WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:10.599 You see, something's going to happen. What's going to happen? 2 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:13.000 Heine? 3 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:22.719 What help? 4 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:28.519 Welcome back to the occult rejects. This is part two 5 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:32.200 of the life of Jeadano Bruno. I hope you all 6 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.600 enjoyed part one, and if you haven't listened to that yet, 7 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:39.119 I suggest you do before you listen to this. And 8 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:42.880 now let's continue off where we left off in part one. 9 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:46.880 By fifteen ninety one, Bruno had spent over a decade. 10 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:47.960 Crisis crossing Europe. 11 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:51.359 He was famous in intellectual circles, but had failed to 12 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:55.079 find a secure patron or Haven and Frankfurt. In spring 13 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:58.399 of fifteen ninety one, at the Frankfurt book Fair, Bruno 14 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:03.240 met a Venetian patrician named Giovanni Mossenigo moss in Ego 15 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.439 and an aristocrat with an interest in esoteric knowledge, invited 16 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:08.879 Bruno to Venice to tutor him in the arts of 17 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:10.439 memory and perhaps. 18 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:11.920 Share occult secrets. 19 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:16.000 At the same time, Bruno heard that the prestigious University 20 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.680 of Padowa near Venice was looking to fill its chair 21 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.879 of mathematics, a position left vacant by the recent death 22 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:26.640 of a luminary. This was a golden opportunity. Padowa was 23 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:29.680 one of the foremost universities in Europe. Soon it would 24 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:34.200 hire Galileo for that very chair. Believing perhaps that the 25 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:38.040 climate in Italy had softened, Pope's sixthus to fifth, known 26 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:41.159 as a hardliner, had died in fifteen ninety and Venice 27 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:44.239 in particular was known for a relative independence from Rome, 28 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:48.959 Bruno made the fateful decision to return to Italy. He 29 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:51.719 later claimed that he thought the inquisition would be less 30 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:56.920 strict in Venice, reputedly the most liberal state in Italy. 31 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.680 In August of fifteen ninety one, after fifteen years abroad, 32 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:07.719 Giodano Bruno came back to Italian soil. Bruno first spent 33 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:10.199 a few months at Padua in late fifteen ninety one. 34 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:14.599 He lectured privately in geometry and Aristolian philosophy, and even 35 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:19.479 taught some German students there. He applied for the math professorship, 36 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:24.680 offering his expertise in the art of memory and Copernican cosmology, 37 00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:28.319 but in early fifteen ninety two, the Padua position was 38 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:33.240 instead awarded to a less controversial figure, a young mathematics 39 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:40.520 tutor named Galileo. Disappointed, Bruno accepted Monsignego's invitation, and moved 40 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:44.280 into Monsenego's palace in Venice in March fifteen ninety two. 41 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:50.080 For about two months, Bruno lived comfortably as Mossenego's private tutor, 42 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:55.199 imparting his knowledge of mnemonic techniques and discussing philosophy. However, 43 00:02:55.800 --> 00:03:01.439 Bruno's candid discourse soon alarmed the host. Cenego became disillusion 44 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.080 Perhaps Bruno's memory training did not produce the quick results 45 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:09.319 he hoped for, or perhaps Bruno divulged in some theological 46 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:12.919 views that he did not agree with. On May twenty second, 47 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:17.759 fifteen ninety two, Giovanni Mossenego betrayed his house guest. He 48 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:21.639 denounced Giodanno Bruno to the Venetian Inquisition, providing a list 49 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:26.719 of heretical statements Bruno had allegedly made. Bruno was arrested 50 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:30.159 in Venice on May twenty third, fifteen ninety two, and 51 00:03:30.280 --> 00:03:35.879 thrown into the Inquisition's prison. Among the numerous charges Mossenego 52 00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:40.719 leveled were that Bruno disbelieved core Catholic doctrines, the trinity, 53 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:44.000 the divinity of Christ in the virginity of Mary, and 54 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:46.919 that he saw nothing wrong in renouncing the Catholic faith, 55 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:50.360 that he had trafficked in magic, and that he had 56 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.319 held the belief in a plurality of worlds and their eternity. 57 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:58.319 It was a sweeping condemnation of Bruno's worldview. Over the 58 00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:02.199 next seven months, the Venetian Holy Office interrogated Bruno. Bruno 59 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:05.879 behaved cooperatively at first, he saw a chance to argue 60 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:09.599 his case in a relative open minded court. Venice often 61 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:13.199 prided itself on handling its own affairs, and its inquisition 62 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:18.680 was considered milder than Rome's. Bruno defended himself, skillfully denying 63 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.879 some charges outright and presenting others as philosophical speculations. 64 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:23.680 Rather than fixed heresies. 65 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:28.160 For example, on the accusation of believing in multiple worlds, 66 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:31.639 Bruno admitted he had entertained the idea as a philosopher, 67 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:34.360 but with the reservation that I would not whold it 68 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:38.199 defendant against the Holy scriptures. Trying to placate the examiners 69 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:42.879 by drawing a line between philosophy and theology, Bruno stressed 70 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:46.519 that in question of faith, he accepted Church doctrine, and 71 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.519 that where he had doubted, for instance, about certain aspects 72 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:54.279 of Catholic dogma, he had done so only hypothetically. These 73 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:59.399 careful equivocations nearly saved him. In fact, the Venetian inquisitors 74 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:03.040 seemed so somewhat persuaded. One report suggests they were inclined 75 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:05.600 to be lenient or even release Bruno with a warning, 76 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:08.720 since his ideas were in the realm of philosophy and 77 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:14.639 had not been publicly preached as religious doctrine. The situation 78 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:19.680 took a dire turn when the Roman Inquisition, far less sympathetic, intervened. 79 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:24.480 In September of fifteen ninety two, the Holy Office in Rome, 80 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:28.279 prompted by testimony against Bruno that hand trickled down from 81 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:33.399 previous stops Geneva and other places, demanded Bruno's extradition to Rome. 82 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:39.120 For months, the Venetian government resisted handing him over, perhaps 83 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.839 reflecting Venice's independent streak and some support for Bruno among 84 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:48.279 Venetian intellectuals. Bruno himself wrote to the Venetian Senate arguing 85 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:51.920 that his case should remain in Venice, but in January 86 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:56.319 of fifteen ninety three, Venice bowed to pressure, possibly fearing 87 00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:01.079 offending the powerful Pope Clement the Eighth. Bruno was sent 88 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:04.160 under guard to Rome to face the full might of 89 00:06:04.199 --> 00:06:09.439 the Roman Inquisition. Tiodano Bruno spent the last seven years 90 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:11.959 of his life in the prisons of the Roman Inquisition. 