Bruno. GIORDANO, a fervid, restless, profound philosopher, was born at Nola, in the kingdom of Naples, about the middle of the 16th century. He entered at an early age the order of the Dominicans, but soon began to express his doubts in regard to the doctrines of Transubstantiation and of the Immaculate Conception, in consequence of which he was obliged to flee from his convent. Henceforth his life was unsettled. In 1577 he went to Geneva, where he spent two years, but having excited the suspicion and dislike of the strict Calvinists of that city by his general scepticism, he judged it prudent to betake himself to Paris, where he delivered prelections on the 'Great Art' (Logic) of Raymond Lully. His disputes with the bigoted Aristotelians of the university of Paris compelled him, however, to leave France. He passed over into England, where he resided for two years in comparative quiet, enjoying the friendship of Sir Philip Sidney and the protection of the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau. Here he composed his most important works, but at last, having incurred the displeasure of the clergy by his vehement denunciation of the Aristotelian philosophy and by other grave heresies, he returned to Paris in 1585. In 1586 he proceeded to the university of Marburg, where he matriculated, but was forbidden to lecture, and to Wittenberg, where he became professor. After spending some time in Prague, Brunswick, Helmstedt, and Frankfort-on-the-Maine, he resolved to go back to Italy. He fixed his residence at Padua; but venturing to settle in Venice, he was arrested by the officers of the Inquisition, and conveyed to Rome in 1593. He was now subjected to a long imprisonment and persecution, in the vain hope that he would recant; but when all the endeavours of his enemies proved ineffectual, he was brought to the stake, 17th February 1600, and burnt as a heretic. On the scene of his martyrdom, the Campo dei Fiori, a monument to his memory was unveiled in 1889. Two new editions of his works, one by Lagarde and one by Tocco and Vitelli, have been published.
Bruno's writings, of which the most valuable are composed in Italian, display throughout a strong, courageous, excitable soul, susceptible of deep enthusiasm, full of mental unrest and scepticism, but guided by an unsatisfied yearning for truth. His speculations are sublime. The Cena delle Ceneri, or Evening Conversations on Ash-Wednesday, is an apology for the Copernican astronomy; the Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante, or Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast (Paris, 1584), is a satirical and somewhat heavy allegory in the style of the times, but which perhaps gives the clearest account of Bruno's philosophy. His greatest works are metaphysical, such as the Della Causa Principio ed Uno (On the One Sole Cause of Things), and the Del Infinito Universo e Mondi (On the Infinity of the Universe and of Worlds). The doctrine enunciated in these is Pantheistic (see PANTHEISM). Bruno held that the infinite soul of God did not merely inhabit or pervade the universe, but that the universe was simply a manifestation of Him, and therefore itself divine. God was therefore, in the most literal and physical sense, all in all. Bruno's philosophy, in later times, was quite unappreciated and even neglected, until Jacobi drew public attention to it in his Letters on the Doctrine of Spinoza. Both Spinoza and Descartes were much indebted to Bruno. His influence is also discernible in the speculation of modern Germany; one of Schelling's notable works is entitled Bruno. Original editions of his works are very rare. Those in Italian were published by Wagner in 1830; some Latin ones by Gfrörer in 1834. See works on Bruno by Bartholmæss (Paris, 1846), Berti (Flor. 1868 and 1880), Sigwart (Tübl. 1880), Brunnhofer (Leip. 1883), and the Life of Giordano Bruno, the Nolan, by Miss I. Frith, revised by Professor Moriz Carrière (Lond. 1887). The Eroiei Furori was translated by L. Williams in 1888. A novel based on Bruno's life, by C. E. Plumptre (Lond. 1884), has slight value.