enhancement and symbols. Why write of it if no exposition is in the offing?

For all that, it was an interesting book. The description of Bruno’s murder is graphic and inspires outrage. The ending is powerful, with an inspirational and courageous (if not prescient) quotation of Bruno’s to wrap up the work.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

If there ever was a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time but perhaps with the right ideas, it may be none other than Giordano Bruno. Or another way to look at it: a man who took what Copernicus and Da Vinci started and stretched it as far as he could go, papal warnings be damned! A habitual line-stepper if there ever was one.

How “The Pope and the Heretic: The True Story of Giordano Bruno, the Man Who Dared to Defy the Roman Inquisition” ended up in my reading list I don’t recall and upon looking more into the book itself when deciding whether or not to give it a go, I noticed not too long after it came out, another book also on Giordano Bruno was published. For those who may be like me at that time wondering what makes them different, the answer seems simple: our book here reads more like historic fiction alternating with historical overviews, the former focused mainly on the latter events of his life. Whereas the other book by Ingrid D. Rowland seems to focus more on his peregrinations and less on what came after.

“The Pope and the Heretic” is both an awesome read, but for me at least, may have been ‘too entertaining’ with not enough source referencing to back up the claims. For these types of books at least, I have come to expect most any time an author makes a statement such as “A century before Bruno’s birth there had been fewer than thirty thousand books in existence, all written by hand; by the time he was teaching and traveling throughout Europe during the late sixteenth century there was already a canon of some fifty million printed books.” (page 13, eBook), I’d expect to see where this figure came from as it’s pretty audacious. While we do get a decent number of footnotes, ones affixed to that quoted statement are missing which is a bit worrisome from the “is this book really accurate?” perspective.

Thus, some grains of salt may be needed and as others have noted, Michael White very much lays his cards out when penning vitriol against the church as being the ‘bad guys’ (sure, it was them who burned Bruno—not directly, see chapter 1 for why), but more objectivity would have been preferred. That I did not see any ‘this author made everything up!’ type of claims after lightly perusing reviews makes my own issues seem trite and maybe they are. History buffs perhaps then can rest easy.

Nevertheless, in a way what we have here is both a lively look at the life of a historical figure of note not many nowadays know about in spite of his contributions and convictions to the truth at any cost. For curious minds who may normally have reservations about reading history books worried they’ll be dry affairs, a nightmare of a chore to get through, this could be a good gateway drug. But on the other end of the spectrum where seasoned buffs of academia dwell, this book in a way violates three cardinal rules and caution should be used if picking it up: written by a non-historian (albeit a fan of history), very light on footnotes, and not published by an academic publisher.

A question arises for someone like me (who probably is similar to—and let’s be honest here—most others reading this book): before “The Pope and the Heretic” I had almost no idea who Giordano Bruno was. But already early on I have found out that he was the writer of a number of pretty interesting books/treatises yet here I am reading a biography about him without first reading his own materials. Did I get the order wrong?

The answer: it depends. It should be noted that “Bruno wrote five important books on memory, and although these are revelatory and contributed much to the discipline, they are but five of perhaps five thousand texts on the subject that were already in existence during the Renaissance.” (page 73-74). But what made the man different was perhaps less what he wrote and his iron-clad beliefs: he did not skirt around the issue with esoteric wording ala Copernicus whom in is his most well-known work “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”, “complicated what was otherwise a simple idea with unnecessary obfuscation.” (page 60). Wherever Bruno preached/taught (your pick), he was straight as a bullet shot in a vacuum and this goes doubly for his writing. And perhaps most important, when he was finally put on trial, he held firm till the wood began to smolder.