91 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:15.800 He was incarcerated in the Tower of Nona in Rome 92 00:06:16.279 --> 00:06:20.600 in a small cell. While his trial dragged on, the Inquisition, 93 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:26.240 led by the Formidables Cardinal Robert Bellamine, collected evidence and 94 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:29.439 witness testimonies from all over Europe to build an air 95 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:35.600 tight case. Unfortunately, many trial documents were later lost. Some 96 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:39.560 resurfaced only in the twentieth century, but enough remained to 97 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:45.319 reconstruct the outline. The charges against Bruno had crystallized into 98 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:52.160 eight eight main accusations enumerated by the inquisitors. According to 99 00:06:52.199 --> 00:06:56.399 the summary rediscovered in nineteen forty by scholar Luigi Erpo, 100 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:02.240 Bruno was accused of one holding opinions contrary to the 101 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:09.720 Catholic faith and speaking against church authority. Two holding erroneous 102 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:16.839 opinions about the Trinity, Christ's divinity and incarnation, Three holding 103 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:21.560 erroneous opinions about Jesus as Christ, perhaps denying that Christ 104 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:26.560 was God Man. Four holding erroneous opinions about the Virgin 105 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:31.519 Mary and the Saints. Five holding erroneous opinions about trans 106 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:37.600 substantiation the Eucharist, and six claiming the existence of plurality 107 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:42.560 of worlds and their eternity in infinite universe, number seven 108 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:48.319 believing in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, reincarnation into animals, 109 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:55.000 and number eight dealing in magic and divination. In short, 110 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:58.639 Bruno was accused of being a heretic on virtually every count, 111 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:03.720 the nature of God, God, Christ and the Cosmos, the sacraments, 112 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:10.000 the after life, and involvement in occult arts. Before the 113 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:15.160 Roman Inquisition, Bruno initially continued his tactic of partial compliance. 114 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.000 Throughout fifteen ninety three and fifteen ninety nine, he was 115 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:23.199 repeatedly examined. He answered many questions and sought to explain 116 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:27.519 or contextualize his writings. He acknowledged that he had speculated 117 00:08:27.560 --> 00:08:31.279 about an infinite universe of multiple worlds, but argued these 118 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:37.480 were philosophical conjectures not intended to contradict scripture. He denied 119 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:41.399 believing in magic in any heretical sense, claiming his magic 120 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:46.039 was natural linked to memory and imagination, not demonology. 121 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:47.360 He tried to. 122 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:51.120 Separate himself from the Lutheran and Calvinist heresies, emphasizing that 123 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:55.320 he had never adopted their doctrines. Indeed, he's been excommunicated 124 00:08:55.320 --> 00:09:02.120 by them. However, the inquisitors, especially Cardinal, were not satisfied. 125 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:07.360 They pressed Bruno to formally recant all his suspected heresies. 126 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:11.639 In January of fifteen ninety nine, the Inquisition drew up 127 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:17.440 a document summarizing Bruno's heretical propositions. Unfortunately, this document is 128 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:21.840 lost now, but it contained eight propositions extracted from his works. 129 00:09:21.879 --> 00:09:28.600 In testimony, Bruno was told to abjure solemnly recant these propositions, 130 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:35.000 or face condemnation. Initially, Bruno stoled. On January fourteenth, fifteen 131 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:38.440 ninety nine, he was asked if he would abjure, He 132 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:43.559 requested time to consider. Four days later, brought before the inquisitors, 133 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:47.759 Bruno declared that he did wish to hold with the 134 00:09:47.799 --> 00:09:53.679 Holy Church holds, effectively offering to recant, but crucially with 135 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:58.000 the qualification that he did not believe he had ever erred. 136 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:00.360 Words. 137 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:02.720 He was willing to submit to the Church's judgment, but 138 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:06.919 would not explicitly confess to teaching heresy. 139 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:08.840 He even prepared ritent. 140 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:13.639 Defenses justifying his philosophical positions as not contrary to faith. 141 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:19.679 This maneuver trying to concede without truly conceding had worked 142 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:23.679 for Bruno before, as in Venice, but Bellamine saw through it, 143 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:29.399 regarding Bruno's half recantations as obstinacy. In December of fifteen 144 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:33.240 ninety nine, the trial approached its end, the inquisitors gave 145 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:38.679 Bruno one final opportunity to repent plainly. This time, Bruno 146 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:43.399 did not equivocate, perhaps deciding he could not sacrifice his integrity, 147 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:47.720 he refused to recant outright. On December twenty first, fifteen 148 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:52.159 ninety nine, when pressed yet again to abjure, Bruno defied 149 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:55.799 his judges. I neither ought to recant. 150 00:10:55.559 --> 00:10:56.879 Nor will I. 151 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.960 I have nothing to recant, and I don't know what 152 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:04.600 I should recant. With this stubborn retort, Bruno sealed his fate. 153 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:10.039 The Inquisition Tribunal, which included theologians from various orders, among 154 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:14.960 them Bruno's own Dominican Order, unanimously declared him impotent and 155 00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:19.039 relapsed a heretic beyond hope of reform. 156 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:20.000 Whew. 157 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:24.679 They petition Pope Clement the Eighth for permission to proceed 158 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:31.879 to sentencing. On January twentieth, sixteen hundred. The Inquisition with 159 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:36.559 the Pope's approval formally condemned Giodano Bruno to death as 160 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:40.600 an obstinate heretic. He was to be handed over to 161 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:45.120 the secular authorities. The inquisitors also decreed that all of 162 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:48.840 Bruno's works in manuscript or print were to be placed 163 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:54.600 on the index of prohibited books and destroyed. According to 164 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:57.919 a dispatch by a German witness, the scholar Gasper's Shop. 165 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:02.600 When the sentence was announced in the courtroom, Bruno responded 166 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:06.559 with legendary courage. He is reported to have told the 167 00:12:06.679 --> 00:12:11.320 judge in English, perhaps you who pronounce this sentence are 168 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:14.919 in greater fear than I who will receive it. This 169 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.320 defying quip basically Bruno telling the inquisitors that their consciousness 170 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:23.799 should tremble more than his. May be apocryphal. Shop was 171 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:27.559 not an eyewitness to Bruno's final words, but he heard rumors. 172 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:28.919 True or not. 173 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.919 It has become the most famous quote attributed to Bruno, 174 00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:38.240 encapsulating his fearless challenge to authority. On February seventeenth, sixteen hundred, 175 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:41.879 in the early dawn, Jiandanno Bruno was taken from his 176 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:46.120 cell the civil authorities. The governor of Rome led him 177 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.480 to the Campo di Fiori, a public square not far 178 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:54.639 from the Tiber, as was customary for one convicted of heresy. 179 00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:59.200 Bruno's tongue was bound clamped with an iron gag to 180 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:02.720 prevent him from addressing the crowd or shouting out any blasphemies. 181 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:07.320 He was stripped naked and then tied to a wooden stake. 182 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:12.159 A lay brotherhood whose duty was to attend executions chanted 183 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:16.639 litany's for his soul. Piled high around him were wooden 184 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:22.720 bundles with a final order. The executioners lit the pyre Geodanno. 