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On the Heroic Frenzies
Italian astronomer and Dominican friar Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), found guilty of heresy by the Roman Inquisition and burned at the stake, has long been an enigma of early modern European philosophy. His central 1586 work On the Heroic Frenzies has shown a particular need for a fresh examination. This vibrant bilingual edition, annotated by celebrated Bruno scholar Ingrid D. Rowland, features the text in its original Italian alongside an elegant, accurate English translation.
On the Heroic Frenzies is at once a philosophical dialogue, an anthology of love poetry, and a collection of sonnets, songs, and emblems - sometimes borrowed from other writers, but primarily Bruno's own. Rowland's detailed introduction and extensive footnotes highlight the philosophical sources, Biblical allusions, and biographical elements that make Bruno's work both richly conceived and often challenging to understand. Providing cohesive insights into Bruno's text, Rowland's edition of On the Heroic Frenzies is a helpful guide for those new to his work.
On the Heroic Frenzies is at once a philosophical dialogue, an anthology of love poetry, and a collection of sonnets, songs, and emblems - sometimes borrowed from other writers, but primarily Bruno's own. Rowland's detailed introduction and extensive footnotes highlight the philosophical sources, Biblical allusions, and biographical elements that make Bruno's work both richly conceived and often challenging to understand. Providing cohesive insights into Bruno's text, Rowland's edition of On the Heroic Frenzies is a helpful guide for those new to his work.
- GenresPhilosophy
448 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 2012
45 people want to read
About the author
Giordano Bruno
491 books290 followersGiordano Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, who is best known as a proponent of the infinity of the universe. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in identifying the Sun as just one of an infinite number of independently moving heavenly bodies: he is the first European man to have conceptualized the universe as a continuum where the stars we see at night are identical in nature to the Sun. He was burned at the stake by authorities in 1600 after the Roman Inquisition found him guilty of heresy. After his death he gained considerable fame; in the 19th and early 20th centuries, commentators focusing on his astronomical beliefs regarded him as a martyr for free thought and modern scientific ideas. Recent assessments suggest that his ideas about the universe played a smaller role in his trial than his pantheist beliefs, which differed from the interpretations and scope of God held by Catholicism.[1][2] In addition to his cosmological writings, Bruno also wrote extensive works on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. More recent assessments, beginning with the pioneering work of Frances Yates, suggest that Bruno was deeply influenced by the astronomical facts of the universe inherited from Arab astrology, Neoplatonism and Renaissance Hermeticism.[3] Other recent studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial paradigms of geometry to language.[4]
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