And I can’t deny it. After the dust has settled, the smoke from his burned remains dissipated into the air, after “the rain carried into the soil molecules that had once composed parts of his body”, after little Bruno “molecules were broken open, their atoms absorbed by plants”, and surely after those “plants were eaten by animals and some found their way to the tables of Rome and beyond”, and possibly after “on an atomic level at least, the pope himself was conjoined with the heretic after all” (all from page 184), I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s a ride, a wild ride even though it’s nowhere near as sourced as I’d liked (but the dialog at least is). White makes conjectures beyond count, the wall between history and fiction is blurred, but my respect for Giordano Bruno, a man I barely knew before beginning this book has skyrocketed. Even after “[a] long metal spike was thrust through Bruno’s left cheek, pinning his tongue and emerging through the right cheek. Then another spike was rammed vertically through his lips,” (page 181) the man held his ground. As should we all if we believe in something with total conviction.

The end result: now I will read some books by him. At the very least, it will be “The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast”, noted as “perhaps his most accomplished literary work, he uses the allegory of an internal struggle among the pagan gods of the ancient world to rip into the authority of the Church, satirizing, mocking, and exposing the inconsistencies and weaknesses of what he saw as a manmade religion fabricated by the Council of Nicaea.” (page 78). I’ve also discovered a few more academic works about him that before this I didn’t know about that I will note at the end of the review. My interest before was microscopic, now I can see my curiosity burgeoning without need of a magnifying glass. I have seen the outer results of why Bruno did what he did and now it’s time to see what his artistry actually produced.


Recommended reading beyond our book of the hour and the 2009 biography:

“The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast” by Giordano Bruno
“The Trial of Giordano Bruno (Routledge Research in Early Modern History)” by Germano Maifreda
“Giordano Bruno: Philosopher of the Renaissance” by Hilary Gatti

[Ruby Khaja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

I can see how erroneous and dangerous is to mix religion with science through Giordano Bruno's story. A story of courage to the point of boldness and sacrifice on one side and rigidness and brutality on the other. How similar is Islam of today to the inquisitive Christianity of the middle ages. This book made me see how knowledge starts with imagination, which when coupled with mathimatics one can perceive the gestalt picture of reality. Definitely recommend.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Not to have feared to die, not to have yielded to any equal
in firmness of nature, and to have preferred a courageous
death to a non-combatant life."
These prescient words reflect the being that was Giordano Bruno. Written a short time before he was incarcerated in Venice by the Catholic Inquisition, they foretold his ultimate death eight years later in Rome in 1600. You may say; in those uncivilised times the Church was the gatekeeper and it was necessary to protect the uneducated flock from error and danger. That is true to some degree but as this book points out even as recent as 1942 the Vatican’s Cardinal Mercati, went on record reaffirming that the church was correct in executing Bruno as he deserved it (his words), so much for imitations of Christ in the 20th century! Further in 1963 the Vatican commented the whole Bruno “issue” was “unfortunate” but would not reverse his excommunication and sentence!!! Yes it was most “unfortunate” especially for Giordano Bruno. So, in over 300 years The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church has learned nothing, but that should come as no surprise. Evan to-day the on-line “Catholic Encyclopaedia” records Bruno’s misdeeds (all just ideas!) and fails to mention his long incarceration, torture and ultimately burning at the stake.
This book records at his execution the ever-vigilant Church still feared him; while Bruno lingered in agony at the stake -it is calculated probably about two hours before his ultimate demise- they feared he could contaminate those in the crowd by his oratory. To prevent this, they drove a metal/wooden spikes through his cheeks and through his tongue and then stapled his lips together. All these horrors because they feared his ideas. He had never attempted to set up a new religion, he never physically harmed anyone in the church, he pointed out errors in the Reformed churches and remained a Catholic to the end. In fact he sought to be accepted back in the fold as a monk.
Much has been written about Bruno’s errors and for why he was so high on the list of “most wanted” by the Inquisition and why Galileo fifteen years later was treated differently. The book briefly synopsises the fact Galileo was a mathematics man and his hypothesis of the cosmos was a theory shown to be mathematical based. Bruno on the other hand was all about ideas, freedom of thought and human imagination and his Cosmos was more dangerous with his idea of infinite space and the hypothesis that there may be other worlds.
This is a short book but one which works well with the limited amount of historic information (especially of his trial) that is to hand. Concise as to history but the latter part excels when dealing with Bruno’s legacy in science, influence and remembrance of his courage to speak what he saw to be relevant personal truths in the face a vicious and unrelenting Church. One thing I learned to my surprise when he was being tried the Inquisition accused him of associating with the apostate Elizabeth I when he was in England. The Vatican had placed a “Fatwa” on the head of Elizabeth and “promised” a speedy entry to Paradise for her assassin!! This is an important book and Bruno must not be forgotten.