185 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:26.720 Bruno was burned, alive in the flames, faithful to his 186 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:31.919 ideas until his last breath. He was approximately fifty two 187 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.399 years old. After his body was consumed by fire, the 188 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:39.039 remnants of ash and bone were collected and scattered into 189 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:44.639 the river Tiber, so that no relic would remain. The 190 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:49.559 church aimed to erase Bruno's physical presence and memory, but 191 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:55.159 in this it failed. Bruno's martyrdom. The fact that a theologian, philosopher, 192 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:58.159 and scientist was executed by fire in the year sixteen 193 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:04.480 hundred sent through the intellectual community of Europe. All of 194 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:07.600 Bruno's books were banned in Catholic territories by sixteen oh three, 195 00:14:08.840 --> 00:14:12.759 but clandestine copies survived, and his name took on a 196 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:16.960 life of its own. Even at the moment of his death, 197 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:21.519 Bruno's legacy began to form. The witness described that Bruno, 198 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:24.480 faced with the crucifix one last time by a monk, 199 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:30.080 turned his head away with disdain, a final gesture of refusal. 200 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:34.799 His executioners sought to silence him, but in doing so 201 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:38.919 they amplified his message. Bruno became, in the eyes of 202 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:42.799 later generations, a symbol of the freedom of thought against 203 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:47.200 the coercion of dogma. As the plaque now embedded in 204 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:51.559 the Roman squared notes. His ashes were thrown to the winds, 205 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:59.360 but his ideas were not extinguished. One cannot understand Geodonald 206 00:14:59.399 --> 00:15:03.120 Bruno with out delving into his mystical and occult interests. 207 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:06.720 Bruno was not a scientist in the modern sense. He 208 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:12.440 was a philosopher magician of the Renaissance, deeply influenced by Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, 209 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:16.559 and the cabalistic tradition. In Bruno's era, the study of 210 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:21.600 magic and natural philosophy were often entwined. Bruno truly believed 211 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:24.600 that the hidden knowledge from antiquity, the wisdom of the 212 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:31.080 ancient magi, could expand understanding and even confer powers. He 213 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:34.039 was the heir to the Renaissance tradition of Marsilio Ficino 214 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:37.759 and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who had revived interest in 215 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:42.399 the legendary Egyptian stage, Hermes, Tristemegistus, and other pre Christian 216 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:50.279 sources of wisdom. Ficino taught that the ancient theologians Zorest, Hermes, Orpheus, Pythagoras, 217 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:55.120 Plato had a glimpse of divine truth that culminated in Christianity. 218 00:15:55.559 --> 00:15:59.279 Bruno took this idea further and in a subversive direction. 219 00:16:00.440 --> 00:16:03.080 He argued that much of what passed as Christian truth 220 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.759 in his time was actually a corruption of the true 221 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:11.240 ancient wisdom. He called Aristotle the cornerstone of scholastic theology, 222 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:16.080 the stupidness of all philosophers, for having distorted the original 223 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:20.440 mystical insights of the ancients. Bruno dreamed of restoring this 224 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:25.039 lost primortal wisdom. In his view, the Egyptians, as known 225 00:16:25.080 --> 00:16:29.320 through Hermetic text and the Pythagoreans had known profound truths 226 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:32.919 about the universe in God, which later philosophers had obscured. 227 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:39.240 This veneration of ancient ocult wisdom led Bruno to esoteric practices. 228 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.879 He immersed himself in Kabbalah and astromagic While in the 229 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:48.120 Dominican convent, he had read mystical works by Heinrich Cornelius 230 00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:52.399 Agrippa and others, picking up ideas about natural magic, the 231 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:57.000 belief that the knowledgeable can manipulate natural forces through symbols, chants, 232 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:01.720 and correspondences. Bruno believed that magic was not demonic, but 233 00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:06.720 a part of nature's hidden potential. In his dialogues and 234 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:11.279 later Latin treaties, Bruno portrays magicians as wise men attuned 235 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:15.599 to the unity of nature. One of Bruno's key magical 236 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:18.880 pursuits was the art of memory, which he had demonstrated 237 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:23.319 to kings and scholars. Far from being a mere nomonic trick, 238 00:17:24.039 --> 00:17:27.720 Bruno considered it a magical art, a weighed to penetrate 239 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:32.680 the structural reality by impressing images on the mind. He 240 00:17:32.759 --> 00:17:36.839 devised elaborate memory systems that involved constructing mental memory wheels 241 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:42.119 or theaters filled with symbolic images, often planetary gods, zodiacal signs, 242 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:47.039 or geometric figures. By mentally rotating and permuting these images, 243 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:50.960 Bruno claimed one could recall anything and also discover new 244 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:56.839 connections between ideas. Bruno's contemporaries often suspected sorcery in his 245 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:00.279 nomonic feats King Henry the Third as noted to directly 246 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:03.480 as if Bruno's memory was natural or acquired by magic. 247 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:08.039 Bruno insisted it was organized knowledge and not sorcery. Yet 248 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:12.000 there was an undeniably mystical aspect to his approach. He 249 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:15.720 believed by using planet images and symbols, one could tap 250 00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:18.200 into the deeper patterns of the cosmos and the soul. 251 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:23.319 In Bruno's cosmology, mind, nature, and image were all linked, 252 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:28.279 a truly hermetic view. Thus, Bruno's memory art was also 253 00:18:28.440 --> 00:18:32.039 a cult, a way to achieve union with the universe's intellect. 254 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:35.759 This blending of mental training and magic is a hallmark 255 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:41.519 of Bruno's uniqueness. Bruno's later treaties in Germany delve even 256 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:45.839 more explicitly into magic. In Theses d Maginated from fifteen 257 00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:50.559 eighty nine, he outlines different categories of magic and magical operations, 258 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:53.920 arguing that in magus is essentially a natural philosopher who 259 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:59.119 understands the secrets of nature. He sees magic as extending 260 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:04.000 the powers of the mind. In Will, Bruno analyzes how 261 00:19:04.039 --> 00:19:07.559 emotions and imaginations can create bonds between people or between 262 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:11.839 people and objects, knowledge critical for both magicians and rulers. 263 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:16.599 For instance, love combined a person stronger than any chain. 264 00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:19.680 A skilled magus can use a beloved image or an 265 00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:23.559 idea to control others. This work is sometimes considered an 266 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:28.640 early treatise on psychological influence or even crowd manipulation. It 267 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:32.680 is both disconcerting and insightful, showing Bruno's keen understanding of 268 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:38.160 human nature. Bruno was particularly fascinated by hermetic symbols and 269 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:43.000 Egyptian religion. He believed the Egyptians, in venerating the stars 270 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:47.240 and formulating enomatic hieroglyphs, were closer to the divine truth 271 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:52.319 than his Christian contemporaries. In Spasio della Bestia, he has 272 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:56.440 Egyptian goddess Isis appear as a character, and in other words, 273 00:19:56.440 --> 00:20:00.279 he extols Hermes Trismegistus as a font of ancient theology. 274 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:05.039 Bruno reversed the common Christian view by suggesting that Moses 275 00:20:05.079 --> 00:20:09.440 had learned from Hermes, not the other way around. Such 276 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:15.720 claims were theologically outrageous, effectively subverting the uniqueness of biblical revelation. 