Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher, by John J. Kessler

In the article on Giordano Bruno, 16th century 'heretic' philosopher ( http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/john_kessler/giordano_bruno.html ) it is stated that "no modern author has attempted to reconstruct his life". I can recommend the fictionalised autobiography "The Man in Flames" by Serge Filippini, published in English translation by Dedalus in 1999 (ISBN 1 873982 24 0).

Thank you for your feedback. It is sincerely appreciated. The book you mention is available from Amazon. Click on the following link for more information: The Man in Flames by Serge Filippini (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1873982240/qid=992630357/InternetInfidelsA)

---Don---

I have just stumbled across John J. Kessler's short article about the life of Giordano Bruno. Great, tragic and (unfortunately) still somewhat timely stuff. That this heroic figure's life and works should bear little renown, and a succession of feeble-minded, self-serving and responsible popes and functionaries should continue to be saluted is unconscionable. Good for Mr. Kessler for bringing Bruno forward and good for this site for enabling the posting. I will return and register.
Don't let the trail dust you,
Norden M. Kelly
Story, Wyoming

[-DM-]

Thank you for your feedback regarding Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher (http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/john_kessler/giordano_bruno.html) by John J. Kessler, Ph.D., Ch.E. (in the historical section of our library). The story of Giordano Bruno is both fascinating and inspiring. I heartily recommend Kessler's article to anyone who might be interested in the story of a man who, prior to 1600, wrote of an infinite universe which left no room for God, a man who was brought to trial as an atheist, kept in a dungeon for many years, and finally burned at the stake for his refusal to recant and repent.

It should be noted that John J. Kessler is the author of a book on Bruno which is titled simply Giordano Bruno (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0936128674/InternetInfidels), available from Amazon.com

Regards,
--Don--

The piece on Giordano Bruno on infidels.org contains a factual error. The author claims there was not a biography written about Giordano Bruno in English, by the time of the writing of said piece. While that there were few works in translation available. "Giordano Bruno: His Life, Thought and Martyrdom", a comprehensive biography, by William Boulting was printed by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. around 1918.

[Bill]

We have roughly a dozen pages in different essays that mention Bruno. I can't find any of them which make an assertion of the sort you are referring to here. Perhaps you followed a link on to some other site?

This only serves to emphasize the necessity of following the instructions, above, which say: IMPORTANT: Please provide a URL for the page in question and, if applicable, the title of the article and the name of the author. Without that information, it is very frequently either difficult or impossible for us to guess which of the many thousands of pages on our site you are referring to. Thank you!

== Bill

[larnat]

This heartbreaking story was written with so much passion and respect for the unfairly forgotten scientist whose ideas were later reiterated by the most advanced thinkers of the world. The article has touched me deeply. Not only because has it provided many valuable details on the life of Giordano Bruno, the greatest martyr-philosopher, but also because of the author's superb style I've enjoyed very much. This is an outstanding scholarly work, contemplative and compassionate, calling for justice for those who made an ultimate sacrifice while at service of science and humanity.

Larissa Natarelli, Ph.D. candidate

[-DM-]

Thank you for your feedback regarding Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher (http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/john_kessler/giordano_bruno.html) by John J. Kessler. Unfortunately, I do not have a current e-mail address for the author, otherwise I would notify him.

-DM-

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[One Who Replies]

There were many intellectuals , including many protestant intellectuals who were martyred or just plain murdered by the inquisition and papal ecclesiastical courts. Lest one forget, it was protestant Christian intellectuals who led the reformation, but also the enlightenment and stood up against what had become a very apostate (ecclesiastically) and luddite(intellectually) Roman Catholic 'institution'.... It was also protestant Christian intellectuals who reformed the medieval universities and founded new ones and jump started the reforms which led to England and much of the rest of Europe becoming the scientific and research powerhouses that they became. I would be careful in how I used the word "church." p.s. Bruno was protestant.

[Sauron]

There were many intellectuals , including many protestant intellectuals who were martyred or just plain murdered by the inquisition and papal ecclesiastical courts. Lest one forget, it was protestant Christian intellectuals who led the reformation, but also the enlightenment

Well, not really. The Renaissance ran contrary to principles held by both Catholic and Protestant; the recent PBS series on the De Medici family goes into detail about the types of art, literature and school(s) of thought that the Renaissance enoucouraged. Moreover, many (if not most) of the major contributors to the Enlightenment hey were Deists and/or other than Protestant. Britannica


The intellectual and political edifice of Christianity, seemingly impregnable in the European Middle Ages, fell in turn to the assaults made on it by humanism, the Renaissance, and the Protestant Reformation. Humanism bred the experimental science of Francis Bacon, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Galileo and the mathematical rigour of René Descartes, G.W. Leibniz, and Sir Isaac Newton. The Renaissance rediscovered much of classical culture and revived the notion of man as a creative being, while the Reformation, more directly but in the long run no less effectively, challenged the monolithic authority of the Roman Catholic church. For Luther as for Bacon or Descartes, the way to truth lay in the application of human reason. Received authority, whether of Ptolemy in the sciences orof the church in matters of the spirit, was to be subject to the probings of unfettered minds.

