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Giordano Bruno's Vision of the Universe
History of the Theory of the Infinite Universe "...the universe is of infinite size and the worlds therein without number.... the worlds contained therein such as earths, fires and other species of body named stars are infinite in number, and all move by the internal principle which is their own soul... it is vain to persist in seeking an extrinsic cause of their motion."The way in which modern science understands the universe today was first hypothesized by a heretical monk, named Giordano Bruno, in the year 1584. Bruno suggested that the heavenly bodies of stars and planets were not moved by an "ether" or an invisible liquid, which all established universities had been teaching at that time based on the philosophy of Aristotle from two thousand years earlier. He believed that it was from themselves that they had generated their motion, making this suggestion a century before Newton's proposition of gravity. Having read the books of Copernicus, he learned that the earth rotates around the Sun, a position made dangerous by the Catholic Church at that time. But more than that, he believed that the other stars were suns, that they had their own planets, that these planets may have life of their own, and that the number of such stars and planetary systems was infinite. It is the framework that we today have in our understanding of the Universe. And on February 17th, 1600, Giordano Bruno was burned alive by the Catholic Church for it. Citing an article from the Washington Post in 2008... In particular, Bruno was among the first to write about the universe as infinite in both time and space. He also was entirely comfortable with the idea that the universe contains many worlds and that some of the others might well be inhabited. [*2]Sometime around 500 BCE, Democritus suggested that "the universe is composed of two elements: the atoms and the void in which they exist and move." [*3] Around the year 450 BCE, Anaxagoras was the first to say "that the Sun and stars were fiery stones," suggesting that the distant stars were themselves other Suns. He was imprisoned for offending the religious feelings among the Pagan authorities. [*4] At around the same time as Anaxagoras, Archytas makes the most well-known argument on behalf of an infinite universe, "If I arrived at the outermost edge of the heaven, could I extend my hand into what is outside or not? It would be paradoxical not to be able to extend it." [*5] By the late 300's BCE, Eudemus of Rhodes, a follower of Aristotle, suggested that "time is infinite in the past, but finite at the present, and that there could be more than one infinite thing existing together," although he often conceded to the authority of Aristotle that the infinite was impossible. [*6] By 200 BCE, Epicurus, a follower of the ideas of Democritus, went further and stated that, "...the sum of things is infinite. For what is finite has an extremity, and the extremity of anything is discerned only by comparison with something else. Moreover, there is an infinite number of worlds, some like this world, others unlike it." [*7] While the Epicureans believed the Earth to rotate around a "central fire," with the rest of the world believing that the Earth was the center of the Universe, a contemporary, Aristarchus of Samos, first proposed the Heliocentric Theory, suggesting that the Earth moves around the Sun. He did much more than this, though, stating that stars are "nothing more than distant suns," even if he didn't postulate further about worlds rotating around those suns. [*8] And for Epicurus, there was no understanding of worlds in terms of planets and stars, the understanding was only in the philosophical term of "world" meaning an environment. By 50 BCE, the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius would advocate for a similar idea, "There is therefore a limitless abyss of space, such that even the dazzling flashes of the lightning cannot traverse in their course, racing through an interminable tract of time, nor can they even shorten the distance still to be covered." [*9] In this sense we can see that the ancient Greeks were incredibly creative thinkers when it came to the universe, and the Romans were rather honest imitators of the art. But the bane of these thinkers is well-known: they achieved their insights by logic and argument, not by evidence or experiment. They might be remembered by modern scientific thinkers in a warm-hearted sense of history, but they'll hardly be seriously considered when trying to understand the nature of the universal cosmos today. To summarize this ancient past, one author with a physics background describes these people as "...the sources for the impossibility of placing an ultimate limit to the Universe." [*10] Around 1450, Nicholas of Cusa, a German theologian and philosopher of the Renaissance, revived the idea of an infinite universe, but he could not bring himself to call it infinite, because he reserved this word for god. Moreover, he did not believe in planetary motion, he did not believe in infinite planets, and he believed that the Earth was a star. [*11] A few years later, Nicolaus Copernicus revived the idea of a Sun-centered solar system, [*12] although he "refrained from deciding upon an infinite Universe." [*13] Sometime in the 1530's, a poet named Palingenius had written Zodiacus Vitae, a collection of philosophical thoughts, in which he suggests that the universe is infinite and that the number of stars is endless, although he places the Earth at the center of this. [*14] After his death, the Catholic Church declared him a heretic and "the author's bones were posthumously exhumed and burned." [*15] In the late 1500's, Thomas Digges suggested that there are an infinite number of stars and that the space of the universe is infinite, [*16] although he believed that the Earth was a "dark star," [*17] he didn't believe that stars were other suns, and he believed that outer space was "the theological space, which is occupied by the angels and God." [*18] And then, at around the same time, Giordano Bruno came forth and put forward this theory: the planets in the solar system rotate around the sun, the universe is infinite, there are infinitely many stars, the stars are other suns, and there are other planets rotating around those suns who follow the same laws of physics as the planetary system of the Sun. It was a revolutionary, bold, new theory. By no means is it anything significant in terms of the modern understanding of astrophysics and the universe. But it was an amazing, new first -- it combined ancient ideas and legends and turned them into one all-encompassing, universal theory that matched the most modern theoretical demonstrations of modern astronomers like Copernicus. While he lacked much proof, his idea turned out to be correct.