[Mario L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poco puedo decir en alabanza a este libro.

Sí, es una biografía de Giordano Bruno, que indudablemente brilla con significativa luz en el firmamento de los libres e innovadores pensadores de Occidente, pero esta obra viene demasiado fusionada con las opiniones del autor, algunas molestas, como para que se la pueda considerar como un estudio biográfico objetivo.
Además le falta pasión como otros libros que tratan de temas similares por ejemplo “La Gesta del Marrano” de Marcos Aguinis, una biografía novelizada sobre la vida de Francisco Maldonado da Silva, que me emocionó profundamente.

Para quien quiere entender mejor el juicio de Galileo ante la Inquisición recomiendo leer el artículo “The Galileo Affair” del Prof. Owen Gingerich (Scientific American - August 1982) y compararla con las acusaciones de herejía erguidas por el tribunal eclesiástico contra Giordano Bruno.

[Sammy Tiranno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite its title, this book had little to do with the pope, and much to do with the heretic. It gives a great account of the character and beliefs that would lead to Bruno’s ultimate demise, regardless of how unjust and untimely that death was.

Speaking of heresies, Bruno offered a fitting commentary after spending some time in Geneva, when he says: “Among ten kinds of teachers there is not to be found one who has not formed to himself a Catechism ready to be published to the world, if not published already, approving no other institution but his own, finding in all others something to be considered, disapproved or doubted of; besides that, the greater part of them disagree with themselves, blotting out today what they had written yesterday.”

This is very apropos, of course, and it’s an honest reflection of philosophy at work, but Bruno also qualifies it when he says: “I have read books by… Calvin and other heretics, not to acquire their doctrine or for improvement, for I think them more ignorant than myself, but out of sheer curiosity.” Naturally, why would we read any philosophy, even those we don’t agree with, if it weren’t for curiosity or the purpose of education. The greatest shame is in the fact that the mere reading of such books would raise suspicions about the reader, and could be used to implicate them.

[Vanora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, I would give this a 3-star rating, but as I progressed towards the conclusion, I found myself growing weary of its repetitive themes. The exploration of Giordano's philosophy felt disappointingly superficial. While it did provide intriguing insights into the figures he influenced in the realms of science and literature after his passing, these moments often veered into speculation. What particularly grated on me was the author's tendency to use "Europe" as shorthand for Western Europe exclusively. The narrative seemed oblivious to the historical context of Eastern Europe, which was contending with challenges such as the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and conflicts with the Crimean Tatars, while the West grappled with its own religious crises.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

هنگامی که نمایش به پایان رسید و دنیا از وجود یک بدعت‌گذار دیگر پاک شد، خاکسترهای برونو روی هُره‌ها و مزارع نزدیک جاگیر شد. باران مولکول‌هایی را که زمانی بدنش را ساخته بود، به درون خاک کشید.
با گذشت ایام، مولکول‌هایش باز شدند، اتم‌هایشان جذب گیاهان شد، گیاهان را حیوانات خوردند و برخی از آنها به میزهای رم و نواحی دورتر راه یافتند.
عناصر دیگر برونو در آب افتاد و آن‌قدر واچرخید تا به صورت شناگران و نیز در جام‌های نوشیدنی‌شان پاشید. هم از این‌رو، شاید بالاخره، دست کم در سطحی اتمی، خود به بدعت‌گذار پیوسته باشد.