Giordano Bruno : His Life, Thought, and Martyrdom
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GIORDANO BRUNO BY THE SAME AUTHOR A HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By J. C. L. SISMONDI. Translated, supple mented and edited, with a Memoir of the Author, by Dr. WILLIAM BOULTING. Demy 8vo, buckram, 5J-. net. GIORDANO BRUN HIS LIFE, THOUGHT, AND MARTYRDOM BY WILLIAM BOULTING " AUTHOR OF TASSO AND HIS TIMES" SYLVIUS," ETC. " To love Truth for Truth s sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues." LOCKE. LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRtTBNER & CO. L BROADWAY HOUSE, 68-74 CARTER LANE, E.G. 1914 The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved Printed by BALLANTYNK, HANSON &* Co. at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh PREFACE THE life of Bruno has been written in English more than once, and he has had many excellent commentators. No one can now write about him without availing himself very largely of the solid and scholarly work done by Tocco, Fio- rentino, Berti, Brunnhofer, Mclntyre and others. The apology for the appearance of the present work must be that some facts, unrecorded in England, have come to light of late years, and also that a few usual, almost unavoidable in accuracies require correction. Moreover, I have tried to follow the development of Bruno s thoughts in the order in or I find which he declared them ; and, on one two points, myself compelled to differ from the conclusions of this or the other commentator. Most of Bruno s works have been published in the editions of Wagner, Lagarde, and Gfrorer, well edited for their day. Different libraries contain different editions, when any are to be found in them. Even the British Museum, although it possesses a fine collection of rare, original impressions, does not contain all the volumes of the complete State Edition, and lacks that one which contains the works which were discovered in manuscript. To give the paging of any particular edition might therefore prove less convenient than the plan I have adopted of giving those indications for re ference which are supplied by the subdivisions of the works themselves, except in the case of the published manuscripts. VI GIORDANO BRUNO Those who wish to verify a reference will thereby readily do so and may discover that reading the context is not a wholly unprofitable task. I have given minuter detail as to other works from which I have drawn or which throw light on the subject-matter. W. B. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE PREFACE v I. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE BOYHOOD ... II. MONASTIC LIFE AT NAPLES n III. DISCIPLINE OF BOOKS : (i) Classics, &c 17 (ii) Neo-Platonists 22 (iii) Raymond Lully . .26 (iv) Cusanus . 28 (v) Copernicus and Later Thinkers . .31 IV. WANDERINGS THROUGH ITALY : NAPLES TO GENEVA 34 V. AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE . -41 VI. FIRST STAY IN PARIS 54 VII. THE EARLY WORKS : of (i) The Shadows Ideas .... 66 (ii) The Incantation of Circe . .72 (iii) The Lullian Architecture . 73 (iv) The Chandler 74 VIII. AT OXFORD 81 IX. IN LONDON 89 X. IMPRESSIONS OF ELIZABETH S ENGLAND . .100 XI. WORKS PRINTED IN LONDON: Seal of Seals . (i) The Thirty Seals and -115 The Ash . i (ii) Wednesday Supper ij^ (iii) On Cause, Principle, and The One . 126 (iv) The Infinite Universe and its Worlds . 136 (v) The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast . 148 (vi) The Cabala and Ass of Cyllene . .167 (vii) The Transports of Intrepid Souls . 172 Vlil GIORDANO BRUNO CHAP. PAGE XII. IN PARIS AGAIN. SOME NEW WORKS . .181 XIII. AT WITTENBERG. WORKS PRINTED OR WRITTEN THERE 195 XIV. AT PRAGUE AND HELMSTEDT. WORKS OF 1588-90 , 210 XV. AT FRANKFURT AND ZURICH .... 220 XVI. THE GREAT LATIN POEM AND LAST BOOKS: (i) The Threefold Least . .227 (ii) The Unit 236 (iii) On Immensity ..... 238 (iv) On Images, Signs, and Ideas . 241 (v) A Philosophical Lexicon .... 243 (vi) The Fastenings of Kind . .244 XVII. AT VENICE AND PADUA 246 XVIII. THE TRIAL 262 XIX. BRUNO AND THE INQUISITORS. THE REPUBLIC AND THE POPE 280 XX. THE ROMAN PRISON. FINAL SCENES . 293 INDEX 309 GIORDANO BRUNO CHAPTER I BIRTH AND PARENTAGE BOYHOOD A TRAVELLER, curious to try the local line which runs eastward from Naples, after journeying a few meandering miles through a generous and beautiful country-side, will find his train halting at the little city of Nola. Should he descend, he would not come across anything strikingly picturesque or architecturally memorable. There are few even the vestiges of the remote past ; mediaeval cathedral is a restoration. On an eminence, a ruined fortress still " dominates Campagna Felice " the happy fields as the call their as of old inhabitants plain ; and, time, the vine " yards are lavish in the production of mangiaguerra," a is thick black wine. The sky very lucid ; the air sweet and soft; the eye may range over the rich and varied plain to Monte Somma (which hides Vesuvius) and to other guardian hills. Outside the walls of Nola there stood in the mid i6th century, Cicala, a hamlet of "four or five houses, none " l 2 in 1 of them too imposing ; and here, 548, there was born to a soldier in the service of the Spanish masters of Naples, one Gioan Bruno and his wife, a man child. The 1 della bestia Dial. I. Bruno, G ; Spaccio trionfante, iij. 2 B. da sua -vita e Berti, D ; G. Nola, sua dottrina, 1889, App., d. 1. Soc. d. Fhistoire Paris et de Doc. vij. Auvray, L ; Mem. de Pile de France, t xxvij^p. 288 sqq., sub Jth December. A 2 GIORDANO BRUNO infant was destined to become a precursor of modern science and philosophy, to cast a search-light into dark forth hidden it was his fate to places and bring things ; wander, an excommunicated and fugitive priest, through many lands, impelled, heedless of self, partly by a restless nature but chiefly because of a certain missionary zeal for truth and desire to set the intellect free from the fetters of he to vicissitudes in authority ; was endure strange penury, years of solitary suffering at the hands of the Inquisition because he claimed " philosophic freedom in thought and speech," and, finally, to pass from its cruel " dungeons a flame to the flames." He was born in the very year which saw an outbreak at Naples against a contemplated introduction of the Spanish Inquisition. Bruno tells us that his mother s name was Fraulissa. 1 She was of a family called Savolini or Saulini. Probably 2 Fiorentino was right in connecting her singular baptismal name with German mercenaries, whose Italian wives may well have been so called very ; and certainly some of the multitude of mercenary troops drawn from beyond the 3 Alps had settled in the neighbourhood. As to the social status of the Bruni and many similar problems, much has been conjectured and no certainty achieved. It would seem probable that the family was very far from being wealthy, 4 but had some claim to gentility. The Bruni may have been a branch of the noble family of that name at Asti. 1 loc. Berti, D ; cit. z F Fiorentino, ; Dialoghi Morali di G. B. Giorn. NapoL, N.S. 1882, fasc. 19, p. 44. Great circumspection is required in regard to this paper. In consulting the Registers, Fiorentino somehow con to trived confound the year 1545 with the year 1563 ! It should be read side by side with the monograph Bruno e Nola by Signor V. Spampanato, Castrovillari, 1899. 3 See the reference to II danese, etc. in Bruno s Spaccio, Dial. /., iij. * J. Bruni Oratio Valedictoria. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE BOYHOOD 3 The child was christened Felipe (Philip). Perhaps his father named him after the heir to the throne of Charles V, as it would become a loyal soldier to do. We shall see how he came by the name of Giordano. Gioan Bruno would seem to have been a caustic critic of life; for his son tells us that when, after supper, a friend declared that he had never before felt so happy, Gioan " retorted : that is because you have never before been so * frivolous." Gioan a of for it is Probably was man parts ; accepted by most of the best authorities that he counted Tansillo, the Neapolitan poet, courtier and cavalier, among 2 his friends. Tansillo, although not born at Nola, came of Nolan stock ; he never stayed long at Nola, but made a few 3 hurried visits thither. Felipe may have seen more of him, later on, at Naples. Anyhow, many works show how Tansillo his mind the deeply impressed during plastic years ; he introduces the into his poet dialogues ; he adopts Tan- sillo s style in his own poems, and he often equals his master, though, usually, he falls short of him in grace, smoothness he and elegance ; even incorporates a little of Tansillo s work with his own. Any passing visit paid by Tansillo to Nola would produce a strong impression on the little lad; for the good folk around were of a different order. In the cottages hard by dwelt certain members of his 4 mother s family. He tells us of a certain Scipione Saulino 1 Eroici Bruno, G ; Furori, P.I., Dial. II. 2 for it. Mclntyre, example, accepts Cpr. Mclntyre, J. L ; G. ., London^ 1903,^. 5. 3 Fiorentino loc. tit. ; Luigi Tansillo, 1510-1568, was a favourite of Pedro de Toledo, Viceroy of Spain, and of his son, and was their companion on land and sea.