"Who so itcheth to Philosophy must set to work by putting all things to the doubt."Stars. Bruno recognized that the Sun is a star and that other stars are their own Suns in his 1584 work, On the Infinite Universe and Worlds: "...those countless bodies such as our earth and other earths, our sun and other suns..." [*20] While his era had called those bright lights in the sky "fixed stars," he declared otherwise correctly, "...every star hath motion even as hath our own..." [*21] He also made some suggestions about what causes this motion, suggesting that it is mass, giving a precursor to the theory of gravity, "...all [heavenly bodies] move by the internal principle..." [*22] In the Ash Wednesday Supper, he scientifically demonstrates that stars are bigger than planets by measuring the shadows of solar eclipses. [*23] He accurately suggested that the moon has water, [*24] stating that "The distinction made by us among the globes, that some, like the sun, are fiery whilst others, as the moon and the earth, are watery..." [*25] His universe was always expanding, "the myriads of stars ever multiplying," [*26] which matches our modern understanding. [*8] He also understood the importance of stars, since he believed "stars to be the principal members of the universe; since they give life and nourishment to the things..." [*27] Planets. The Sun is not the only celestial body with planets, as the stars are "suns, fiery bodies around which revolve all planets," [*28] and if the Universe is infinite and there are infinite stars, then "there are not only seven wandering bodies [planets], just because we have recognized only seven as such; rather, there are for the very same reason innumerable others..." [*29] These planets exist "in diverse regions of the single universe" and they exist "by the same law of nature as this world inhabited by us..." [*30] Many in the 1500's were terrified of the idea of the infinite, and Bruno had to calm them, "since it is well that this world doth exist, no less good is the existence of each one of the infinity of other worlds." [*31] He eliminated the idea of objective locations within space, saying that each planet was "similar to our own. No one of these more than another is in the center of the universe..." [*32] He stressed the similarity in the nature of planets very heavily, "what befits this world of ours [earth], befits also the moon and other world bodies that are seen and also [those] that cannot be seen..." [*33] He even suggested that there may be life on these planets, "luminous bodies which are so many inhabited worlds, great creatures and superlative divinities..." [*34] His astonishment at the beauty of nature was admirable... ...[the universe is] the womb, the receptacle and field within which they all move and live, grow and render effective the several acts of their vicissitudes; produce, nourish and maintain their inhabitants and animals; and by certain dispositions and orders they minister to higher nature, changing the face of single being through countless subjects. [*35]Atoms. In the Universe, Bruno studied the infinitely big, and by a similar interest, he also studied the infinitely small, which he declared to be the atom, though Democritus had this idea nearly two thousand years earlier. Quoting a selection of writings on the mathematical concept of infinite, "The atomistic theory of space was newed....in Europe by Giordano Bruno's doctrine of the minimum." [*36] Citing a recent 2008 article from Salon.com, he believed "everything in it [the Universe] is made up of tiny particles (i.e., atoms)..." [*37] These were not the weak atoms of Democritus, for Bruno, atoms are "centers of energy." [*38] Frances Yates, the well-known Bruno historian, stated that Bruno believed all "matter is composed of internally animated atoms." [*39] They weren't merely animated, but each atom was "a three-dimensional physical particle capable of spontaneously moving itself." [*40] And, like modern atomic theory, [*41] he suggested that atoms do not actually touch each other, arguing instead that "...they [atoms] have limits which touch the limits of other atoms separated by an indivisible distance. Thus it is the indivisible, impenetrable atoms...which make up all the forms in the infinite whole." [*42] Just like his explanation for the motion of the planets as being caused by their inner being, he offers a similar explanation on why atoms interact this way... ...motion [of atoms]...is not explained by the mechanical impact of atoms and bodies upon one another, but by the action of the intrinsic soul in each being... [*43]Calculus. The universe is itself a physical phenomena, and if we are to understand it, then we need to be able to model it mathematically. There is no field of mathematics as suited to studying the infinite as calculus. In deference to his mastery of Geometry, we may well quote Bruno as stating the modern fact that "it is not possible either in reality or in thought for a square to be equaled by a circle," [*44] because the area of a circle is "an irrational and transcendental number. You can approximate it, but you can't 'know' it exactly." [*45] He never reached Calculus, but his work in mathematics was an attempt to reach it: he wanted to "transform the geometry of continuous quantity into a geometry of discrete quantity." [*46] He worked with ideas like minima and maxima, the minima being "the smallest and most indivisible element," [*47] and likewise for the maxima, and in studying "lines, angles, and triangles which originate from intersecting circles," [*48] he "opens a new chapter on indivisible and infinitesimal greatness." [*49] A 2008 article in the New Yorker summarizes his views, "there seems to have been a single preoccupation: immensity -- things incalculably large and incalculably tiny..." [*50] When Calculus was invented by Leibniz centuries later, he chose the notation of Giordano Bruno, completing what Bruno had tried to start. [*51] God. Although he understood science and mathematics, Giordano Bruno was deeply religious, believing in god and even magic. Not only was the universe infinite, but so was god, and god was within every part of the Universe, "The philosopher shows us that the divinity is present in us and in our planet no less than in every other heavenly body..." [*52] An article in the Washington Post describes his perception as "...a view of God as within (as opposed to transcending) nature and man..." [*53] In 1585, he advocated the "negation of the absolute individuality" of the soul, suggesting a "universal soul," [*54] believing that god was "nature, the nature of all natures." [*55] For him, "God is the universal world-soul, and that all particular material things are manifestations of the one infinite principle." [*56] This view differed from traditional and established religions in that "God was considered not as the creator of the universe, but as the world itself." [*57] This definitely related to his theory of the infinite, as we see in his words, "God is infinite in infinity, everywhere in everything, neither above nor beyond, but absolutely present." [*58] Infinite Universe and Worlds. Infinite stars and planets, infinite solar systems and lifeforms, infinite immensity and smallness -- infinite everything! The limitlessness of his theory was like that of his mind, compelling and devoted. The historian and Bruno-admirer John J. Kessler underlined Bruno's importance in this statement: the world "was no longer a 15th Century God's backyard. And it suddenly became too vast to be ruled over by a 15th Century God." [*59] The established powers believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, the opposition around Copernicus believed that the Sun was the center, but Bruno transcended their arguments completely: "we may certainly affirm that the universe is entirely center, or that the center of the universe is everywhere, and the circumference nowhere insofar as it is different from the center.." [*60] One professor of the University of Arizona has stated in 1998, "...never before had the essential infinitude of space been asserted in such an outright, definite, and conscious manner." [*61] Quoting an article written in 2008 in the New Yorker... ...his [Copernicus's] cosmos was quite orthodox: a finite structure consisting of fixed spheres that revolved in concentric circles, just as in Ptolemy. Bruno, on the other hand, proposed an infinite cosmos, consisting of innumerable heliocentric worlds. [*62]
