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Il Candelaio
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Il Candelaio; Volume 18 Of Biblioteca Rara Giordano Bruno Carlo Teoli G. Daelli, 1863
146 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1582
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About the author
Giordano Bruno
499 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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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 2, 2018
Full disclosure: the reviewer had the original contract with Carleton U/Dovehouse, who wanted a literal translation, not necessarily stageworthy. Therefore he published his own version, and found a London producer Tom Bruno Magdich, who put it on at the Bridewell Theatre (4 April 14) with eight fine actors, male and female, playing nineteen characters, casting by Simon Winkler. This reviewer will try simply to quote, so the reader may draw her own conclusions.
First, Prof Moliterno apparently grew up without the Latin he would have taken at an Italian classical H.S., so he declines to translate the third plot, Manfurio the Latin teacher. Manny’s plot is often funny, and even his attraction to his boys, mocked and thwarted by themselves, is unknown if you don’t translate: claros… ocellos..puellis, “clear eyes like girls’ “(92). Bruno seems to have assumed anyone studying Latin with a priest would be subject to pederast interest. But in Candelaio the boys win, in self-defense, and in humor. So Bruno takes on a subject denied by the Church for centuries, only “discovered” in recent decades. And Bruno’s answer is the resilience and wit of the boys.
But Moliterno does add pretensiousness to Manfurio’s speech, calling himself “moderator of pueriles.” Is this stageworthy dialog? The issue of Prof Moliterno’s ear for colloquial speech crops up dozens of times per page, for instance with his occasional archaisms like "thy," and many wordy phrases like, “I shall be ever so grateful to your Lordship if you would help me in this matter here and give us a little time to make this accord”(111). Your reviewer renders this: “I’d be obliged to you, Sir, if you would aid me in my predicament..”
On the other hand, Powers shortens certain scenes as too obscurantist, like I.5, while Moliterno includes them, though much in untranslated Latin. Perhaps Powers' omission can be faulted, since there's much humor and pretense in Manny's building himself up before young Pollula, "It's not with me as with you," "Nil mihi vobiscum," which Poll takes as part of the mass, "Et cum spirito to [for tuo]."
But Powers cannot be faulted for beginning the play with one-fourth of the Prologs, only the Antiprolog and a shortened Proprolog, plus the Janitor-prolog, not the full twelve pages of prologs, character and plot description, and the full Propro.
Instead of the full, too-lengthly play (four hours, the performance in my daughter’s Milano, including all the prologs before it even began) Powers offers occasional felicities, as late in Act IV, scene 10. Bart the obsessed scientist complains to his neglected wife, “I’ve nothing left but grease and dreams”(71). Bruno wrote, “ho perso peggio che l'oglio e il sonno,” I’ve lost worse than oil and sleep. Moliterno has it, “I’ve lost much more than labour and sleep”(136).
And just the scene before, the neglected wife, Marty, regrets that her husband has more money now, and spends it to experiment and gain more. She recalls all the fun they used to have, “Then we used to play great bedroom games, like Leg on the Neck, Difficult Entry, Little Sister, Split the Silk, Handcuffed, Wobblededoo, Rabbit in the Hole, Mouse in the Hole, Badger in the Hole, Mouse in the Bottle, Four Pokes and Done—oh, all night and part of the day we’d…worship. Now he has money from Uncle Scooby’s inheritance..”(70). Moliterno gives literal translations: “Then we used to play at straddling the neck, hugging the bear, spearing the bearded clam, parting th fig, putting mousey in the hole, doing the three-legged hop, pulling the leg, riding the hump, all in a romp, four bumps four grinds, three holes and a little socket. In these and other similar devotions we would pass all the night and part of the day”(135).
