Giordano Bruno: Philosopher / Heretic Paperback – September 1, 2009

Excellent introductory work, for further reading I highly recommend Yates’ Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition

As my screen name surely reveals, I have a long term sense of affinity with Giordano Bruno, the philosopher murdered by Christians in 1600. Curiously, Ingrid Rowland's biography of Bruno begins at precisely the same place where my personal affiliation began, at the foot of the statue of him in the Campo dei Fiori in Rome, where I lived in the mid-1960s. Ingrid Rowland respects -- reveres! -- Bruno as deeply as I do; any reader of her book who expects her to demean or debunk Giordano on any level will be sorely confused and disappointed. For Rowland, Bruno was not merely a martyr to free thought and/or science but in fact a profound thinker, a philosopher who ideas stretched back to antiquity and probed forward in time to prevision those of Newton and Spinoza. Likewise, the Bruno of Rowland's account was not the Kabbalistic magus/mystic that other writers have purported to make him; well aware of Kabbalah, of the writings and notions of mystics like Giles of Viterbo and Ramon Llull, Giordano was nevertheless a thinker more attuned to perception of material reality. Bruno's professed "magic" was in fact his stock-in-trade system of memory cultivation. That he was rash, reckless, and restless, Rowland leaves no doubt. But that he was a genius of the most uncompromising intellectual integrity is also beyond doubt in her portrayal.Rowland spends a good deal of her book examining Bruno's writings rather than his behavior. If one wants a biography of juicy gossip, one had better look elsewhere. The burden of Rowland's account is to explicate and contextualize Bruno's many publications. Rowland's claim, with which I thoroughly concur, is that Bruno was one of the greatest "literary" figures of his epoch, a writer whose books still have the power to amuse and engross readers. Fresh translations of Bruno's oeuvre have in fact been appearing recently; Rowland herself is preparing a translation of Bruno's "The Heroic Frenzies". Judging by her translations of some of Bruno's poetry in this bio, such a volume will be extremely interesting.Whatever shame and opprobrium the priesthood of the Catholic Church has exposed itself to, with the recent scandals of child abuse, the guilt that adheres to all Christianity for the violent intolerance of its history must never be ignored. Giordano Bruno was hounded from land to land, betrayed to the Inquisition, imprisoned for nine years of incessant persecution, then burned alive with maximum cruelty, with his tongue either tied or nailed to prevent him from exclaiming. Protestants, however, have no claim to disassociate themselves from the Inquisition; not only did Bruno meet with persecution in Protestant lands, but also Jean Calvin himself had supervised the burning alive of Miguel Servetus in Geneva, before Bruno's slaying. Servetus was another brilliant human thinker, now regarded as the philosophical progenitor of Unitarianism. The familiar notion that "power corrupts" needs to be paraphrased: "faith corrupts, and absolute faith corrupts absolutely."

Giordano Bruno was a name I had come across in various histories of Christianity and/or the Renaissance that I've read through the years but I knew very little about him other than that he was considered a heretic and burned at the stake. When I saw this book, I thought it would be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about someone who was little more than a name to me. Reading this turned out to be quite an eye-opening experience.On a purely informational level, there is a lot here. Rowland shared a number of anecdotes about Bruno's life which have stuck in my mind: his getting caught with a forbidden book in the latrine, the mockery of his high-flown rhetorical style by the English, his own fondness for mockery and cursing even in the prisons of the Inquisition.But more telling than the individual anecdotes are the larger ideas that span Bruno's life story. I was particularly fascinated by his expertise in memorization techniques. In a time when books and writing ability were rare, the ability to memorize vast amounts of information was an important skill. Bruno, apparently, was highly prized as a teacher of his own memorization technique which allowed him to make a living during his years as a wanderer across Europe.And, of course, there was the development of his philosophical ideas. He is probably best known for developing the idea of an infinite universe where the stars could be individual solar systems with their own planets. This alone had implication with his ultimate conflict with the Church. But he also asserted theological ideas that were clearly heretical in the eyes of Christianity, such as that Christ committed a mortal sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. Granted, the Inquisition was a horrible thing, but it becomes clear from reading this that Bruno did himself no favors when facing the Cardinals. It is perhaps during this last section that the dichotomy of Bruno's character most comes to the fore: philosophical egoism vs. true son of the Church. It is the tragedy of Bruno's experience that he could not find a way out of a situation that should have been manageable for him.It is clear in this book that Bruno had a lot more impact on his better-known peers than he is given credit for. Kepler and Galileo both credit him as an influence. (In fact, shortly before his arrest, Bruno applied for the mathematics professorship at Pisa that went to Galileo.) Professor Rowland should be commended for bringing this important person back before us. If she goes a bit overboard with unenlightening epigraphs and quotations, that is a small price to pay for the wealth of knowledge gained.

Ingrid Rowland's moving account of Giordano Bruno's life and martyrdom is intensely thought provoking. Condemned and burnt as a heretic by the Catholic Church of his day, he stands out as a courageous and creative thinker. Sixteenth century Europe was a very dangerous time to live, especially for those who like Giordano Bruno came into conflict with the Inquisition. Bruno calls into question almost every certainty of religion and philosophy. He had an explosive personality and wasn't going to be silenced by the Pope or his representatives. Born just outside Naples he entered the Dominican Convent in the city where he studied for the priesthood. Often viewed as a martyr to science, a visionary well before his time, he was much more. Ingrid Rowland's research and scholarship is outstanding, but not only that, she has also managed to portray the man himself. this is no dry historical figure from the past, but someone who meets us to-day. A valuable aspect of her book is that she supplies many quotations and dialogues from Bruno's encounters with his contemporaries. Bruno was a peripatetic human being who searched for many places where he might find work and promulgate his ideas. He visited Geneva, Toulouse, Paris, Oxford, London, Wittenberg, Prague, Franfurt, Zurich, and finally Venice and Rome where he was imprisoned for eight years and ultimately burned at the stake in Rome. One thing is clear, he loved life, although he was let down and disappointed time after time. Heretic he might have been, but also one of the most interesting personalities of his day. Ingrid Rowland's book can be thoroughly recommended.

This is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. Bruno is a complex character who has always fascinated me. This book places him more centrally in 16th century culture, rather than being an isolated, radical eccentric. The writing style is faultless, assuming only a general knowledge of the era and its main currents. It thankfully avoids constant references to pop culture - always the sign of an academic trying too hard to reach 'the masses'.

Ingrid Rowland wears her learning lightly and does not intrude upon the story of Giordano Bruno. This story seems to be as detailed as it can possibly be given the original texts available. Much of Bruno's own works, including his poetry, is quoted. Very interesting to read about the ferment of thought across Europe in the 16th century.

Excellent biography, a must to read for Bruno scholars

An approachable book by a distinguished renaissance scholar.