"He [Giordano Bruno] was a man without a country and, finally, without a church."Childhood. The Encyclopedia Britannica provides this short summary of the life of Giordano Bruno: he was an "occultist whose theories anticipated modern science." [*64] He was born on 1548, to a father who was a well-connected professional soldier, [*65] in the city of Nola, just east of Naples, and sometimes in later life would use "the Nolan" as a penname. In childhood, "he was a lonely, bookish boy," according to the 2009 biography by Ingrid D. Rowland. When he turned fourteen, in the year 1562, he was sent to Naples to be educated, which was the fifth largest city in the world at that time, full of every type of profession and social class imaginable, from the aristocrats and grandees who ruled the city to the beggars and prostitutes. [*66] There he studied "humanities, logic, and dialectics (argumentation)," becoming interested in "the interpretation of Aristotle put forward by the Muslim philosopher Averroës" and memorization techniques. [*67] The Young Friar. At the age of seventeen in the year 1565, he became a Dominican Friar at the Monastery of San Domenico. "Thomas Aquinas, himself a Dominican, had lived there and taught," [*68] but it was not a perfectly serene environment, as "friars of San Domenico were involved in cases of assault, theft, and forgery, not to mention the chronic problem of fornication." [*69] It was here at the monastery that he dropped his name of birth, Filippo, for the name of one of his instructors that he admired, Giordano from Giordano Crispo. In 1572, he was ordained as a priest, [*70] but despite this, "he was soon under investigation by the local head of the Dominicans for his irregular and outspoken views." [*71] After reading forbidden books by Erasmus and discussing the heretical views he found within those pages, "a trial for heresy was prepared against him by the provincial father of the order," and so he fled. [*72] He left his home in Italy and "began the wandering that characterized his life," according to Desmond J. Fitzgerald, a Philosophy professor at the University of San Francisco. [*73] Escape from the Catholics. Once at a distance from his masters, "they defrocked and excommunicated him in absentia. To Bruno, apparently, it was a liberation..." [*74] From his escape to Italy to his final return and arrest in 1593, he traveled all across Europe. To best summarize those years of 1576 to 1593 for Bruno, "he traveled -- to Geneva, Toulouse, Lyon, Paris, London, Oxford, Wittenberg, Prague, Helmstedt, Frankfurt, Zurich, Padua, Venice -- never staying more than two or three years in any city," [*75] always "on a hunt for patrons and professorships." [*76] First he went to Geneva, where he embraced the local Protestant religion of Calvinism, but "after publishing a broadsheet against a Calvinist professor, however... He was arrested, excommunicated, rehabilitated after retraction..." [*77] [*78] He was forced "to apologize to the offended party on his knees." [*79] As soon as he was out of the clutches of the authorities, he quickly moved on, visiting Toulouse in France, where he asked for clemency from the Catholic Church, taught as a royal lecturer under the French king, and wrote three works on memory techniques. [*80] London Years. In 1583, Bruno moved to London, with a letter of recommendation from the French King, Henry III, traveling with the ambassador Michel de Castelnau. He went to Oxford, where "he started a series of lectures in which he expounded the Copernican theory maintaining the reality of the movement of the Earth." [*81] But the English students were intolerant, not merely to the ideas of Bruno, but to his culture, "the audience laughed at his accent and his Neapolitan way of talking with his hands." [*82] One biography describes this time as "a most productive period," where he composed the first important books on his theory of the infinite universe: Ash Wednesday Supper, On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, and On the Cause, Principle, and Unity. [*83] It was here that one might say there "was hardly a teacher in Europe who was persistently, openly and actively spreading the news about the universe which Copernicus had charted, except Giordano Bruno..." [*84] More intriguing, Bruno is accused of being the spy who delivered information about King Henry III's attempt to install a Catholic Monarchy in Britain, which exposed the Catholic plotters and led to their arrest. [*85] But this is only conjecture, made more appealing by the fact that the identity of this individual still remains unknown. Paris Once More. In October of 1585, Bruno returned to Paris. The Catholic King, Henry III, reneged on the Edict of Boulogne, where he had granted some toleration to Protestants, and the King of Navarre, who Bruno had pinned his hopes on as a patron, had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church. [*85] But none of this controversy pulled him in. Instead, he became acquainted with a mathematician, Fabrizio Mordente, who claimed to have created a geometric compass capable of finding the exact area of a circle. [*86] Bruno, who was "well aware by that time that the reduction compass did not actually square the circle..." [*87] chastised Mordente for not understanding the infinitude of irrational numbers, suggesting that the only way one could actually find the area of a circle, "to square the circle," was "lying conceptually beyond the sphere of calculation which may be defined as strictly mathematical," [*88] that is to say, it is not possible. Mordente, who was a follower of the Catholic Party, denounced Bruno, and tried to get the Catholics to oust him from the country, and by the time local Catholic authorities started to listen to Mordente's pleas, Bruno was giving lectures in Paris, teaching that Aristotle was wrong and that Copernicus was right. [*89] It was all too much for the Catholic stronghold, and so he fled to Germany in May, 1586. German Years. In 1588, Bruno entered Germany, where essentially "he wandered from one university city to another, lecturing and publishing a variety of minor works..." [*90] He was rejected from university after university. [*91] Finally, at Wittenberg, he was given a kindly welcome by the University where he was asked to teach, saying that he liked the Lutherans, but before long, the party that favored him was out of office, being replaced by the Conservative Calvinists who had haunted him in Geneva, so he fled. [*92] He went to Frankfurt, to publish his works, but his request to stay was rejected by the authorities, so he disobeyed and stayed in a convent in Frankfurt, lecturing and teaching, where the Prior of the convent suggested that Bruno "did not possess a trace of religion." [*93] In 1589, after making good graces with the Lutherans of Germany, a pastor in Helmstedt excommunicated him from the Lutheran Church. [*94] In 1591, Bruno contemplated leaving Germany for his home in Italy, even though a trial for heresy had been prepared for him there. Although he chose Venice, a liberal city that has defied the Church, and he was accepting the patronage of a well-connected nobleman, there is still some uncertainty in why he chose to leave Germany. One historian suggests... "There are only a few things that we know about Bruno with great certainty... After twenty years in exile we picture him as homesick, craving the sound of his own native tongue and the companionship of his own countrymen." [*95]