The successful application of reason to any question depended on its correct application—on the development of a methodology of reasoning that would serve as its own guarantee of validity. Such a methodology was most spectacularly achieved in the sciences and mathematics, where the logics of induction and deduction made possible the creation of a sweeping new cosmology. The successof Newton, in particular, in capturing in a few mathematical equations the laws that govern the motions of the planets gave great impetus to a growing faith in man's capacity to attain knowledge. At the same time, the idea of the universe as a mechanism governed by a few simple (and discoverable) laws had a subversive effect on the concepts of a personal God and individual salvation that were central to Christianity.

Inevitably, the method of reason was applied to religion itself. The product of a search for a natural—rational—religion was deism, which, although never an organized cult or movement, conflicted with Christianity for two centuries, especially in England and France.For the deist a very few religious truths sufficed, and they were truths felt to be manifest to all rational beings: the existence of one God, often conceived of as architect or mechanician, the existence of a system of rewards and punishments administered by that God,and the obligation of men to virtue and piety. Beyond the natural religion of the deists lay the more radical products of the application of reason to religion: skepticism, atheism, and materialism.

Moving along...


and stood up against what had become a very apostate (ecclesiastically) and luddite(intellectually) Roman Catholic 'institution'.... It was also protestant Christian intellectuals who reformed the medieval universities and founded new ones and jump started the reforms which led to England and much of the rest of Europe becoming the scientific and research powerhouses that they became. I would be careful in how I used the word "church." p.s. Bruno was protestant.

This sounds like an anti-catholic diatribe, and a lot of protestant back-slapping and congratulations for events that they did not, in fact, control. Can you support all these assertions? For example, Britannica indicates that Bruno's contribution was not nearly as glorious as you describe, but was rather mixed:

Bruno's theories influenced 17th-century scientific and philosophical thought and, since the 18th century, have been absorbed by many modern philosophers. As a symbol of the freedom of thought, Bruno inspired the European liberal movements of the 19th century, particularly the Italian Risorgimento (the movement for national political unity). Because of the variety of his interests, modern scholars are divided as to the chief significance of his work. Bruno's cosmological vision certainly anticipates some fundamental aspects ofthe modern conception of the universe; his ethical ideas, in contrast with religious ascetical ethics, appeal to modern humanistic activism; and his ideal of religious and philosophical tolerance has influenced liberal thinkers. On the other hand, his emphasis on the magical and the occult has been the source of criticism ashas his impetuous personality. Bruno stands, however, as one of the important figures in the history of Western thought, a precursor of modern civilization.

[Wads4]

This heartbreaking story was written with so much passion and respect for the unfairly forgotten scientist whose ideas were later reiterated by the most advanced thinkers of the world. The article has touched me deeply. Not only because has it provided many valuable details on the life of Giordano Bruno, the greatest martyr-philosopher, but also because of the author's superb style I've enjoyed very much. This is an outstanding scholarly work, contemplative and compassionate, calling for justice for those who made an ultimate sacrifice while at service of science and humanity.

Larissa Natarelli, Ph.D. candidate

I often wonder when the Pope is going to be magnanimous enough to "pardon" him, like he belatedly did Galileo?

[Jim Catano]

I very much enjoyed John Kessler's fine essay on Giordano Bruno. I did see a couple of typos that should be corrected, however.

In Italian, the name is Domenico not Dominico which also appears a couple of times. Same with the Domenican order of monks. There are several references to "Galilee" instead of "Galileo." In Italian the final "a" in volonta' carries a grave accent. That could also be rendered in caps on an English keyboard with an apostrophe...VOLONTA'.

Thanks again, John, for a fine reflection on a fascinating and heroic iconoclast.

Jim Catano
Provo, Utah
[e-mail address deleted -DM-]

[-DM-]

Hello Jim,

Thank you for your feedback.

Note that the Kessler article appears in the Secular Web Historical Library (http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/), which means that it was written before 1970 (long before the Secular Web came into existence). And not only are we unable to contact the author, the fact is that he is likely dead.

Note also that per the disclaimer (http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/) at the top of the Historical Library main page, we do not fix typos and such in the historical documents.

Note too that this very same article appears a number of places on the Web and although I didn't check them all, the ones I did check contain the same errors.

Regards,
-Don-

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