277 00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:22.240 Bruno's reverence for pantheistic and animistic ideas also stemmed from 278 00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:27.079 his occult outlook. He advocated a form of Egyptian religion 279 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:29.400 that would be free of what he saw as the 280 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:35.920 superstitions and petty rules of his errors Christianity. Unsurprisingly, the 281 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:40.319 Inquisition found these views abhorrent, seeing Bruno as a giant 282 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:45.240 syncretist who mixed paganism and Christianity into a dangerous heretical cocktail. 283 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:50.640 To Bruno, religion and morality should be based on philosophical truth, 284 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:55.440 not blind faith. He often criticized the corruption of priests 285 00:20:55.519 --> 00:21:00.759 and the emphasis on external worship. He was not exactly atheists. 286 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:03.680 He often spoke of God, but his God was not 287 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:06.559 the personal God of the Bible. It was more like 288 00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:10.480 the soul of the universe, an infinite divine presence manifest 289 00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:14.640 in everything, what one might call pantheism. God is in 290 00:21:14.759 --> 00:21:18.359 all things, Bruno taught as the soul is in every 291 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:22.279 part of the body, a notion echoing the Hermetic dictum 292 00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:27.119 God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere, 293 00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:32.720 also adopted by Nicholas of cusa earlier. Bruno's idea of 294 00:21:32.759 --> 00:21:37.119 libertas philosophica the freedom to philosophize, was grounded in his 295 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:41.839 conviction that seeking truth through whatever means, reason, experience, even magic, 296 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:45.759 is the highest task of the mind. He held that 297 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:49.160 no authority should bar the pursuit of truth, even if 298 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:52.599 it leads to ideas not accepted by faith, as he 299 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:57.680 argued in Venice. This attitude deeply rooted in his mystical 300 00:21:57.720 --> 00:22:00.839 confidence that the universe refeels itself to them a bold thinker, 301 00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:06.839 made Bruno a martyr figure for later ages. In summary, 302 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:12.119 Bruno's mysticism and occultism were not mere side hobbies. They 303 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:15.720 were at the heart of his philosophy. He envisioned the 304 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:20.319 universe as a living, unified whole animated by a divine spirit. 305 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:24.640 He saw ancient magic and hermetic symbolisms as tools to 306 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:29.359 reconnect with the spirit. While modern science found Bruno's ocultism 307 00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:33.240 to be of little value, historians like Francis Yates argue 308 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.039 that Bruno and the hermetic tradition contributed to the imaginative 309 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:41.359 leap that led to seeing the cosmos as boundless. The 310 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:44.720 same mysticism that led Bruno to search the secrets of 311 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:49.720 the Egyptians also emboldened him to declare the infinity of worlds. 312 00:22:50.440 --> 00:22:54.759 In Bruno's mind, magic, religion, philosophy, and science were threads 313 00:22:54.799 --> 00:23:00.440 of one tapestry. This Renaissance magus philosopher lived in died 314 00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:04.359 by that synthesis, refusing to abandon his combination of profound 315 00:23:04.359 --> 00:23:09.200 philosophy and somewhat wilfil contrariness even under the threat of 316 00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:10.000 the state. 317 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:12.279 Geodanna. 318 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:17.319 Bruno's most celebrated contributions lie in cosmology, the understanding of 319 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:21.680 the structure of the universe. Bruno became known, especially in 320 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:26.400 later centuries, as a visionary who, building on Copernicus, imagined 321 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:29.960 a universe far more vast and varied than anyone had 322 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:35.319 conceived before. To appreciate Bruno's cosmology, it's important to recall 323 00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:39.160 what most people of his era believed. Throughout the fifteen hundreds, 324 00:23:39.319 --> 00:23:42.160 the dominant model taught in universities and upheld by the 325 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:48.039 Church was the Ptolemaic Aristolian cosmology, a geocentric universe. In 326 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:51.400 this model, the spherical earth rested at the center of creation, 327 00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:55.559 and around it rotated a series of concentric, transparent spheres 328 00:23:55.839 --> 00:23:59.680 to which the heavenly bodies were attached. Nearest was the 329 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:04.839 Moon sphere, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, 330 00:24:05.240 --> 00:24:08.000 the only known planets at the time, and finally the 331 00:24:08.119 --> 00:24:12.759 vast sphere of the fixed stars. This outermost star sphere 332 00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:15.599 marked the boundary of the universe. Beyond it was the 333 00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:20.440 spiritual realm. The stars were thought to be equidistant, all 334 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:25.480 embedded in that single celestial shell. The cosmos was finite enclosed, 335 00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:29.559 like an onion of crystal layers. In fifteen forty three, 336 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.160 Copernicus proposed a sun centered arrangement of the planets. Copernicus's 337 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:39.319 system still retained certain traditional features. He still used circular 338 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:42.680 orbits and even spheres to some extent. He kept the 339 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:45.680 idea of a sphere of fixed stars at the outer boundary, 340 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:49.599 so the universe was still finite enclosed in Copernicus's view. 341 00:24:50.920 --> 00:24:54.160 Copernicus did not suggest that the stars were other suns, 342 00:24:54.279 --> 00:24:58.359 or that space was infinite. He merely swapped the positions 343 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:02.519 of Earth and Sun and adjustice the orbits. Even this 344 00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:06.720 shift was controversial. It dethroned Earth from the center. It 345 00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:12.960 had no immediate observational proof. During Bruno's youth, Copernican theory 346 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:16.279 was slowly spreading among scholars, but had not been accepted 347 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:21.480 as fact. By the fifteen eighties, many academics, especially in 348 00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:28.000 Catholic countries, still dismissed heliocentrism as an absurd or unproven hypothesis, 349 00:25:28.599 --> 00:25:33.799 often citing the lack of observed stellar parallax as Aristotle had. 350 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:38.720 Into this atmosphere came Bruno, who embraced Compernicus with enthusiasm 351 00:25:38.759 --> 00:25:43.359 and then went much much further. Bruno called Copernicus the 352 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:47.359 dawn of the New era, but considered Copernican heliocentrism a 353 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:48.200 mere beginning. 354 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:50.920 If the Earth is not the. 355 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:54.160 Center, Bruno reasoned, why should the Sun be the absolute 356 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:58.400 center either. Copernicus had replaced Earth with the Sun as 357 00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:02.279 the fixed point, and still a firmament of stars. Enclosing 358 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:06.279 this system, Bruno boldly abolished the firmament. 359 00:26:07.400 --> 00:26:09.640 He asserted that the stars are not lights on a. 360 00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:13.880 Crystal globe at a fixed distance, but rather innumerable distant 361 00:26:13.960 --> 00:26:19.680 suns scattered through space. Consequently, there could be no final boundary. 362 00:26:20.359 --> 00:26:25.160 Space extends infinitely in all directions. There is no single 363 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:29.319 center of the universe. The center is everywhere, because from 364 00:26:29.319 --> 00:26:32.279 the perspective of any star, it looks like you're at 365 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:37.880 the center of your own stars system. Bruno wrote, there 366 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:42.359 is no absolute up or down, no absolute location in space. 367 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:45.960 The position of a body is relative to that of others. 368 00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:50.319 The observer is always at the center of things. This 369 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:54.480 was a radical claim, essentially introducing the idea of relativity 370 00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:59.160 of motion and position well before Galileo or Einstein, though 371 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:05.319 Bruno framed it in qualitative terms. Bruno's infinite universe was 372 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:10.440 filled with innumerable worlds. In on the Infinite Universe and Worlds, 373 00:27:11.079 --> 00:27:14.000 he insists that our son is just one star among 374 00:27:14.119 --> 00:27:17.640 countless and our earth just one world among an infinity 375 00:27:17.720 --> 00:27:21.440 of worlds of the same kind as our own. He 376 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:25.640 credited earlier thinkers for hints of this idea, notably the 377 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:30.160 fifteenth century cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, who had written the 378 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:35.400 universe has its center everywhere, in circumference nowhere and speculated 379 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:40.799 about life on other stars. Bruno indeed called Cusa divine 380 00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:45.240 and saw him as a kindred spirit. Bruno also acknowledged 381 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:49.519 the English astronomer Thomas Diggis, who in fifteen seventy six 382 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:53.440 had published a Copernican model with an infinite star filled space, 383 00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:58.200 But Bruno's cosmology was more daring and comprehensive than either. 384 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:02.680 He combined the infinity of space with a philosophical argument. 385 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:07.039 An infinite God would naturally create an infinite reflection of 386 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:12.440 himself the universe. Bruno put it this way, the universe 387 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.519 has no edge a limit, because God's power is unlimited. 388 00:28:16.519 --> 00:28:19.759 The medieval idea of a cozy, well ordered creation was, 389 00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:25.359 in Bruno's eyes, too constraining on God. Because Bruno's universe 390 00:28:25.400 --> 00:28:29.920 had innumerable sons, It's almost inevitably followed that there are 391 00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:35.279 numerable earths planets like ours orbiting those suns, and to 392 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:38.119 Bruno it seemed absurd to think Earth was the only 393 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:42.359 world teeming with life. Why would an infinite God populate 394 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:45.880 just one speck with life and leave all other worlds barren. 395 00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:50.079 Thus Bruno became perhaps the first person in Western thought 396 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:54.119 to argue for the plurality of inhabited worlds as a reality. 397 00:28:55.279 --> 00:28:58.920 He declared that other planets and worlds were no worse 398 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:02.599 and no less inhabitmitted than our Earth, as earlier noted. 399 00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:09.839 By doing so, Bruno implicitly raised profound theological questions. For example, 400 00:29:10.440 --> 00:29:13.240 if those other worlds had sentient beings, did they have 401 00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:18.000 their own Christs and their own incarnations. The Church was 402 00:29:18.039 --> 00:29:21.799 deeply troubled by this line of thought, and indeed Bruno's 403 00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:27.039 belief in metempsychosis, reincarnation, and possibly transmigration of souls between 404 00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:31.160 worlds was one of the charges against him. Bruno seemed 405 00:29:31.160 --> 00:29:34.200 to entertain that souls might migrate, or that each world 406 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:37.440 might have its own forms of life destined for salvation 407 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:41.519 or damnation, breaking the unique story of Christian redemption on Earth. 408 00:29:42.559 --> 00:29:49.359 Bruno's cosmic pluralism was thus theologically explosive. In modern retrospect, 409 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:54.319 Bruno's cosmological vision was remarkably ahead of its time. He 410 00:29:54.440 --> 00:29:58.920 essentially anticipated that Copernican principle taken to the extreme, that 411 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:02.960 our position in the universe is not special. In the 412 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:06.960 nineteenth century, Humboldt and others would praise Bruno for this 413 00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:10.200 plurality of world's cosmology, and in the twenty to twenty 414 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:14.920 first century, as astronomers discovered exoplanets by the thousands, Bruno 415 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.480 often gets credit as a prescient voice who guessed the 416 00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:23.759 vastness of the universe. However, it's crucial to remember Bruno's 417 00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:27.960 reasoning was not based on empirical observation. The telescope would 418 00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:31.480 not be invented until sixteen oh eight, eight years after 419 00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:37.160 his death. His arguments were philosophical and theological, rooted in 420 00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:40.640 ideas of infinity and perfection, as well as a dose 421 00:30:40.680 --> 00:30:43.640 of mystical intuition about the boundlessness of creation. 422 00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:47.200 Bruno wrote that with. 423 00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:50.960 Copernicus, the gates of the sky were flung open, and 424 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:55.559 we flew out to space, infinite and free. He truly 425 00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:59.480 imagined the universe that we know today, millions of galaxies 426 00:30:59.480 --> 00:31:03.119 with billions of suns, though obviously he couldn't have had 427 00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:06.319 an inkling of the scale. He still thought in terms 428 00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:10.759 of stars and planets, not galaxies, as those concepts awaited 429 00:31:10.839 --> 00:31:17.000 later discovery. Bruno also made qualitative conjectures that foreshadow later science. 430 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:22.359 For example, he surmised that space is essentially a vacuum, 431 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:27.880 against Aristotle's ascertation that nature abhors a vacuum, that stars 432 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:30.880 vary in size, and that the twinkling of stars is 433 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:35.519 due to their immense distance, a correct insight. He even 434 00:31:35.559 --> 00:31:38.640 means that some stars might have dark companions, or that 435 00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:43.000 space is traversible in theory science fiction, ideas far ahead 436 00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:48.359 of his time. In On Cause, Principle and Unity, Bruno states, 437 00:31:48.440 --> 00:31:52.359 innumerable celestial bodies, no one of which is at the 438 00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:53.599 absolute center. 439 00:31:53.960 --> 00:31:54.920 Fill the universe. 440 00:31:55.920 --> 00:32:00.000 Everywhere there is incessant relative change of position, the observd 441 00:32:00.359 --> 00:32:05.160 is always at the center. This conceptual leap one Bruno 442 00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:09.440 placed in the scientific pantheon for later generations, even though 443 00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:12.440 Bruno did not prove these things or even articulate them 444 00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:19.000 in a rigorous scientific way. Interestingly, Bruno combined his cosmology 445 00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:22.000 with an atomistic physics that was also ahead of its 446 00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:26.559 time in some ways. In his Latin words, he proposed 447 00:32:26.599 --> 00:32:31.440 that matter is made of indivisible minima or monads, essentially 448 00:32:31.559 --> 00:32:35.480 an atomic theory of matter and energy. He extended this 449 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:38.400 to say there are no minimum particles of body, of 450 00:32:38.519 --> 00:32:42.240 spirit and of quantity, like points the atom of space. 451 00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:48.000 He suggested that matter can't be infinitely divided, a notion 452 00:32:48.119 --> 00:32:52.240 similar to ancient Greek atomism and later science. He also 453 00:32:52.319 --> 00:32:55.759 speculated that these atoms were in constant motion and transmutation, 454 00:32:57.039 --> 00:33:01.480 while Bruno's minima were more metaphysical abstract actions than physical atoms. 455 00:33:01.880 --> 00:33:06.640 Historians note that among the magic, Bruno's writings contain some 456 00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:12.680 remarkable insights, including an atomic theory for matter. Modern commentators 457 00:33:13.160 --> 00:33:16.119 sometimes point out that Bruno's idea of countless worlds and 458 00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:21.079 perhaps countless living atoms resonates loosely with later developments like 459 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:24.799 the infinite universes of multiverse theory, or the concept that 460 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:30.039 matter and energy are quantized. However, Bruno did not develop 461 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:34.960 quantitative laws or experiments, and his knowledge of mathematics was limited. 462 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:38.880 In fact, Bruno discharged the idea that nature could be 463 00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:43.279 explained by mere mathematics, a distinctly anti Copernican stance on 464 00:33:43.359 --> 00:33:48.559 that point. For Bruno, geometry is for the physical, but 465 00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:52.240 the physical is sustained by the divine, meaning he never 466 00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:55.920 fully embraced the mathematical physics that became the hallmark of 467 00:33:56.039 --> 00:33:57.119 scientific revolution. 