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23rd out of 52 books
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Giordano Bruno & Hermetic Trad
Emphasizing the primary importance of Hermetism in Renaissance thought, Yates demonstrates that Bruno was at once a rational philospher and a magician - burned at the stake - with an unorthodox religious message. Her acclaimed study gives an overview not only of Renaissance humanism but of its interplay - and conflict - with magic and occult practices.
Hardcover, 504 pages
Published
December 15th 1999
by Routledge
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I really, really enjoyed reading this book. I think that Yates has a bit of a tendency to pigeon-hole Bruno's thought more than she should, insisting throughout that his central goal was a return to Egyptianism and that he was fundamentally anti-Christian, and I think that certainly is an overall flaw. But I'm still going to give it five stars anyways just because it's a book that's absolutely worth reading, especially it's beginning and ending. Yates puts Bruno (and his Hermetic contemporaries)...more
As far as discipline defining monographs go, it is hard to think of a better example than Frances Yates' Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. When it was first published in 1964 there were, apart from D.P. Walker's Spiritual & Demonic Magic From Ficino to Campanella, no real academic works analyzing Western esotericism from an etic perspective. In this book, Yates, in the hopes of contextualizing the thought of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), provides an in-depth history of Hermetism, with t...more
This book was revolutionary at the time of its publication because Yates rejected the imposition of 20th century categories on earlier periods. Those who studied Bruno's scientific and mathematical advances ignored his interest in magic and mysticism, and vice versa. Yates surmounted this division and showed how inseparable the two truly were. For instance, Bruno's involvement with Copernicus occurred because he needed more accurate astronomical calculations for his astrological work. This study...more
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Oscar
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Recommends it for:
students of religion, philosophy, and the history of science
Yates' classic study of the 'Renaissance magus' Giordano Bruno left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the book is full of relevant information and insights into the world of esoteric thought in the Renaissance, and this makes it an essential read for students of hermeticism in the premodern period.
At the same time, I felt the work wavered a bit too much between being an introduction in hermetic thought from Ficino to Fludd and beyond, and being a biography of Bruno himself. I ...more
At the same time, I felt the work wavered a bit too much between being an introduction in hermetic thought from Ficino to Fludd and beyond, and being a biography of Bruno himself. I ...more
Opera bellissima, appassionata, precisa della Yates sul grande Giordano Bruno. Analizza e ricostruisce il pensiero filosofico del Bruno, simbolo del nostro pensiero libero, riconducendolo alla tradizione magica ci restituisce la splendida figura ed ermetica rinascimentale, al tal punto frainteso da metterlo al rogo.
After reading this book one will understand how a historian should work. A historian should understand how the thought processes of a person worked at the time they lived, not by trying to fit our modern concepts upon them.
I *heart* Giordano Bruno.
My favorite thing about this book (a scholarly study of the Hermetic magical tradition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance) was that it tied together people and lore that I'd read about in college. Not for the casual occult reader, that's for sure!
i gave this four stars because of what i've learned between the lines. i am tired of authors like ms yates who express personal opinion as assumed fact while pretending to be delivering a scholarly work.
The highest recommendation for Bruno's ideals is that he was burned at the stake. Frances Yates is brilliant here. Don't miss this one.
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