Wikipedia →

Giordano Bruno

1548–1600 · Italy / England / Germany
Giordano Bruno

Description

Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher, Dominican friar and priest, poet, alchemist, astronomer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended to include the then-novel Copernican model. He practised Hermeticism and took a mystical approach to exploring the universe. He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets (exoplanets), and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism. He also insisted that the universe is infinite and can have no centre.

Facts

BornFilippo Bruno, February 1548, Nola, Kingdom of Naples
Died17 February 1600 (aged 51–52), Rome, Papal States
Cause of deathExecution by burning at the stake
EducationUniversity of Naples (STD, 1575)
Academic advisorGiordano Crispo
EraRenaissance philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolRenaissance humanism, Neopythagoreanism, Pantheism
InstitutionsUniversity of Toulouse, University of Paris, University of Oxford, University of Wittenberg
Main interestsCosmology, natural philosophy, metaphysics
Notable ideasCosmic pluralism Extrasolar planets Memory wheels
ReligionChristianity
ChurchCatholic Church
Ordained1572
Laicized8 February 1600

Life & work in brief

Summarised by section — one row per topic, for fast reading.

Work / contributionSignificance
LifeBorn Filippo Bruno in Nola (a comune in the modern-day Metropolitan City of Naples, in the Southern Italian region of Campania, then part of the Kingdom of Naples) in 1548, he was the son of Giovanni Bruno (1517 – c.
CosmologyIn the first half of the 15th century, Nicholas of Cusa challenged the then widely accepted philosophies of Aristotelianism, envisioning instead an infinite universe whose centre was everywhere and circumference nowhere, and moreover teeming with countless stars.
Retrospective viewsThe Vatican has published a few official statements about Bruno's trial and execution.
Cultural legacyFollowing the 1870 Capture of Rome by the newly created Kingdom of Italy and the end of the Church's temporal power over the city, the erection of a monument to Bruno on the site of his execution became feasible.