468 00:33:58.160 --> 00:33:58.880 This is why some. 469 00:33:59.039 --> 00:34:03.720 Historians like Bertrand and Russell have been harsh, saying Bruno 470 00:34:03.799 --> 00:34:07.839 had fruitful intuitions lost in a disorder and was not 471 00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:12.000 a scientist per se. It is crucial to clarify a 472 00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:16.960 popular misconception Bruno was executed primarily for his religious and 473 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:22.719 philosophical heresies, not specifically for his cosmological views. In modern times, 474 00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:26.320 Bruno is often held as a martyr for science, implicitly 475 00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:30.480 comparable to Galileo. However, as the Vatican has since stressed, 476 00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:35.039 and as most historians agree, Bruno's trial focused on theological doctrines, 477 00:34:35.159 --> 00:34:38.920 the Trinity, the nature of God, and on magic and metaphysics, 478 00:34:39.400 --> 00:34:43.800 rather than on his belief that Earth moves. Heliocentrism was 479 00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:47.400 not yet an official heresy in sixteen hundred, the Church 480 00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:51.119 would condemn it only in sixteen sixteen. During Galileo's time, 481 00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:56.119 the inquisitors did reprimand Bruno for his plurality of world's 482 00:34:56.280 --> 00:35:02.000 cosmology and infinite universe idea, among his errors, but had 483 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:04.880 that been Bruno's only deviation, he might have gotten off with. 484 00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:08.000 A slap on the wrist. It was Bruno's. 485 00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:11.519 Pantheism, his denial of core Catholic dogmas, and his refusals 486 00:35:11.559 --> 00:35:16.400 to recant that ultimately led to his execution. As the 487 00:35:16.440 --> 00:35:20.639 Mactudor History of Mathematics Biography notes, it is now generally 488 00:35:20.679 --> 00:35:23.400 recorded that Bruno was burned at the stake for his 489 00:35:23.480 --> 00:35:27.559 belief that the universe is infinite, But as we have seen, 490 00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:32.480 the whole affair was considerably more complicated than that. Bruno himself, 491 00:35:33.079 --> 00:35:37.519 by defending his philosophical positions as compatible with Christianity when 492 00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:41.199 the Church insisted otherwise, almost seems to have challenged the 493 00:35:41.199 --> 00:35:46.599 Inquisition to try him. He was unwilling to capitulate. So 494 00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:50.480 while Bruno's cosmology was visionary, his death was the result 495 00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:54.159 of a collision with Church authority on many fronts. In 496 00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:58.679 Bruno's mind, these fronts were all related. His infinite universe 497 00:35:58.760 --> 00:36:01.559 was part of an integrated heresy about God and nature, 498 00:36:02.039 --> 00:36:05.639 but the Inquisition was most threatened by the theological implications 499 00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:11.760 of his ideas. In retrospect, Bruno's cosmic ideas exerted a 500 00:36:11.800 --> 00:36:15.400 great influence on literature and philosophy, if not directly on 501 00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:20.239 the progression of science in the seventeenth century, Philosophers like 502 00:36:20.280 --> 00:36:25.079 Spinosa and Leibniz, who formulated monads were arguably influenced by 503 00:36:25.079 --> 00:36:29.239 Bruno's bold blending of the infinite and the one. Poets 504 00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:32.559 and writers found inspiration in Bruno's vision of an endless universe. 505 00:36:33.800 --> 00:36:38.320 For example, on sixteen eleven, Shakespeare's contemporary John Don wrote, 506 00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:42.079 the New Philosophy calls all in doubt the element of 507 00:36:42.119 --> 00:36:45.719 fire is quite put out, it's all in pieces, all 508 00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:51.480 coherence gone, reflecting the unsettling impact of new cosmologies. Don 509 00:36:51.559 --> 00:36:55.280 may have been alluding to Bruno's shattering of the crystalline spheres. 510 00:36:56.800 --> 00:37:02.119 Much later, nineteenth century science popularizes and securarists idolized Bruno 511 00:37:02.159 --> 00:37:07.320 as a prophet of modern astronomy. His universe was infinite, 512 00:37:07.559 --> 00:37:11.840 proclaimed an article in nineteen forty lauding Bruno's anticipation of 513 00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:18.239 cosmic pluralism. In the nineteen seventies TV series Cosmos, Karlsagan 514 00:37:18.360 --> 00:37:21.880 famously dramatized Bruno's vision of the vast universe as a 515 00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:27.639 heroic flash of insight. In twenty fourteen, the updated Cosmo 516 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:31.400 series again featured Bruno, portraying him as a lonely visionary 517 00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:34.679 of an infinite cosmos who was burned by an ignorant church. 518 00:37:36.119 --> 00:37:40.599 This portrayal drew some criticism from historians for oversimplification, but 519 00:37:40.679 --> 00:37:45.280 it shows how strongly Bruno's cosmic legacy endures. Even modern 520 00:37:45.320 --> 00:37:50.440 scientific institutions have paid tribute to Bruno. The SETI Search 521 00:37:50.480 --> 00:37:55.000 for Extraterrestrial Intelligence LEE gives out a yearly Geodono Bruno 522 00:37:55.079 --> 00:37:59.400 Memorial Award to individuals contributing to the search for alien life, 523 00:38:00.039 --> 00:38:04.239 a nod to Bruno's championing of innumerable earths inhabited by 524 00:38:04.280 --> 00:38:09.719 living beings, and fittingly, a twenty two kilometer wide crater 525 00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:13.639 on the Moon's far sight is named Geodano Bruno, as 526 00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:19.320 are at least two asteroids Bruno's ideas, once condemned, now 527 00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:27.280 ride through space. Geodanno Bruno's legacy is multifaceted, spanning philosophy, science, literature, 528 00:38:27.320 --> 00:38:31.000 and even pop culture. Over the centuries since his death, 529 00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:36.119 he has been cast in various lights, heretic, martyr, visionary, madman. 530 00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:41.039 As one modern historian observed, history has not yet registered 531 00:38:41.039 --> 00:38:45.159 a stable appraisal for Geodano Bruno. Perceptions of Bruno were 532 00:38:45.239 --> 00:38:49.000 volatile enough in his lifetime many have remained polarized to 533 00:38:49.039 --> 00:38:53.320 this day. In the seventeenth century, Barokes Spinoza developed a 534 00:38:53.360 --> 00:38:56.559 pantheistic philosophy where God is the substance of the universe, 535 00:38:57.039 --> 00:39:00.000 a concept very much like Bruno's notion of an infinite 536 00:39:00.199 --> 00:39:03.639 God imminent in nature. It's known that Spinoza read earlier 537 00:39:03.719 --> 00:39:08.480 heterodotx thinkers. The similarity in their outlook is striking. Godfreed 538 00:39:08.519 --> 00:39:11.599 Wilhelm Leibniz too, may have been aware of Bruno's writings. 539 00:39:12.480 --> 00:39:16.280 Leibniz's theories of monads so like fundamental units of reality, 540 00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:21.519 is somewhat reminiscent of Bruno's metaphysical atoms or monads. Leibnez 541 00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:27.079 mentions Bruno in some correspondences, though critically. The German Idealis 542 00:39:27.159 --> 00:39:30.679 Shelling wrote an entire dialogue titled Bruno or on their 543 00:39:30.760 --> 00:39:33.920 Natural and Divine Principle of Things in eighteen oh two, 544 00:39:33.960 --> 00:39:38.440 inspired by Bruno's life and ideas. In the nineteenth century, 545 00:39:38.519 --> 00:39:42.400 as the Romantic movement glorified rebels and visionaries, Bruno became 546 00:39:42.440 --> 00:39:46.960 a hero of free thought. In Italy's Unification movement idolized 547 00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:49.559 Bruno as a martyr who died for truth against tyranny. 548 00:39:50.519 --> 00:39:55.880 For instance, the Italian nationalist philosopher Giuseppe Mazzini often cited 549 00:39:55.880 --> 00:40:00.559 Bruno as a guiding spirit of intellectual liberty. Bruno martyrdom 550 00:40:00.599 --> 00:40:05.440 resonated strongly with those seeking to challenge authoritarianism. The Catholic 551 00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:09.239 Church's reputation in the nineteenth century suffered in part because 552 00:40:09.239 --> 00:40:12.639 of high profile cases like Bruno's. He was held up 553 00:40:12.719 --> 00:40:17.159 as an example of the Church's persecution of science and thought. 554 00:40:18.400 --> 00:40:21.480 In eighteen eighty nine, when anti clerical and liberal intellectuals 555 00:40:21.519 --> 00:40:23.880 erected a monument to Bruno and Rome, it was an 556 00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:28.800 international cause. Delegations from across Europe attended the unveiling, and 557 00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:33.119 speeches praised Bruno as a symbol of rational enlightenment triumphanting 558 00:40:33.199 --> 00:40:38.360 over medieval obscurantism. This image of Bruno as a martyr 559 00:40:38.440 --> 00:40:42.400 of science and liberty persists in many popular accounts. The 560 00:40:42.440 --> 00:40:46.239 Catholic Church, on the other hand, has maintained a nuanced position. 