"I wander through every part of thatIn 1592, Giordano Bruno accepted the offer of Giovanni Mocenigo in Venice, a nobleman who sought out Bruno's memory skills and requested him as a tutor. After Bruno had "gained and lost numerous university positions as well as royal and aristocratic benefactors across Europe," [*97] the offer may just have been tempting enough. But to quote John J. Kessler, the historian and admirer of Bruno, "For Bruno to go back to Italy is as strange a paradox as that of the rest of his life." [*98] Bruno arrived in Venice under the protection of the influential Mocenigo, but this situation did not last long. Mocenigo was "disappointed by his private lessons from Bruno," and when he had heard that Bruno was returning to Frankfurt to publish a new book, Mocenigo "denounced him to the Venetian Inquisition in May 1592 for his heretical theories. Bruno was arrested and tried." [*99] Mocenigo accused Bruno of every type of imaginable heresy. Bruno was alleged to have made the unbelievable statement that a virgin "could not have given birth," that "Catholic faith is full of blasphemies against God," and worst of all, "friars should have neither the right to debate nor incomes because they pollute the world and are all asses..." [*100] Other accusations were that Bruno was a magician, that he did not believe that the wine and bread served at Church were the actual blood and body of Christ, and that "the world is eternal but divine punishment is not." [*101] While Bruno did criticize the wealthy, stating that "To Philosophy, riches are an impediment," [*102] it is possible, but less certain that Mocenigo said to Bruno before handing him off to the Catholic Inquisition, "I'm thinking about the chaos that might ensue if everybody, even servants, boatmen, the people you wanted to bring into my house, the poor, start thinking like you want them to." [*103] According to Catholic sources, Bruno's heretical views represent modern, 21st Catholics better than the Catholic Church's views. [*104] Before the Venetian authorities, Giordano Bruno admitted some errors, he apologized, and he argued rather favorably that his ideas were philosophical, not theological, and therefore could not be heresy. But the Venetian trial was forcibly ended; Roman authorities demanded his extradition to Rome. Seeing nothing to gain from resisting the Papal state, the Venetian government gave in, and Bruno was deported to the courts of the official Roman Inquisition. During seven years in Rome, Bruno was tortured by the authorities of the Inquisition, his interrogators demanding that he recant and abjure everything he had said or written in his philosophy as they declared incompatible with Christian faith. Bruno never cracked. One witness interrogated, who happened to be a bookstore owner, reported that Bruno was just "a little skinny man with a bit of a black beard," while another witness, also a bookstore owner, said that Bruno "spent most of his time writing and going around talking riddles..." [*105] Finally, the Inquisition began telling prisoners that Giordano Bruno had denounced them as a heretic, and that they were going to be burned for it. One prisoner decided to return the favor, accusing Bruno of heresy, who, shortly thereafter, was burned alive himself by the Catholic authorities. [*106] But even with this new "testimony," which the Church considered essential in their case against Bruno, they could make no progress. Facing these accusations, "Bruno finally declared that he had nothing to retract and that he did not even know what he was expected to retract." [*107] Eight years is a long time to suffer imprisonment and confinement. It is a long time to live through bloody tortures, cruel abuse, sadistic beatings, and want of clean water and good food and plenty of heat. The Catholic Church was the most powerful entity in all of Europe, and even with its minimum requirement of two "witnesses" being met, it could not close the case on Bruno. Their prisoner simply did not cooperate. In 1599, things changed; Robert Bellarmine was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII, having served since 1592 as a consultant to the Inquisition. The Pope was very impressed with Bellarmine's personal tone, who was well known for his popular saying, "I hardly ever read a book without wanting to give it a good censoring." [*108] He was appointed directly to the Board of Inquisition, where he pressed Bruno to abjure his beliefs. After heated debates, Bruno finally told Bellarmine "You lie through your throat!" It was at this point that, to quote his biographer Ingrid Rowland, "In his own way, in his own terms, Giordano Bruno now began to prepare for his own martyrdom." [*109] His judges had sentenced him to death, Bellarmine telling Bruno directly, "we now expel you, from our ecclesiastical bar and from our holy and immaculate Church, of whose mercy you have rendered yourself unworthy..." [*110] Bruno responded, "You are more afraid to pronounce my sentence than I to receive it." [*111] On February 17, 1600, Bruno was led out of his cell and brought to the Campo de' Fiori, where he was burned alive. [*112] One contemporary writer, who describes Bruno as "less prudent than Galileo," said that Bruno "died naked and gagged (by some accounts with an iron spike through his tongue), in flames." [*113] According to another writer, "He could not speak; he had been gagged with a leather bridle. (Or, some say, an iron spike had been driven through his tongue.)" [*114] He was "a sensitive, imaginative poet, fired with the enthusiasm of a larger vision of a larger universe," and riding a mule, for he was too weak from torture to stand, he was "roasted to death by fire." [*115] To quote George W. Foote, a famous biographer of Atheists and Freethinkers, "Bruno stood at the stake in solitary and awful grandeur. There was not a friendly face in the vast crowd around him. It was one man against the world." [*116] They put a crucifix up to his face, and "he contemptuously pushed aside the crucifix they presented him to kiss." [*117] His moment had come, "He was tied to the stake, and the pyre was lit. When it had burned out, his remains were dumped into the Tiber." [*118] At that moment, for Bruno, there was only infinite, disappearing into endlessness and leaving behind the finite people, finite ideas, and finite minds. To quote Eli Maor in his study of infinity... "The story of Bruno's last eight years will forever be among the most moving in the annals of history.... He was burned at the stake in Venice on February 17, 1600, uncompromising in his beliefs to the end." [*119]Robert Green Ingersoll, a colonel for the Union during the Civil War and a civil rights activist, declared that Bruno would not be avenged until "over the shapeless ruin of St. Peter's, the crumbled Vatican and the fallen cross, shall rise a monument to Bruno, -- the thinker, philosopher, philanthropist, atheist, martyr." [*120] It was not long after that such a statue was finally erected to the great philosopher, with a pose of "Wrists bound, a book clasped in his right hand, his face virtually obscured by his cowl... Looking more closely, we see the philosopher Giordano Bruno, who died in this piazza on February 17, 1600, as his admirers wanted us to see him..." [*121] A plaque says simply, "To Bruno, from the generation he foresaw, where the pyre burned." [*122] Allegedly, upon seeing this statue, the Pope "Leo XIIIth refused food and spent hours in an agony of prayer at the foot of the statue of St. Peter." [*123] The "Official Organ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" responded to the news of the statue by calling Bruno a coward who defied "lawfully constituted authority," saying that the statue was not "to honor Bruno," but to "insult and vilify the vicar of Jesus Christ and His devoted children throughout Christendom." [*124] The legacy of Giordano Bruno could not be eliminated so easily. Of all the emotion poured into the mold of art in honor of this hero, I am most moved by Queen Mab, by Percy Shelley in 1813... 'I was an infant when my mother went
"[Giordano Bruno] had done nothing in his life except talk, write and argue."The Catholic Church condemned Giordano Bruno to death just over four centuries ago, because he "maintained a theory of the universe now everywhere admitted...." [*127] And those words are from a book written in the late 1800's. To hear a modern summary of Bruno, he was a Dominican priest, who "had some original thoughts, wrote some interesting treatises and long poems, and pretty quickly got in trouble with the authorities." [*128] Poet, geometer, memory expert, astronomer, writer, and philosopher -- nobody will reject applying these titles Bruno. But the matter becomes much more complicated and up to debate if we were to consider the title of "scientist." To quote his admirer, John J. Kessler, "Bruno was a truant, a philosophical tramp, a poetic vagrant, but has no claims to the name of scientist." [*129] The reason why this is the case should be quite clear: scientists conduct experiments, collect data, and interpret their results, but Bruno used philosophical and logical induction, expounding upon the past human experience in order to reach conclusions on subjects which no human being had yet answered satisfactorily. Scientists are focused on the data and the experiment, Bruno was focused on the logic and argumentation alone as a means of proof. Despite that he was a mere philosopher who infused a sense of magic and spirituality into his interpretation of an infinite universe, Bruno's place in science is unshakable His hypothesis about the organization of the Universe was more accurate than Copernicus, as Bruno's focus was on the Earth rotating around the Sun, but Copernicus suggested that the Earth rotated around the Sun and an invisible angular pole called an "epicycle." [*130] Until Galileo invented a functional telescope and popularized it, all astronomy was mere guesswork, humans only capable of recording what they saw in the sky with their bare eyes. No other invention comes even vaguely close to the importance of astronomy. And Bruno was burned only fifteen years before Galileo was arrested for making the device, pointed it to the sky, and seeing that moons rotated around Jupiter, proving that not all bodies in the skies rotate around Earth. [*131] For this, these moons are renowned throughout history as the Galilean Moons. Galileo was arrested and tortured, facing some of the same charges as Giordano Bruno. His Inquisitor was Robert Bellarmine, the same man who prosecuted Bruno. According to one biographer, Ingrid D. Rowland, "Bellarmine, feeling guilty over Bruno, may have pressed Galileo to recant, and thus saved his life." [*132] Galileo was saved, and he managed "to elude the more extreme penalties meted out by Bellarmine and company with a public (and essentially politic) repudiation of his heliocentric views," whereas, with Bruno, things were different: he died "in flames." [*133] After Bruno, it was impossible for the Church to commit the same crime again to Galileo. But Galileo was a scientist, in that he collected data and examined it. He did not come up with better conclusions than Bruno -- Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons as a means of proving the heliocentric theory may have been as scientific as Bruno's measurement of the solar eclipse as a means of proving the size of the Sun compared to the Earth. But in his spare time, Bruno argued about philosophy using poetry, while in Galileo used his free moments to conduct experiments in optics, acceleration, and the mechanics of motion. The influence is still undeniable, as Galileo "certainly read Bruno's dialogues, borrowed aspects of his witty theatrical style of writing..." [*134] And, once Kepler had fixed the models presented by Copernicus, establishing himself as the only astronomer to have actually proved the Heliocentric system, [*135] [*136] he said to Galileo, "You obviously stole some of your ideas from Giordano Bruno, didn't you?" [*137] As mentioned earlier, when Leibniz began his work inventing Calculus, he chose the notation from Giordano Bruno's geometry works. [*138] Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, an active scientist and member of the Renaissance from the late 1600's into the 1700's, would popularize the ideas of Giordano Bruno, in his work, Conversation on the Plurality of Worlds. [*139] In 1781, William Herschel, using the telescope, was able to map out the swirling, rippling shape that made up our galaxy, the milky way, made up of hundreds of billions of stars, each possibly with their own planets and solar systems. [*140] With the work of Herschel, Bruno's theory of the infinite universe was essentially proven. A century after Herschel, there was another thinker in Europe who began to question the scientific basis of everything that had been assumed to be reality. Bruno had stated that "...an infinite universe can provide no absolute position, no center or circumference," and this "insight would not be taken up scientifically until Einstein did so some three hundred years later!" [*141] Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, de Fontenelle, Herschel, Einstein -- Bruno was "no scientist," he was strictly about philosophy, but his imprint on science is unmistakable and undeniable. There was much that Bruno's theory missed. He did not understand galaxies the way that Herschel understand them -- the next big superstructure beyond the solar system. He did not understand the theory of Dark Matter, or the Ort Cloud, or anything in modern Astrophysics beyond the solar system. Amazingly, he predicted the absolute relativity of space and time, matching in some of the fundamental ideas of the Theory of Relativity. And like modern astrophysicists, who try to understand the immensity of the universe by studying the nature of quantum, sub-atomic particles, Bruno had made deep and intense discussions about the atom as an unit of infinite smallness to contrast his examination of a universe of infinite bigness. To hear physicists talk about Free Will when asked about the Unified Field Theory, or hear discussions of the "smallest thing possible" when asked String Theory, or to hear arguments about how there may be things "that exist yet have no weight," it is very easy to believe that modern Physicists have taken the mode of thinking of Bruno, elaborating on unusual areas of philosophy in attempting to prove theories about the physical universe. It has been a very strange twist of fate for everyone. Quoting a modern author, Anthony Gottlieb, "Bruno was a martyr to something, but four centuries after his immolation it is still not clear what." [*142] According to one author writing in a journal devoted to Italian subjects in 1998, Bruno's ideas were "both the reasons for his execution and the seeds of the deep revolution that altered the framework of our modern thought." [*143] And because his writings cover so many possible subjects, "modern scholars are divided as to the chief significance of his work." [*144] And it is not just the scientists and scholars who remember, quoting the New Yorker in 2008, "Every year, on the anniversary of his execution, various groups of freethinkers -- Masons, atheists, pantheists -- gather at the monument, and a representative of Rome's mayoralty places a wreath at its feet." [*145] But how would the hero have himself be remembered? When he wrote philosophical dialogues of The Candemaker, he had chosen the penname of "Bruno the Nolan, the Academic of no Academy; nicknamed the exasperated." [*146] A few, short, sweet words can make a wondrous testament.