First, Prof Moliterno apparently grew up without the Latin he would have taken at an Italian classical H.S., so he declines to translate the third plot, Manfurio the Latin teacher. Manny’s plot is often funny, and even his attraction to his boys, mocked and thwarted by themselves, is unknown if you don’t translate: claros… ocellos..puellis, “clear eyes like girls’ “(92). Bruno seems to have assumed anyone studying Latin with a priest would be subject to pederast interest. But in Candelaio the boys win, in self-defense, and in humor. So Bruno takes on a subject denied by the Church for centuries, only “discovered” in recent decades. And Bruno’s answer is the resilience and wit of the boys.
But Moliterno does add pretensiousness to Manfurio’s speech, calling himself “moderator of pueriles.” Is this stageworthy dialog? The issue of Prof Moliterno’s ear for colloquial speech crops up dozens of times per page, for instance with his occasional archaisms like "thy," and many wordy phrases like, “I shall be ever so grateful to your Lordship if you would help me in this matter here and give us a little time to make this accord”(111). Your reviewer renders this: “I’d be obliged to you, Sir, if you would aid me in my predicament..”
On the other hand, Powers shortens certain scenes as too obscurantist, like I.5, while Moliterno includes them, though much in untranslated Latin. Perhaps Powers' omission can be faulted, since there's much humor and pretense in Manny's building himself up before young Pollula, "It's not with me as with you," "Nil mihi vobiscum," which Poll takes as part of the mass, "Et cum spirito to [for tuo]."
But Powers cannot be faulted for beginning the play with one-fourth of the Prologs, only the Antiprolog and a shortened Proprolog, plus the Janitor-prolog, not the full twelve pages of prologs, character and plot description, and the full Propro.
Instead of the full, too-lengthly play (four hours, the performance in my daughter’s Milano, including all the prologs before it even began) Powers offers occasional felicities, as late in Act IV, scene 10. Bart the obsessed scientist complains to his neglected wife, “I’ve nothing left but grease and dreams”(71). Bruno wrote, “ho perso peggio che l'oglio e il sonno,” I’ve lost worse than oil and sleep. Moliterno has it, “I’ve lost much more than labour and sleep”(136).
And just the scene before, the neglected wife, Marty, regrets that her husband has more money now, and spends it to experiment and gain more. She recalls all the fun they used to have, “Then we used to play great bedroom games, like Leg on the Neck, Difficult Entry, Little Sister, Split the Silk, Handcuffed, Wobblededoo, Rabbit in the Hole, Mouse in the Hole, Badger in the Hole, Mouse in the Bottle, Four Pokes and Done—oh, all night and part of the day we’d…worship. Now he has money from Uncle Scooby’s inheritance..”(70). Moliterno gives literal translations: “Then we used to play at straddling the neck, hugging the bear, spearing the bearded clam, parting th fig, putting mousey in the hole, doing the three-legged hop, pulling the leg, riding the hump, all in a romp, four bumps four grinds, three holes and a little socket. In these and other similar devotions we would pass all the night and part of the day”(135).
May 6, 2019
Ho tradotto questo commedia a partire dal 1996, a Carrara, a Milano, a Londra. E ho avuto una buona lettura da un editor Penguin, così come da senza dubbio il più grande regista di Londra. But he never put it on at the Old Vic where I delivered the MS. However, the Bridewell Theatre performed a stage reading in 2014.
Candelaio may be a source for Shakespeare's two "bed-trick" plays, MFM and AWEW. Triple plot, per usual in 16C Italian comedy. Very modern characters--a workaholic scientist who neglects his wife, who finds a lover (the painter, a Bruno-stand-in) a bisexual, and a pederast Latin teacher. Very late medieval characters, too. The word-play is fantastic, Joycean between Neapolitan, Latin and Italian (Tuscan).
This reviewer published his own version, and found a London producer Tom Bruno Magdich, who put it on at the Bridewell Theatre (4 April 14) with eight fine actors, male and female, playing nineteen characters, casting by Simon Winkler.