561 00:40:47.199 --> 00:40:50.639 In nineteen forty two, the Vatican allowed a historian, Giovanni 562 00:40:50.719 --> 00:40:54.760 Murccatti to publish some of Bruno's trial documents, acknowledging the 563 00:40:54.800 --> 00:40:59.159 harshness of the execution but reaffirming that Bruno's theological errors 564 00:40:59.239 --> 00:41:04.599 were real. During the Millennial Jubilee year two thousand, Pope 565 00:41:04.679 --> 00:41:09.239 John Paul the Second and Cardinal Angelo Sodona expressed profound 566 00:41:09.400 --> 00:41:15.719 sorrow for the harm done by the Inquisition, including Bruno's burning. However, 567 00:41:15.760 --> 00:41:20.639 the Vaticans stopped short of rehabilitating Bruno's doctrines. Cardinal Sedano 568 00:41:20.760 --> 00:41:25.119 explicitly stated in two thousand that Bruno's idea were incompatible 569 00:41:25.519 --> 00:41:30.000 with Christian belief. Effectively, the Church regretted the use of violence, 570 00:41:30.039 --> 00:41:34.639 but did not retract Bruno's label as a heretic. Thus, 571 00:41:34.679 --> 00:41:39.840 Bruno remains a somewhat unresolved figure in Catholic memory. Unlike Gallileo, 572 00:41:40.079 --> 00:41:44.559 who has formally acknowledged as correct in his astronomy, Bruno's 573 00:41:44.559 --> 00:41:50.440 execution is often cited as a cautionary tale about religious intolerance. Today, 574 00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:53.599 he is regarded as an early advocate for intellectual freedom, 575 00:41:53.960 --> 00:41:58.199 a patron saint of free inquiry. Each year on February 576 00:41:58.280 --> 00:42:02.480 seventeenth in Rome, through organizations and citizens gather at Campo 577 00:42:02.559 --> 00:42:06.159 di Fiori under Bruno's monument to commemorate him and affirm 578 00:42:06.199 --> 00:42:10.280 the principle of freedom of expression. Bruno has also had 579 00:42:10.320 --> 00:42:14.480 an impact on modern alternative spiritualities. His blend of hermetic 580 00:42:14.559 --> 00:42:18.119 mysticism and cosmic vision inspired members of the nineteenth century 581 00:42:18.159 --> 00:42:21.679 Theosophical Society and other occult or New Age thinkers. 582 00:42:22.800 --> 00:42:23.159 To them. 583 00:42:23.239 --> 00:42:27.840 Bruno was a martyr of the ancient wisdom tradition. Madame Bolovotski, 584 00:42:27.960 --> 00:42:30.840 founder of Theosophy, mentioned Bruno as one of those who 585 00:42:30.920 --> 00:42:35.519 kept the flame of esoteric truth burning. Bruno's writing on 586 00:42:35.559 --> 00:42:38.800 Magic and the Soul influenced twentieth century scholars of Western 587 00:42:38.960 --> 00:42:43.000 esotericism like Francis Yates, whose book Geodano Bruno and the 588 00:42:43.039 --> 00:42:46.760 Hermetic Tradition from nineteen sixty four cassed Bruno as a 589 00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:50.440 central figure, linking Renaissance magic and the birth of modern 590 00:42:50.519 --> 00:42:56.000 science and Yeates's controversial thesis it was Bruno's hermetic imagination, 591 00:42:56.920 --> 00:43:00.079 his willingness to break the confines of classical thought, that 592 00:43:00.119 --> 00:43:05.199 helped open the way for scientific revolution. Why not all 593 00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:09.760 historians agree with Yates's emphasis, Her work certainly elevated Bruno's 594 00:43:09.760 --> 00:43:13.559 status in intellectual history and promoted deeper study of Renaissance 595 00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:18.639 and Coult philosophy. Today, Bruno is often referenced in discussions 596 00:43:18.639 --> 00:43:23.119 of pantheism and cosmic consciousness. For instance, some neo pagan 597 00:43:23.159 --> 00:43:26.119 and pantheist groups honor Bruno as a saint who saw 598 00:43:26.159 --> 00:43:30.800 God in nature. The term cosmic religion, used by thinkers 599 00:43:30.800 --> 00:43:33.760 like Einstein to describe as spirituality rooted in the wonder 600 00:43:33.760 --> 00:43:37.159 of the universe, could well include Bruno as a predecessor. 601 00:43:38.679 --> 00:43:42.599 Bruno's famous line that God is not in one part 602 00:43:42.760 --> 00:43:46.400 of the universe more than in another was a radical 603 00:43:46.760 --> 00:43:51.679 reimagining of the divine, and it echoes today in spiritual naturalism. 604 00:43:53.280 --> 00:43:56.840 Bruno's dramatic life and bold ideas have captivated many artists 605 00:43:56.920 --> 00:44:02.159 and writers. The nineteenth century poets were especially drawn to him. 606 00:44:02.280 --> 00:44:06.119 We have Algernon Charles Swinburne, the English poet who wrote 607 00:44:06.119 --> 00:44:10.079 a fiery poem The Monument of Giodano Bruno in eighteen 608 00:44:10.079 --> 00:44:13.599 eighty nine, on the occasion of Bruno's statue being erected 609 00:44:14.719 --> 00:44:17.639 in it. Swineburn hails Bruno as a hero of thought 610 00:44:17.760 --> 00:44:22.840 who foresaw a new age of reason. Another poet, Cheslau 611 00:44:22.920 --> 00:44:26.760 Maloes of Poland, wrote the poem Campo di Fiori in 612 00:44:26.840 --> 00:44:30.440 nineteen forty three during World War II, drawing a parallel 613 00:44:30.440 --> 00:44:33.559 between the indifference of people at Bruno's execution and the 614 00:44:33.639 --> 00:44:37.039 indifference of Warsaw citizens to the burning of the Jewish ghetto. 615 00:44:38.760 --> 00:44:42.039 Melos imagines how on that day in sixteen hundred, as 616 00:44:42.039 --> 00:44:45.400 Bruno burned, the market square was full of ordinary life, 617 00:44:45.639 --> 00:44:50.039 flower sellers, fruit vendors, oblivious to the tragedy, much as 618 00:44:50.079 --> 00:44:53.519 people in nineteen forty three Warsaw went about their lives 619 00:44:53.559 --> 00:44:58.079 while atrocities occurred. Bruno thus became a symbol in poetry 620 00:44:58.079 --> 00:45:02.000 for the loneliness of the victim and the callousness of society. 621 00:45:03.320 --> 00:45:06.239 James Joyce, one of the giants of twentieth century literature, 622 00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:10.239 was fascinated by Bruno's idea, particularly Bruno's concept of the 623 00:45:10.280 --> 00:45:16.559 coincidence of opposites. Bruno believed that opposites ultimately converge, very 624 00:45:16.599 --> 00:45:22.719 dialectical mystical notion. Joyce, in Finnigan's Wake in nineteen thirty nine, 625 00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:28.119 makes many allusions to Bruno, often in punting form. He 626 00:45:28.159 --> 00:45:32.079 even names a pair of characters, Brown and Nolan, slyly 627 00:45:32.159 --> 00:45:36.039 referencing Bruno the Nolan from Nola and playing on Brown 628 00:45:36.199 --> 00:45:41.559 and Nolan as a distortion of Bruno's name. In a letter, 629 00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:46.039 Joyce wrote, his philosophy is kind of a dualism. Every 630 00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:48.920 power in nature must evolve an opposite in order to 631 00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:55.639 realize itself, and opposition brings reunion. This Brunan and Hegelian 632 00:45:55.719 --> 00:45:59.800 idea underpins a lot of Joyce's complex wordplay in Finnigan's Wake. 633 00:46:01.199 --> 00:46:04.679 Joyce arguably saw himself and his work reflected in Bruno's 634 00:46:04.679 --> 00:46:08.920 incessant words splitting and joining. So Bruno has a discreet 635 00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:12.119 but significant presence in one of the most challenging novels 636 00:46:12.159 --> 00:46:18.119 of modernist literature. In the realm of fiction, Bruno has 637 00:46:18.159 --> 00:46:21.800 outright been a character. A notable example is the series 638 00:46:21.800 --> 00:46:26.280 of historical mystery novels by S. J. Parris, pseudonym of 639 00:46:26.360 --> 00:46:31.960 Stephanie Merrit, beginning with Heresy from twenty ten, which imagines 640 00:46:32.039 --> 00:46:36.000 Geodano Bruno as a sleuth solving murders in Elizabethan, England 641 00:46:36.280 --> 00:46:41.199 while on the run from the Inquisition. These books, blending 642 00:46:41.239 --> 00:46:45.559 fact and fiction, introduced Bruno to a wide popular audience 643 00:46:45.599 --> 00:46:49.440 as a sort of Renaissance detective, complete with his Nolan 644 00:46:49.480 --> 00:46:55.239 wit and learned tricks. Earlier, in nineteen seventy three, an 645 00:46:55.280 --> 00:47:00.320 Italian French film, Giodano Bruno was released, directed by Juliantiano 646 00:47:00.519 --> 00:47:05.679 Montaldo and starring giann Maria Valante as Bruno. The film 647 00:47:05.719 --> 00:47:10.599 portrays Bruno's wanderings and trials with considerable historical accuracy and 648 00:47:10.639 --> 00:47:15.639 his sympathetic lens. It emphasizes Bruno's defiance and shows scenes 649 00:47:15.639 --> 00:47:19.599 of him debating in venice and suffering in prison, culminating 650 00:47:19.639 --> 00:47:24.480 in a haunting execution scene. The film helped to humanize 651 00:47:24.519 --> 00:47:31.719 Bruno and won critical acclaim for Valente's passionate performance. In music, 652 00:47:32.079 --> 00:47:36.480 Bruno's words and story have also found expression. In eighteen 653 00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:41.480 seventy eight, the French composer Camille sant Sans composed and 654 00:47:41.599 --> 00:47:45.880 Oratio Laid Deluge, in which a section was reportedly inspired 655 00:47:45.880 --> 00:47:51.360 by Bruno's vision of the infinite universe. The German composer 656 00:47:51.760 --> 00:47:55.159 Hans Werna Hens, in nineteen sixty eight wrote a large 657 00:47:55.239 --> 00:47:59.480 choral piece New Praises of the Infinite, using Bruno's text 658 00:47:59.559 --> 00:48:04.480 as Lebeo. This piece, premiered in nineteen seventy is a 659 00:48:04.519 --> 00:48:07.679 cantata for chorus, orchestra and soloist that sets some of 660 00:48:07.719 --> 00:48:12.199 Bruno's Italian poems to music, praising the infinite universe in 661 00:48:12.239 --> 00:48:16.679 the divine found in nature. In the world of opera, 662 00:48:17.199 --> 00:48:22.760 contemporary composer Francesco Philadei premiered and Opera Giordano Bruno in 663 00:48:22.800 --> 00:48:28.920 twenty fifteen in Porto, Portugal. This opera dramatizes Bruno's trial, 664 00:48:29.519 --> 00:48:33.320 incorporating his actual words from trial records and writings, and 665 00:48:33.400 --> 00:48:37.519 reflecting on themes of free thought, effectively turning Bruno's life 666 00:48:37.519 --> 00:48:43.639 into a modern musical tragedy. Even popular music has a 667 00:48:43.679 --> 00:48:47.000 Bruno connection, and this from even one of my favorite 668 00:48:47.039 --> 00:48:50.679 songs one of my favorite bands. In twenty sixteen, the 669 00:48:50.719 --> 00:48:54.440 American rock band Avenged Sevenfold released a song called Roman 670 00:48:54.480 --> 00:48:59.239 Sky about Bruno's execution. The music video shows imagery of 671 00:48:59.280 --> 00:49:02.840 Bruno and clue Wud voiceovers about his life, presenting him 672 00:49:02.840 --> 00:49:06.840 as a martyr who looked at the stars. In heavy 673 00:49:06.840 --> 00:49:12.199 metal and progressive rock circles, Bruno's name occasionally appears. For instance, 674 00:49:12.280 --> 00:49:16.360 there's an Italian progressive rock band named Ilbaccio della Medusa 675 00:49:16.440 --> 00:49:20.679 with an album referencing Bruno. This shows how Bruno's narrative 676 00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:23.320 the man who saw the truth in the stars and 677 00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:28.880 was killed for it, has permeated various cultural niches. Bruno's 678 00:49:28.880 --> 00:49:32.639 confrontational style at Oxford meant he didn't win converts among 679 00:49:32.719 --> 00:49:37.960 English academics. However, Bruno's presence in England did leave some ripples. 