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😉 Greetings to regular and new readers! In the article “Giordano Bruno: biography, interesting facts, video” about the great scientist, philosopher and poet, who, even before the painful execution, did not renounce his beliefs. The article will be useful for schoolchildren and students.
Life of Giordano Bruno
Filippo Bruno was born in 1548 in a small village near Naples into a simple family. In 1559, his parents sent the clever little boy to a Naples school. There he diligently studies literature, logic and dialectics.
Thanks to excellent recommendations from teachers and the school leadership, 15-year-old Filippo is accepted into the monastery of St. Dominica. There he becomes a monk and receives the name Giordano. In 1572 Bruno was ordained a Catholic priest.
From monastery to science
While in the monastery, Bruno reads forbidden books. There is not a single icon in his cell, only the Crucifixion. The caretaker is happy to inform the future priest about his behavior, which is not consistent with the rules of the monastery. The inquiry begins. He left the monastery and in 1576 went to Rome, and then to the northern cities of Italy.
In 1579 Bruno was enrolled in the University of Geneva, but at one of the disputes the Calvinists publicly accuse him of heresy. And again you have to change your place of residence. He left for Toulouse, where he taught a philosophy course at the university for about two years.
In 1581, Giordano received an invitation from the Sorbonne University and arrived in Paris. A talented scientist has no baggage, except for books and manuscripts of his reflections. Here he publishes his works on the mnemonics “Shadows of Ideas”.
King Henry III draws attention to the young philosopher. He invites him to court and provides him with his huge library and two more years of security. Subsequently, the king gives Giordano several recommendations to the most influential people in Britain.
Giordano lives in London, publishes his works, incl. “About infinity, the universe and the worlds”. Finding no understanding in the scientific community, in 1585 he returned to France, where he published a course of lectures on Physics by Aristotle. And then there are constant moving: Wittenberg, Prague, Helmstedt, Frankfurt am Main …
Denunciation of the teacher
In 1591 Giordano accepts an invitation from the wealthy Giovanni Mocenigo from Venice. Mocenigo asks the philosopher to teach him the art of memory for a decent fee. But not even a year has passed as Mocenigo scribbles denunciations one after another against his teacher.
In 1593 Bruno was arrested and taken to a prison located in one of the outskirts of the Italian capital. There he spends 6 long years, responding, even under constant torture, with a categorical refusal to acknowledge his beliefs as mistakes.
Execution of Giordano Bruno
In January 1600, Pope Clement VIII consents to the transfer of the imprisoned priest to the Roman authorities. On February 9, the Inquisition recognizes Bruno as a heretic. He is defrocked and excommunicated. Then they are taken to court in order to “punish without shedding blood,” that is, to burn them.
After hearing the verdict, Giordano, proudly raising his head, declares to the court: “To burn is not to refute!” On February 17, 1600, the great scientist of his time was burned to death in the Roman square.
Rome. Campo dei Fiori. A statue of Giordano Bruno at the site where the philosopher was burned.
In 1889, a crowded solemn ceremony of unveiling the monument took place at this place. It was attended not only by the townspeople, but also by residents from all over the area. Prominent scientists from other countries came here to honor the memory of the unbroken fighter for truth and their convictions. The sculptor depicted the scientist at full height.
Giordano Bruno: discoveries
Within the framework of the paradigm of the unity of science and religion, the figure of this famous philosopher seems to be very uncomfortable. In all his works, he openly called dullness dullness. As values, he recognized not dogmas from mossy sources, but freedom, love and the pursuit of personal happiness.
For clarity of the situation, withdrawal from the Catholic religion in Europe in the seventeenth century, according to all laws, was punishable by death. And the entrance was carried out at the baptism of infants, of course, without asking their consent.
It was punishable to hide something from your “spiritual father” in confession, or simply to miss a few Sunday services. Such cases were dealt with by the well-oiled unforgiving machine of the omnipresent Inquisition.
Her sentences did not always end with burning at the stake. In all cases, without exception, they ruined a person’s life, implying a humiliating rejection of their beliefs and persecution from others.
Giordano, being a Dominican monk, saw this whole “kitchen” from the inside. The Inquisition was under the patronage of this particular order. Bruno found the strength to flee to Switzerland, beyond the control of the pope.
However, it soon became clear that Calvinists did the same with independent thinkers, Dr. Miguel Servetus would not let him lie.
Cosmological concept
By this time, Giordano had developed his own cosmological concept, very little distinguishable from the modern one. The universe is infinite and consists of repeating systems similar to Copernicus’ claims. Each star is a distant Sun around which the planets revolve.
Stars can vary in size and brightness. The planets around them are too faint to be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
The main difference from Copernicus, which is now being carefully retouched, was the rejection of “celestial spheres” – transparent hard surfaces to which celestial bodies are supposedly attached. Recognized by Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus and the Bible, the celestial spheres have held back the development of scientific concepts for about two thousand years.
Then there was France, England, acquaintance with the queen and with Oxford scientists, for whom Aristotle was still the authority, and not their own observations.
Spitting on everything, the scientist returned to the very nest of Catholicism, to Venice. There he was immediately issued to the Inquisition for his interpretation of biblical history and church sacraments. A long seven years began, during which the executioners tried to break the will of Giordano in order to use his philosophy for the glory of the Catholic world.
Convinced that he was right not only about space, but also about religion, he preferred martyrdom.
And the correctness has been proven only in our time. In 1992, the first exoplanet, as they are now called, was confidently confirmed. Nowadays, several hundred of them are known.
Giordano Bruno’s documentary: biography and his discoveries
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