Turning Traditions Upside Down
A non-conformist at the dawn of an epoch, a martyr of modernity, or just a polemic controvert? Giordano Bruno is known today as an exceptional, yet ambivalent figure within the history of ideas. As a great scholar, celebrated for his comprehensive erudition, famous for his emphatic defence of philosophical inquiry against religious doctrine and his rigid attacks against reputed authorities, he caused an intellectual sensation. He was burnt at the stake on the Campo dei Fiori in Rome, on February 17th, 1600.
Some of the world’s most eminent researchers on Bruno offer an exhaustive overview of the state-of-theart research on his work, discussing Bruno’s methodological procedures, his epistemic and literary practices, his natural philosophy, or his role as theologian and metaphysic at the cutting-edge of their disciplines. Short texts by Bruno illustrate the reasoning of the contributions. The book also reflects aspects of Bruno’s reception in the past and today, inside and outside academia.
Preface:
Yehuda Elkana and Jürgen Renn
Introduction:
Henning Hufnagel and Anne Eusterschulte
Part 1
Epistemic Practices of a Revolutionary. Bruno’s Methods and Thinking
Paul Richard Blum
Giordano Bruno’s Changing of Default Positions
Angelika Bönker-Vallon
The Measurement of the Immeasurable. Divine Mind and Mathematical Structures in Giordano Bruno’s De triplici minimo et mensura
Michele Ciliberto
“…per speculum et in aenigmitate …”
Anne Eusterschulte
Platonic Caverns and Epicurean Worlds
Part 2
Experience and Vision of a New Cosmic Order. Giordano Bruno’ Natural Philosophy
Miguel A. Granada
De immenso et innumerabilibus, I, 3, and the Concept of Planetary Systems in the Infinite Universe. A Commentary
Wolfgang Neuser
Atom, Matter and Monade
Enrico Giannetto
Giordano Bruno and the Relativity of Time
Arcangelo Rossi
Giordano Bruno and the New Order of Nature between Copernicus and Galilei
Part 3
Forms of Non-Conformity. Bruno’s Works as Literary Texts
Nuccio Ordine
The Comic and Philosophy. Plato’s Philebus and Bruno's Candelbearer
Sergius Kodera
The (In)discreet Presence of Machiavelli in Giordano Bruno’s Candelaio
Henning Hufnagel
Bruno’s Cabala: Satire of Knowledge and the Uses of the Dialogue Form
Part 4
Reflections of an Intellectual Burning. Bruno’s Reception and Literary Afterlife
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann
The Dialectic of the Absolute Beginning. On a Copper Engraving in Heinrich Khunrath’s Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae
Ingrid Rowland
A Catholic Reader of Giordano Bruno in Counter-Reformation-Rome. Athanasius Kircher SJ and Panspermia Rerum
Francois Quiviger
From Paris to Rome, Hamburg and London. Aspects of the Afterlife of Giordano Bruno in the Twentieth Century
Part 5
Visibility of the Invisible. About the Sculpture Giordano Bruno by Alexander Polzin (2008)
Durs Grünbein
Flame and Wood. On Alexander Polzin’s Sculpture Giordano Bruno
Alexander Polzin
Giordano Bruno
Appendix
List of Contributors
Index