680 00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:42.239 Bruno's dedication of two books to Philip Sidney suggests Sidney 681 00:49:42.280 --> 00:49:45.440 and his circle absorbed some of Bruno's ideas on ethics 682 00:49:45.480 --> 00:49:49.440 and the art of memory. Sidney's own writings on poetry 683 00:49:49.440 --> 00:49:53.440 and virtue, while not obviously Brunan, were about ennobling the 684 00:49:53.480 --> 00:49:59.360 soul a concept Bruno Champion. It's been speculated by some 685 00:49:59.400 --> 00:50:03.400 literary sk scholar that Bruno's visit might have indirectly influenced 686 00:50:03.440 --> 00:50:08.119 William Shakespeare. This is highly speculative, but some have noted 687 00:50:08.119 --> 00:50:12.239 that Shakespeare's late play The Tempest in sixteen eleven has 688 00:50:12.280 --> 00:50:16.679 an infinite magical cosmology and a character named Prospero, who, 689 00:50:16.800 --> 00:50:20.119 like Bruno, has a book of magic and is exiled 690 00:50:20.119 --> 00:50:25.159 by the Inquisition. Prospero is a magician duke based from Milan, 691 00:50:25.679 --> 00:50:29.159 which some read as an allegory partly referencing figures like 692 00:50:29.199 --> 00:50:30.000 Bruno or d. 693 00:50:32.199 --> 00:50:32.639 Francis. 694 00:50:32.719 --> 00:50:36.119 Yates argued that Bruno's visit influenced the development of the 695 00:50:36.159 --> 00:50:40.079 School of Knight, a shadowy group of English intellectuals like 696 00:50:40.159 --> 00:50:45.840 Sir Walter Raleigh, the mathematician Thomas Harriot, and perhaps Christopher Marlowe, 697 00:50:46.159 --> 00:50:51.039 who are interested in a cult philosophy and Copernican theory. Harriet, 698 00:50:51.119 --> 00:50:54.360 for instance, became one of the first telescopic astronomers in 699 00:50:54.440 --> 00:50:58.559 England and an advocate for Copernicus, and he actually observed 700 00:50:58.599 --> 00:51:01.440 the Moon with a telescope around the same time as Galileo. 701 00:51:02.920 --> 00:51:06.239 We have no evidence Bruno met Harriet, but its possible 702 00:51:06.280 --> 00:51:10.000 Bruno's Copernican zeal inspired those in Raleighs circle to take 703 00:51:10.079 --> 00:51:15.119 up the new astronomy. Some historians, however, cautioned that the 704 00:51:15.159 --> 00:51:17.880 School of Knight as a formal group is more legend 705 00:51:17.960 --> 00:51:24.639 than fact. Nonetheless, Bruno's English sojourn did plant seeds. It 706 00:51:24.679 --> 00:51:28.000 put advanced ideas into circulation, and proved that even in 707 00:51:28.039 --> 00:51:31.719 a Protestant land his radical brand of thinking was controversial. 708 00:51:32.599 --> 00:51:36.960 Remember that George Abbott, who lampooned Bruno's Copernicism, later played 709 00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:40.000 a role in the trial of Galileo. The chain of 710 00:51:40.039 --> 00:51:45.159 influence is indirect, but noteworthy. In modern times, Bruno's connection 711 00:51:45.239 --> 00:51:48.199 to England has been commemorated through fiction and through English 712 00:51:48.280 --> 00:51:51.480 translations of his works, which became available starting in the 713 00:51:51.559 --> 00:51:57.599 nineteenth century. The poet Percy by Shelley, an English Romantic, 714 00:51:58.039 --> 00:52:01.760 mentioned Bruno in his essay The Defense of Poetry as 715 00:52:01.760 --> 00:52:06.440 someone who paid the price for his genius. Shelley, a 716 00:52:06.480 --> 00:52:11.679 critic of religion, admired Bruno's defiance. Thus Bruno became part 717 00:52:11.719 --> 00:52:16.400 of the English Romantic imagination of the tragic persecuted genius. 718 00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:19.320 Bruno is often regarded by scholars as one of the 719 00:52:19.360 --> 00:52:23.639 last and boldest figures of the Italian Renaissance. He carried 720 00:52:23.639 --> 00:52:28.559 Renaissance platonism and hermeticism to their extreme logical conclusions and 721 00:52:28.679 --> 00:52:33.199 infantite cosmos an exalted role for human reasons, the unity 722 00:52:33.199 --> 00:52:37.199 of art and science, the breakdown of old authorities. In 723 00:52:37.280 --> 00:52:40.920 doing so, he also helped usher in the Early Modern age. 724 00:52:42.039 --> 00:52:42.920 Some call him an. 725 00:52:42.800 --> 00:52:46.360 Early modern for his cosmology and his assistance on following 726 00:52:46.400 --> 00:52:50.920 reason over doctrine. Others call him an ultra renaissance Man 727 00:52:50.960 --> 00:52:55.760 for his syncretic blending of disciplines. Bruno didn't invent a 728 00:52:55.800 --> 00:52:58.920 machine or a physical theory that directly led to an invention. 729 00:52:59.599 --> 00:53:01.920 What he did it did invent, in a sense, was 730 00:53:01.960 --> 00:53:05.519 a new way of thinking about the world, the universe 731 00:53:05.599 --> 00:53:10.559 as a liberated, infinite expanse governed by infinite divine laws, 732 00:53:10.880 --> 00:53:15.000 with an equivalently liberated human mind capable of grasping it. 733 00:53:16.719 --> 00:53:20.239 This expansive vision influenced how later people conceive the human 734 00:53:20.280 --> 00:53:26.880 place in the cosmos, arguably an invention of the modern mindset. 735 00:53:26.960 --> 00:53:30.400 Bruno's figurative fingerprints can be found in works of later 736 00:53:30.480 --> 00:53:35.840 inventors of ideas. For instance, Galileo knew of Bruno's fate 737 00:53:35.920 --> 00:53:40.239 and was cautious in how he presented Copernicism, but Galileo's 738 00:53:40.239 --> 00:53:44.239 writings occasionally echo Bruno's in seeing sunspots or mirrored stars 739 00:53:44.280 --> 00:53:50.760 as evidence against celestial perfection. Did Bruno influence Galileo directly 740 00:53:51.320 --> 00:53:54.960 unlikely in terms of content. Galileo did not need Bruno 741 00:53:55.039 --> 00:53:59.119 to adopt helio Centrism, but Bruno's martyrdom was a warning 742 00:53:59.159 --> 00:54:04.360 that Galileo until sixteen thirty three, when he even fell victim. 743 00:54:05.280 --> 00:54:09.840 In that respect, Bruno indirectly affected how scientific ideas were debated, 744 00:54:10.760 --> 00:54:16.840 the lesson being avoid theological entanglements or Bruno's end awaits 745 00:54:17.800 --> 00:54:22.000 in the Grand Scheme. Geodanno Bruno's life and work form 746 00:54:22.039 --> 00:54:24.960 a bridge between the Renaissance world of magic and the 747 00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:28.440 modern world of science. He was not fully of either, 748 00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:33.599 yet he partook of both. Today, the Geodanno Bruno Foundation 749 00:54:33.679 --> 00:54:37.880 in Germany carries his name as it advocates evolutionary humanism, 750 00:54:38.400 --> 00:54:44.119 a worldview combining scientific understanding with humanist ethics. This foundation, 751 00:54:44.840 --> 00:54:48.800 founded in two thousand and four, is explicitly anti dogmatic 752 00:54:49.039 --> 00:54:52.360 and uses Bruno's legacy as a rallying symbol for free 753 00:54:52.400 --> 00:54:58.039 thought and secularism. It funds projects and publications critiquing religious 754 00:54:58.039 --> 00:55:02.920 fundamentalism and promoting a scientific outlook on the world. If 755 00:55:02.920 --> 00:55:05.559 a sixteenth century monk could become the namesake of a 756 00:55:05.599 --> 00:55:10.679 twenty first century secular humanist organization, that testifies to the enduring. 757 00:55:10.320 --> 00:55:13.119 Power of Bruno's story. 758 00:55:14.039 --> 00:55:17.199 For centuries after his death, Geodano Bruno's ideas and fate 759 00:55:17.280 --> 00:55:21.239 still spark reflection and debate. He stands as a warning 760 00:55:21.320 --> 00:55:24.960 of the perils of suppressing ideas and as an inspiration 761 00:55:25.039 --> 00:55:29.119 to those who champion intellectual freedom. The bronze statue of 762 00:55:29.119 --> 00:55:32.400 Bruno and Rome's Campbeau di Fiori, erected in eighteen eighty nine, 763 00:55:32.760 --> 00:55:37.480 bears an inscription in Italian that reads, to Bruno the 764 00:55:37.480 --> 00:55:43.000 century predicted by him, hear where the fire burned. Those 765 00:55:43.039 --> 00:55:46.679 words capture how nineteenth century admirers saw him a man 766 00:55:46.719 --> 00:55:52.480 who foresaw the future. Indeed, Bruno foretold a coming error 767 00:55:52.519 --> 00:55:55.920 in which the infinite universe he imagined is largely accepted 768 00:55:55.960 --> 00:55:58.679 as reality, and the freedom to think he died for 769 00:55:58.719 --> 00:56:04.039 it is a core value. Giodao Bruno the Nolan, spent 770 00:56:04.119 --> 00:56:06.840 his life pursuing truth as he saw it, with the 771 00:56:06.880 --> 00:56:11.840 infinite universe as his guide. His lectures and debates took 772 00:56:11.880 --> 00:56:16.079 him across Europe. His wandering spread radical seeds in many soils. 773 00:56:17.760 --> 00:56:22.320 While he neither built telescopes nor formulated physics, Bruno ignited 774 00:56:22.360 --> 00:56:24.760 minds with the idea that the cosmos was boundless and 775 00:56:24.800 --> 00:56:29.280 that no authority should curtail the search for knowledge. That 776 00:56:29.400 --> 00:56:33.159 flame lit by Bruno's writings and by the example of 777 00:56:33.199 --> 00:56:37.360 his death, has never been extinguished. It continues to burn 778 00:56:37.440 --> 00:56:40.800 in our collective cultural memory as a symbol of courageous 779 00:56:40.840 --> 00:56:45.679 inquiry in the face of oppression. Bruno's universe was not 780 00:56:45.840 --> 00:56:50.519 mathematical like Galileo's or mechanical like Newton's. It was alive, 781 00:56:50.840 --> 00:56:54.920 soaked in divinity. He saw the stars not as cold 782 00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:00.519 fixed points, but as radiant souls whispering their secrets. He 783 00:57:00.559 --> 00:57:03.360 saw the magician not as a charlatan, but as the 784 00:57:03.360 --> 00:57:06.840 one who remembers the original language of the cosmos, the 785 00:57:06.960 --> 00:57:13.760 words before words. In Bruno's cosmos, to think was to invoke, 786 00:57:14.320 --> 00:57:17.360 to imagine was to create, and to love the infinite 787 00:57:17.559 --> 00:57:22.480 was the highest form of madness. We walk now in 788 00:57:22.519 --> 00:57:26.920 the future. He foretold with the stars accountless, the planet's 789 00:57:26.960 --> 00:57:31.559 many in the center no longer hours, but even in 790 00:57:31.639 --> 00:57:36.079 our age of dark matter and data, his voice still speaks. 791 00:57:36.800 --> 00:57:40.239 It challenges us to remember what's been forgotten, That the 792 00:57:40.280 --> 00:57:44.079 pursuit of truth is holy, that the universe is stranger 793 00:57:44.119 --> 00:57:47.199 than doctrine, and that fire cannot kill a soul in 794 00:57:47.280 --> 00:57:51.760 love with the infinite. So did the memory of Geodano Bruno, 795 00:57:52.480 --> 00:57:58.480 Dominican defector, cosmic visionary, heretic, and martyr. We dedicate this 796 00:57:58.559 --> 00:58:02.440 episode to canonize him, but to summon him back to 797 00:58:02.480 --> 00:58:05.960 the circle, because in the echo of the flames beneath 798 00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:09.440 the dome of endless Stars, we find him still speaking, 799 00:58:10.119 --> 00:58:11.239 and we're still listening.