At the start, Bruno has twelve pages of prologs, character and plot description, not the best way to kick off a play. I often say that Candelaio is the best First Play ever written, much better than Titus Andronicus, or... But Bruno made errors he would not have made were he to have acted more (outside the pulpit, or the debate stage in Oxford and Cambrai).
The play's too-lengthly : four hours, the performance in my daughter’s Milano, including all the prologs. My daughter took her husband to half, and her sister-in-law to the other half.
Bruno has some funny Latin retorts by the schoolboys to their Latin teacher and would-be abuser. And the obsessive alchemical scientist Bartolomeo, neglecting his wife, complains, “ho perso peggio che l'oglio e il sonno,” I’ve lost worse than oil and sleep. This reviewer makes it zippy, "I've nothing left but grease and dreams." (See "Candelaio: A New Stage Translation."
Candelaio may be a source for Shakespeare's two "bed-trick" plays, MFM and AWEW. Triple plot, per usual in 16C Italian comedy. Very modern characters--a workaholic scientist who neglects his wife, who finds a lover (the painter, a Bruno-stand-in) a bisexual, and a pederast Latin teacher. Very late medieval characters, too. The word-play is fantastic, Joycean between Neapolitan, Latin and Italian (Tuscan).
This reviewer published his own version, and found a London producer Tom Bruno Magdich, who put it on at the Bridewell Theatre (4 April 14) with eight fine actors, male and female, playing nineteen characters, casting by Simon Winkler.
At the start, Bruno has twelve pages of prologs, character and plot description, not the best way to kick off a play. I often say that Candelaio is the best First Play ever written, much better than Titus Andronicus, or... But Bruno made errors he would not have made were he to have acted more (outside the pulpit, or the debate stage in Oxford and Cambrai).
The play's too-lengthly : four hours, the performance in my daughter’s Milano, including all the prologs. My daughter took her husband to half, and her sister-in-law to the other half.
Bruno has some funny Latin retorts by the schoolboys to their Latin teacher and would-be abuser. And the obsessive alchemical scientist Bartolomeo, neglecting his wife, complains, “ho perso peggio che l'oglio e il sonno,” I’ve lost worse than oil and sleep. This reviewer makes it zippy, "I've nothing left but grease and dreams." (See "Candelaio: A New Stage Translation."
October 9, 2025
V hlavě jsem si nemohl nezačít přehrávat segment ze 'Sbal prachy a vypadni', kdy v pozadí hraje 'Zorba's Dance' a kde se začnou osudy všech hrdinů (a stran) postupně splétat dohromady a vy čekáte, jak komicky se to vyvrbí, kdo koho oddělá, kdo na co čeká, že jak bude a kdo bude mít štěstí a objeví se ve správný čas na správném místě a kdo ne, všichni čekají, nebo jdou vstříc se záměrem... až na čtveřici hlavních hrdinů, kteří si vypráví mezitím vtípky při jízdě v autě (vtípky, které ve střizích slyšíme pouze částečně, protože komedie scény není v tom poslouchat je, ale v nevědomí hrdinů), zcela nevědomí násilí, které má propuknout - po ránu se jednoduše snaží bavit a mít takový to "hehe" a nečekají, že se "něco může stát ráno, protože přece ještě nejsem vzhůru". Ironie, očekávání a násilí je cítit ve vzduchu. Giordano Bruno podobně rozehrává hru, kde je taky hodně postav, celkem 18 (a to s přihlédnutím k tomu, že byla i o jednu další pokrácena), ale scény jsou často krátké, jde jen o to dostat k divákovi, skoro až filmovým střihem, informaci, aby pochopil záměr, že dvě postavy mezi sebou tohle a jdeme dál. A já, jelikož jsem odkojený na filmových narativech, jsem si automaticky spojil hru s Ritchieho prvním a hned