Bruno did not believe in eternal punishment, because for him, god "makes his sun rise over good and bad." [*147] But when it comes to whether Bruno is suffering eternally in hell, that is not a matter where the general public have reached any conclusive answers. This matter has resurfaced recently with the modern, 2014 remake of Cosmos hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson, broaching a subject long hidden and controversial in the new, digital age. One could hardly study the Universe without at least approaching Bruno. But while there was much appraisal and high approvals of Tyson's treatment of Bruno, there was also a backlash against this martyr's story. The majority of this backlash appears to be inspired by religious feelings and loyalties, with a small amount of criticism among the established universities and "academia," and finally an even smaller amount of criticism from political conservatives. Christians are offended, naturally, because the story of Bruno is the story of the cruel insanity of the Church allegedly established by Christ. The university system is offended because it has not forgotten how Bruno mocked it for teaching that the world was the center of the Universe without evidence. And Conservatives, the faithful guardians of traditional, must be made to feel uncomfortable that the most radical theory turns out to be the correct one. The modern Catholic Encyclopedia describes Giordano Bruno's point of view as the "justification of 'natural magic,'" vehemently arguing that "Bruno was not condemned for his defense of the Copernican system of astronomy, nor for his doctrine of the plurality of inhabited worlds, but for his theological errors..." [*148] The first statement is misconstrued, as very little is as magical as the system of virgin births and miracle workers found in Christianity, and the second statement is clearly false, as 75% of modern Catholics are guilty of the same theological heresies of Bruno, but not one of them has yet been pulled before the Inquisition of the "infallible church." [*149] Catholic Answers, "one of the nation's [America's] largest lay-run apostolates of Catholic apologetics," [*150] put forward very clearly why it believed that Giordano Bruno died: "Giordano Bruno died from a massive ego, intellectual pretension, a singular dishonesty, an overactive libido, and for being a miscreant priest..." [*151] His entire life is summarized as "Anti-Catholic Fiction." Another writer for the same group states that Bruno only has a statue because some sculptor thought it "would be a poke at the pope." [*152] The Catholic World Report tries to turn the positions of the players, saying that Bruno abused the Church and that the Catholic Church was the victim, because of the Bruno's alleged "violation of his promise to the pope not to publish it [the theory of an infinite universe] as fact until proven." [*153] After some digressions on irrelevant, controversial theories of anthropology and "high societies," the Catholic World Report concludes by quoting a questionable document allegedly authored by the Pope about science, and how this forms the "underpinnings" of "astronomy, astrophysics, geology, biology, genetics," while lambasting Bruno admirers for "errors of omission than commission." What Bruno did, said, or died for, none of that can be found in their report. But the writers at Christianity.com give Bruno a relatively sympathetic review, honoring him for taking the place of the "Last Heretic Burned by [the] Roman Inquisition," but at the same time, they deny the infinite universe, saying without citation or without making any sense, "Recent scientific and mathematical advances have refuted this notion also, showing that space and time came into being from outside." [*154] The Christian Apologetics Alliance retorts the same old chant that Bruno's "scientific beliefs did not play a significant role in his trial," decrying him as "infinitely inferior" to Galileo and Kepler "as a scientist," and finally concludes in asking why people aren't more interested in "Copernicans like Maestlin and Kepler who were working actively at that time?" [*155] The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights states that the program hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson "smears Catholicism" and that Bruno was nothing more than "a renegade monk who dabbled in astronomy." [*156] The Catholic News Agency seems to think readers will take it seriously when it describes Bruno as "writing these very angry essays" and that "history suggests" allegedly that Bruno made "a bit of a fool of himself." [*157] Christ and Pop Culture argues that we should not sympathize with Bruno because he "had a totally different conception of God in mind," saying that Bruno was executed not for his statements in science but because he said something about god they didn't like. It was something you could hear at any pub in Rome at that time, of course, but for this magazine, it ultimately means that Bruno had been executed only "for his vitriolic personal conflicts." [*158] There is quite a bit of stark opposition from this one little segment in society. Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, seem to have an unending hatred of Giordano Bruno. They seem to live and think as if it were still 1600. Describing every Christian organization or author who had something to say against Bruno would test the limits of infinity. It is worthwhile to look at how academia examines Bruno. The National Center for Science Education admits to importance to any of his ideas, saying that he was no more than "a renegade Dominican friar executed in 1600 for persistently preaching heretical theological views." [*159] Bruno fled France when he demonstrated the infinitude of Rational Numbers by arguing for the impossibility of squaring the circle, which led with him being persecuted by the dominant Catholic Party after it had just severed all ties to tolerance towards Protestants, and this incident is recalled by one writer for Discover magazine like this: "He fled France because of a violent dispute about the proper use of a compass (seriously)." [*160] At Discover Magazine, they still believe in Squaring the Circle. Real Clear Politics puts Bruno's execution like this: "He was executed, in other words, for practicing magic..." [*161] An unusual source of vengeance, one writer for SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) decried Giordano, saying that "all of his misfortunes were brought down upon himself without the Inquisition's help." [*162] Liberty Voice, a conservative journal, describes why he died in their own words: "he was a mouthy philosopher who died because he did not believe in God," [*163] even if this conflicts with all known sources suggesting that Bruno believed the Universe was god. In two weeks from today, it will be the anniversary of Bruno's Death. Bruno was burned to death in the year 1600, a "Jubilee Year of Mercy," as anointed by the Catholic Church. It is another Jubilee year in this year of 2016, the first one since the fourth centennial celebration of Bruno's Death. And those who preach so much about "the year of mercy" are the ones who are so unwilling to believe in anything good about the man their religion brutally and mercilessly murdered. But in the end, the only thing that is going to matter is what individual people decide to think about Giordano Bruno. If people choose to have a negative image, then when they look up at the vast infiniteness of space, they will see a dark, imposing, alienating force that they will never understand and whose knowledge is always held away from them in backrooms where theologians decide what's safe for the flock to believe. But if they choose to have a positive image, then the infinite Universe will be open and accepting, it mysteries and wonders would beckon and call to anyone with a curious mind, and if we think of Bruno at all when we look up, we would have to believe that we were staring at something all-loving and all-forgiving. The two visions await. It is up to the individual to choose what they think. Punkerslut, Resources *1. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, First Dialogue. *2. "Cosmic Crusader: The life of a little-known philosopher with some very big ideas," by Marc Kaufman, Sunday, August 10, 2008, published by the Washington Post, arlindo-correia.com . *3. "Young Scientist Series ICSE, Chemistry," Volume 6, by Pearson Education, page 12, books.google.com *4. "Who discovered that the Sun was a star?" Stanford University Solar Center, solar-center.stanford.edu *5. "Archytas," by Carl Huffman, Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy, First published Thu Jun 26, 2003; substantive revision Mon Jul 25, 2011, plato.stanford.edu . *6. "Simplicius: On Aristotle Physics 1.3-4," by Simplicius, published by A&C Black, Apr 22, 2014, page 2, books.google.com *7. "Letter to Herodotus," by Epicurus, www.epicurus.net *8. "Aristarchus of Samos," by Cristian Violatti, published on 08 March 2013, Ancient History Encyclopedia, www.ancient.eu *9. "Titus Lucretius Carus And the Nothing that isn't," EverythingForever.com, everythingforever.com *10. "De Imenso, De Minimo and De Infinito: Giordano Bruno's Micro and Infinite Universe and the 'A - centric Labyrinth' of Modern Cosmology and its Philosophical Constraints," by Marcos Cesar Danhoni Neves, Laboratory of Visual Creation, Physics Department, State University of Maringá, Brazil, Apeiron, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2001, page 3, redshift.vif.com . *11. "From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe," by Alexandre Koyré, 1957, Chapter 1: The Sky and the Heavens, sacred-texts.com *12. "Kepler's Laws," from the Stony Brook Astronomy Program, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, www.astro.sunysb.edu . *13. "De Imenso, De Minimo and De Infinito: Giordano Bruno's Micro and Infinite Universe and the 'A - centric Labyrinth' of Modern Cosmology and its Philosophical Constraints," by Marcos Cesar Danhoni Neves, Laboratory of Visual Creation, Physics Department, State University of Maringá, Brazil, Apeiron, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2001, page 3, redshift.vif.com . *14. "Pamphlets on Biography (Kofoid Collection)," 1883,, books.google.com *15. "Palingenius, Marcellus," by Jordan D. MarchéII, 03 September 2014, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, link.springer.com *16. "First Steps in the Origin of Life in the Universe: Proceedings of the Sixth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution Trieste, Italy 18-22 September, 2000," 2001st Edition, published by Springer, page 403, books.google.com *17. "Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution," by Dennis Danielson, Cambridge University Press, Nov 6, 2014, page 202, books.google.com *18. "First Steps in the Origin of Life in the Universe: Proceedings of the Sixth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution Trieste, Italy 18-22 September, 2000," 2001st Edition, published by Springer, page 403, books.google.com *19. "Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher," by John J. Kessler, www.positiveatheism.org . *20. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Second Dialogue, www.positiveatheism.org . *21. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Introductory Epistle, www.positiveatheism.org . *22. Ibid. *23. "The Ash Wednesday Supper," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, math.dartmouth.edu . *24. "Character and Spatial Distribution of OH/H2O on the Surface of the Moon Seen by M3 on Chandrayaan-1," Science 23 Oct 2009: Vol. 326, Issue 5952, pp. 568-572, science.sciencemag.org . *25. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Fifth Dialogue, www.positiveatheism.org . *26. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Fifth Dialogue, www.positiveatheism.org . *27. "The formation of stars," published by the program of the Hubble Space Telescope, www.spacetelescope.org . *28. "The Ash Wednesday Supper," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, math.dartmouth.edu . *28. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Third Dialogue, www.positiveatheism.org . *29. "The Ash Wednesday Supper," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, math.dartmouth.edu . *30. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Fifth Dialogue, www.positiveatheism.org . *31. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Introductory Epistle, www.positiveatheism.org . *32. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Third Dialogue, www.positiveatheism.org . *33. "The Ash Wednesday Supper," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, math.dartmouth.edu . *34. "Cause, Principle and Unity, and Essays on Magic," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, pauladaunt.com . *35. "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Third Dialogue, www.positiveatheism.org . *36. "Levels of Infinity: Selected Writings on Mathematics and Philosophy," by Hermann Weyland Peter Pesic, 2012, published by the Courier Corporation, page 23, books.google.com . *37. "The Heretic," by Laura Miller, Aug. 25, 2008, Salon.com, arlindo-correia.com . *38. "Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century," by Isadore Twersky, Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies, 1987, page 195, books.google.com *39. "Giordano Bruno & Hermetic Tradition," by Frances A. Yates, page 452, books.google.com *40. "Atomic Theory," from the Encyclopedia of Human Thermodynamics, Human Chemistry, and Human Physics, www.eoht.info *41. "Why Physics Says You Can Never Actually Touch Anything," by Futurism, June 17, 2014, futurism.com *42. "Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science: Broken Lives and Organizational Power," by Hilary Gatti, Chapter 7: The Infinite Worlds, books.google.com *43. "Giordano Bruno," by James Lewis McIntyre, page 250, books.google.com *44. "Giordano Bruno," by James Lewis McIntyre, "archive.org . *45. "What was Giordano Bruno's exact argument about the compass? How did the polemic develop? How vicious was it and how much did it contribute to his fleeing from Paris?" by Stanley Chin, published on Quora.com, www.quora.com *46. "Giordano Bruno: An Introduction," by Paul Richard Blum, page 98, books.google.com *47 . "De Imenso, De Minimo and De Infinito: Giordano Bruno's Micro and Infinite Universe and the 'A - centric Labyrinth' of Modern Cosmology and its Philosophical Constraints," by Marcos Cesar Danhoni Neves, Laboratory of Visual Creation, Physics Department, State University of Maringá, Brazil, Apeiron, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2001, page 21, redshift.vif.com . *48. "Giordano Bruno: An Introduction," by Paul Richard Blum, page 96, books.google.com *49. "De Imenso, De Minimo and De Infinito: Giordano Bruno's Micro and Infinite Universe and the 'A - centric Labyrinth' of Modern Cosmology and its Philosophical Constraints," by Marcos Cesar Danhoni Neves, Laboratory of Visual Creation, Physics Department, State University of Maringá, Brazil, Apeiron, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2001, page 22, redshift.vif.com . *50. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *51. "Bruno, Giordano, (b. Nola, Italy, 1548; d. Rome, Italy, 17 February 1600)," from Encyclopedia.com, www.encyclopedia.com *52. "Cause, Principle and Unity, and Essays on Magic," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, pauladaunt.com . *53. "Cosmic Crusader: The life of a little-known philosopher with some very big ideas," by Marc Kaufman, Sunday, August 10, 2008, published by the Washington Post, arlindo-correia.com . *54. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com *55. "An Overview of the Cosmology, Religion and Philosophical Universe of Giordano Bruno," by Giuseppe Candela, published by Italica Vol. 75, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 348-364, page 348, www.jstor.org . *56. "Giordano Bruno," by Desmond J. Fitzgerald, from Encarta, www.positiveatheism.org . *57. "De Imenso, De Minimo and De Infinito: Giordano Bruno's Micro and Infinite Universe and the 'A - centric Labyrinth' of Modern Cosmology and its Philosophical Constraints," by Marcos Cesar Danhoni Neves, Laboratory of Visual Creation, Physics Department, State University of Maringá, Brazil, Apeiron, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2001, redshift.vif.com . *58. Ibid. *59. "Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher," by John J. Kessler, www.positiveatheism.org . *60. "Cause, Principle and Unity, and Essays on Magic," by Giordano Bruno, 1584, Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, pauladaunt.com . *61. "An Overview of the Cosmology, Religion and Philosophical Universe of Giordano Bruno," by Giuseppe Candela, published by Italica Vol. 75, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 348-364, page 349, www.jstor.org . *62. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *63. "Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher," by John J. Kessler, www.positiveatheism.org . *64. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com *65. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *66. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *67. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com *68. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *69. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *70. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com *71. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *72. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com *73. "Giordano Bruno," by Desmond J. Fitzgerald, from Encarta, www.positiveatheism.org . *74. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *75. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *76. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *77. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com . *78. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *79. "The Heretic," by Laura Miller, Aug. 25, 2008, Salon.com, arlindo-correia.com . *80. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com . *81. Ibid. *82. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com. *83. "Giordano Bruno," by Desmond J. Fitzgerald, from Encarta, www.positiveatheism.org . *84. "Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher," by John J. Kessler, www.positiveatheism.org . *85. "A Philosopher Is Called a Spy For the Queen," by William E. Schmidt, September 1, 1991, published by the New York Times, www.nytimes.com . *85. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com . *86. "What was Giordano Bruno's exact argument about the compass? How did the polemic develop? How vicious was it and how much did it contribute to his fleeing from Paris?" by Stanley Chin, published on Quora.com, www.quora.com *87. "Giordano Bruno: Philosopher / Heretic," by Ingrid D. Rowland, page 196, books.google.com *88. "Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science: Broken Lives and Organizational Power," by Hilary Gatti, page 158, books.google.com *89. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com . *90. Ibid. *91. "A Hungry Mind: Giordano Bruno, Philosopher and Heretic: Ingrid Rowland's Giordano Bruno rediscovers the Renaissance philosopher and heretic," by Paula Findlen, published by the Nation, September 10, 2008, www.thenation.com *92. "Giordano Bruno & Hermetic Tradition," by Francis Yates, page 306, books.google.com *93. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com . *94. www.thenation.com *95. "Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher," by John J. Kessler, www.positiveatheism.org . *96. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com. *97. "Cosmic Crusader: The life of a little-known philosopher with some very big ideas," by Marc Kaufman, Sunday, August 10, 2008, published by the Washington Post, arlindo-correia.com . *98. "Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher," by John J. Kessler, www.positiveatheism.org . *99. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com . *100. "The Heretic," by Laura Miller, Aug. 25, 2008, Salon.com, arlindo-correia.com . *101. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *102. "Giordano Bruno," by James Lewis McIntyre, "archive.org . *103. Transcript of "Giordano Bruno" (1973), directed by Giuliano Montaldo, sillaconsiglia.wordpress.com *104. "I don't believe the Eucharist is the body of Christ. Am I going to hell?" by The Rev. Kenneth Doyle, Catholic News Service February 23, 2015, www.cruxnow.com . *105. "The Trials of Giordano Bruno (1592-1600)," by Douglas O. Linder, 2015, law2.umkc.edu *106. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *107. "Giordano Bruno," by Giovanni Aquilecchia, published by Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com . *108. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *109. law2.umkc.edu *110. law2.umkc.edu *111. books.google.com *112. "Particle Man: GIORDANO BRUNO, Philosopher, Heretic," by Anthony Gottlieb, December 21, 2008, New York Times, arlindo-correia.com . *113. "The Heretic," by Laura Miller, Aug. 25, 2008, Salon.com, arlindo-correia.com . *114. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *115. "Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher," by John J. Kessler, www.positiveatheism.org . *116. "Infidel Death-beds," by GW Foote and AD McLaren. *117. Ibid. *118. "The Forbidden World: Did a sixteenth-century heretic grasp the nature of the cosmos?," by Joan Acocella, August 25, 2008, published by the New Yorker, arlindo-correia.com . *119. "To Infinity and Beyond: A Cultural History of the Infinite," by Eli Maor, page 198, books.google.com *120. "The Great Infidels," by Robert Green Ingersoll, 1881. *121. "A Hungry Mind: Giordano Bruno, Philosopher and Heretic," by Paula Findlen, September 29, 2008, published by the Nation, arlindo-correia.com . *122. "Nothing Matters: a book about nothing," by Ronald Green, page 38, books.google.com *123. 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