Giordano Bruno

Basic information

Patronymic
Giovanni Bruno
Other names
Filippo Bruno
Genre
Male
Place of origin
Nola, Kingdom of Naples
Date of birth
01 January 1548 - 29 February 1548
Attributed date of birth
Yes
Age at the time of execution
52
Marital status
Not applicable
Last occupation / Qualification
Philosopher
Previous occupations
Religious status
Cleric
Religious order
Dominicans
Accusations

Proceedings

Start date
23 May 1592
End date
08 February 1600
Courts involved
Congregation of the Holy Office, Inquisition of Venice
Extradition
Yes
Other judges involved
Notes

Sentence

Court
Congregation of the Holy Office
Local judge
Sentence date
08 February 1600
Sentence place
Rome, Papal States, House of the Cardinal Ludovico Madruzzo
Crime category
Formal heresy
List of crimes
  1. Aver negato la transustanziazione
  2. Mettere in dubbio la verginità di Maria
  3. Aver soggiornato in paesi d’eretici vivendo alla loro guisa
  4. Aver scritto contro il papa lo Spaccio della Bestia trionfante
  5. Sostenere l’esistenza di mondi innumerevoli ed eterni
  6. Asserire la metempsicosi e la possibilità che un’anima sola informi due corpi
  7. Ritenere la magia buona e lecita
  8. Identificare lo Spirito Santo con l’anima del mondo
  9. Affermare che Mosè simulò i suoi miracoli e inventò la Legge
  10. Dichiarare che la S. Scrittura non è che un sogno
  11. Ritenere che perfino i demoni si salveranno
  12. Opinare l’esistenza dei preadamiti
  13. Asserire che Cristo non è Dio, ma ingannatore e mago, e che a buon diritto fu impiccato
  14. Asserire che anche i profeti e gli apostoli furono maghi e che quasi tutti vennero a mala fine

[ENG]

  1. Denying transubstantiation.

  2. Questioning the virginity of Mary.

  3. Having resided in heretical countries and lived in their manner.

  4. Having written Lo Spaccio della Bestia trionfante against the pope.

  5. Maintaining the existence of innumerable and eternal worlds.

  6. Asserting metempsychosis and the possibility that a single soul might inform two bodies.

  7. Holding that magic is good and licit.

  8. Identifying the Holy Spirit with the soul of the world.

  9. Declaring that Moses simulated his miracles and invented the Law.

  10. Stating that Holy Scripture is nothing but a dream.

  11. Holding that even the demons will be saved.

  12. Opining the existence of pre-Adamites.

  13. Asserting that Christ is not God, but a deceiver and a magician, and that He was rightly hanged.

  14. Asserting that the prophets and apostles too were magicians and that almost all of them came to an evil end

Reason for conviction
Pertinacious / impenitent
Accessory penalties
Condemnation and destruction of all his works.

Execution

Execution date
17 February 1600
Authority
Governor of Rome
Execution place
Rome, Papal States, Campo de' Fiori
Execution type
burned alive
In effigy
No
After death
No
Presence of doctors / surgeons
Unknown
Name of the doctors / surgeons
Presence of comforters
Yes
Name of the comforters
Arciconfraternita di San Giovanni Decollato
Presence of rebels / riots
No
Sacraments imparted
No
Notes for execution

Sources

Letters

Kaspar Schoppe to Konrad Ritterhausen: Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, cod. Guelf. 273, ff. 159r-164r; Wroclaw, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka, cod. R. 243, ff. 255r-257r; cod. Akc. 1949/595, ff. 35r-38r.

Roma, Archivio Storico Capitolino, Archivio Orsini. I., Corrispondenza, b. 380, n. 385.

Local inquisitorial trials and documents
Decrees and acdf sources

Città del Vaticano, ADDF, Sant’Officio, Decreta, vol. 1600 (minute), cc. 12v-13r; vol. 1599-1600, c. 9r.

 

 

Legal opinions consultations
Registers of the condemned
Other magistracies

Rome, Archivio di Stato, Tribunale criminale del governatore, registrazione d’atti, reg. 137, c. 134r. ((in Di Sivo, Verdi, 2012, p. 526)

Petitions
Confraternities

Roma, Archivio di Stato, San Giovanni Decollato, vol. 15, c. 87r.; reg. 16, busta 8, c. 87r

Medical treatises
Polemical histories and martyrologies
Theological and legal texts
Collections of sermons
Printed or manuscript notices and reports

Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Urbinate latino 1068, cc. 98v, 110v, 131v;

 

Chronicles
Travel diaries
Notarial acts and wills
Expense registers and economic documents

Roma, Archivio di Stato, Camerale I, 1843, Libro della Depositeria generale di Papa Clemente VIII. 1600, c. 22r.

Memorial documents epitaphs etc

Ettore Ferrari, Monumento a Giordano Bruno, Bronze statue on a Baveno granite base, 1889; front panel of the Monument to Giordano Bruno: «A Bruno / il secolo da lui divinato / qui / dove il rogo arse».

Iconography

Ettore Ferrari, Monumento a Giordano Bruno, Bronze statue on a Baveno granite base, 1889, Roma, Campo de’ Fiori.

Drawing in: Rome, Archivio di Stato, Tribunale criminale del governatore, registrazione d’atti, reg. 137, c. 134r (in Di Sivo, Verdi, 2012, p. 525)

Other

20 january 1600 pope Clemente VIII decree: Roma, Biblioteca Casanatense, cod. 3825, cc. 14v-17r.