majstrštykem, který znám od dětství, ale přitom vznikl o více než čtyři sta let později. Koneckonců se v divadle zase tolik nevyznám, ale v doslovu je ten kontext sdostatek přiblížen, tohle Brunovo dílko mělo zjevně vliv na ledacos, včetně hrám připisovaným Shakespearovi a dalším velkým jménům. Nicméně je to zábava na mnoha úrovních, jak člověku dojde už z úvodního 'Antiprologu' a popravdě, v určitých momentech už jsem se musel smát jen tomu "jak jeden moment ironizuje celek" ze stejného důvodu, jako čtveřice hrdinů vtipkuje v autě, čekáte, kdo "se objeví tam, kde nemá", takže nástup "Hole! Hole! Ve jménu krále! Co je to za rámus?" mě bavil už jen pro očekávání situace (podobně situačne absurdní a zamotaná mě ne tak dlouho zpátky dostala Bogdanovichova 'Fraška'). Nicméně 'Il Candelaio', Svíčkař (Teplouš) si myslím, je hra, která hodně mluví sama za sebe, je to banda lidí, která se snaží jeden druhého ojebat a každý má svoji motivaci a důvod, nicméně se to celé zamotá... znalost latiny výhodou, neb jedna z postav ve hře žvaní konstantně latinsky, což konstantně provokuje i ostatní postavy, ale stejně tak dojde i na absolutní prasárničky, na lásku, vesmír, stejně jako na "ironizování všeho, co je v divadle svaté", do toho tam Bruno očividně zasazuje své osobní postoje, coby "kacíře", který se snažil unikat autoritám. Já jsem spíš chtěl nakousnout, jakou má Giordano Bruno hloubku, když jsem se k němu dostal a nic jiného nebylo za rozumnou cenu k mání ('Magie, pouta a dialog renesančního filosofa'), zaujal mě de facto proto, že to byl hermetik, který skončil, podobně jako Hus, na hranici - za svoje postoje a názory o nekonečnosti vesmíru, nehledě na některé jeho další, které ale pozoruhodně vydedukoval a o kterých bych si teď ještě více rád přečetl. Neváhejte a kupujte to, stojí to teď na některých místech pár šlupek a je to neskutečně propracované a vrstevnaté a zábavné.
October 31, 2018
Giordano Bruno fu arso vivo il 17 febbraio del 1600 per difendere la vostra libertà di pensiero, e anche la mia. Se parlassi con lo stomaco bestemmierei ancora una volta contro una Chiesa che nel corso dei secoli non ha mai smesso di fare schifo, ma poi di grazia non ne ho troppa voglia, che oggi è bel giorno e far calare Santi dal cielo non serve a molto, quindi dico solo grazie a questo filosofo che ha contribuito, pagando con la vita, a rendere il nostro mondaccio un posto un poco migliore.
Dietro al Candelaio, commedia in cinque atti, preceduta da una vagonata di dediche e di prologhi, si nasconde tutta la filosofia di Bruno, che si definiva "in tristitia hilaris in hilaritate tristis", ricordandoci l'ambivalenza della realtà, dove spesso follia e ragione si sfiorano da vicino, ma nella quale chi ha testa può ancora riuscire a trovare un qualche tipo di soddisfazione. E come dice sempre mio padre: "chi non ha testa ha gambe".
Dietro al Candelaio, commedia in cinque atti, preceduta da una vagonata di dediche e di prologhi, si nasconde tutta la filosofia di Bruno, che si definiva "in tristitia hilaris in hilaritate tristis", ricordandoci l'ambivalenza della realtà, dove spesso follia e ragione si sfiorano da vicino, ma nella quale chi ha testa può ancora riuscire a trovare un qualche tipo di soddisfazione. E come dice sempre mio padre: "chi non ha testa ha gambe".
February 6, 2017
While I love this work for lampooning the dark underbelly of the renaissance, it was shockingly profane for the 1500's. I'm amazed they were able to get away with publishing it. What was also interesting was seeing that the insults, schemes, and corrupt thought patterns of men and women have not really changed much since the 1500's. It has just become more normalized.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews