Spaccio de la Bestia Trionfante

by Giordano Bruno

lo Spaccio de la bestia trionfante è costituito da tre dialoghi di argomento morale. Le bestie trionfanti sono i segni delle costellazioni celesti, rappresentate da animali: occorre «spacciarle», cacciarle dal cielo in quanto rappresentanti vecchi vizi che è tempo di sostituire con moderne virtù, occorre una nuova serie di valori cui l'uomo moderno possa e debba fare riferimento.
Occorre tornare alla sincerità, semplicità e alla verità, ribaltando le concezioni morali che si sono ormai imposte nel mondo, secondo le quali le opere e gli affetti eroici sono privi di valore, dove credere senza riflettere è sapienza, dove le imposture umane sono fatte passare per consigli divini, la perversione della legge naturale è considerata pietà religiosa, studiare è follia, l'onore è posto nelle ricchezze, la dignità nell'eleganza, la prudenza nella malizia, l'accortezza nel tradimento, il saper vivere nella finzione, la giustizia nella tirannia, il giudizio nella violenza.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Fiction, Classics, Renaissance, Italian Literature, Literature

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1584

About the author

Giordano 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]

Reviews

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

More arcane allusions to mythology than mortal brains can handle. In a nutshell: "the Earth is not the center of the universe, and other reasons to get burned at the stake," should have been the subtitle, but look at the title itself; that should have been the subtitle, and a new title should've been chosen. The 16th Century wasn't known for slick marketing, sharp editors, or profit-driven publishers.

Bruno had an incredible mind. Writing poetry and symbolic dialogs were not even his greatest talents. He was a mathematician and a master of mnemonics. At times he is impressive in this, his most famous work. All the references to Egyptian gods and Greek myths get pretty tedious before long, though.

In the end he was mostly right, as far as we know cosmologically, and he died for it. Long live heliocentricity!

[Peter J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent, though difficult to source, work. Bruno is brilliant. He echoes a lot of Platonic and Pythagorean thought. This makes sense to those well versed in Plato, as the former is merely a refinement of the latter. What is tantalizing about Bruno is the possibility that he had access to additional Pythagoric materials, which are no longer extant today.
This man had the courage of a lion.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

What?! Only 3 stars for Giordano Bruno?! That's BLASPHEMY! Bruno is a fascinating & important figure to me - as are, probably, all 'heretics' - & I'll continue to read things by him (I have another in my library) but I think I'm too removed from his time to fully appreciate this. It was too esoteric in a particular way for me to successfully enter into it. &, for me, that's really saying something!

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allegorical & satirical. Defends reason/virtue & pantheism/humanism vs dogma/Christianity. (Crazily, we still contend with sola fide Protestants & Aristotelian Catholics.)

[James McCallister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four-hundred twenty years after his burning at the stake, the nolan's philosophic insights and mordant humor remain compelling.

The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast will be more difficult for readers lacking at least a cursory education in Hellenic and other classic mythology—I kept my encyclopedia of such material close at hand throughout the read. An understanding of Christian theology also helpful. Introductory material and endnotes provide an adequate depiction of Bruno's life and times, as well as explicating the text where necessary.

[Paul H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully batshit insane -- the Deleuze of the sixteenth century.

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard to give only two stars to something that someone was burned alive at the stake for writing. There are components where the beauty of the language, the subtle use of humor, and the presentation of the thought resulted in a discourse as profound as any I've read, but for the most part I felt I was wandering aimlessly through a diatribe that I can best describe (tongue in cheek) as 'the ravings of a heretic'. There are five stars within, but you have to want them.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

to read the description of this book - and the reaction of the Roman Catholic Church to it - one would think that it was capable of summoning satan...

unfortunately, i can attribute no such power to this book. in fact, it often seemed to me to be a classic Millenial text that the RCC has used to promote itself to the heathen since its origins...

[Mark Horvath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently concluded Ovid's Metamorphoses, it seemed apt to read a similar "classic." The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast may not be as well known, but it IS considered the quintessential work by Giordano Bruno. Bruno was a monk from Naples that in the later stages of the sixteenth century would be branded a heretic by the inquisition and subsequently burned at the stake, with some of the ideas included in this tome being parts of the reason for that result.

Fast forward more than 400 years and Bruno's surviving triumph suffers majorly from the differences of the eras. The philosophical discussion that creates the bulk of this work is handled through a council meeting of the gods, separating bad virtues from good ones, thus "expelling the beast." The idea sounds simple, but Bruno is very, VERY driven toward drilling the concept home. It can't even really be called a philosophical spoon-feed, since the philosophical debate portion of this work gets alienated once its realized how the structure of Bruno's ideas work. The nature to how the beasts are expelled and positive virtues attributed to heaven happens often, especially in the third dialogue where each zodiac sign gets assigned to them a cadre of positive merits while several negative ideas are purged.

This tome is excessive in every sense of the word. Even with this being a shorter treatise (extended in this edition by a historical preface and an afterward complete with bibliography and references) the repetition wears you down, making your eyes heavy and attention wane. Sad. I was excited about this one. The historical merit of it made it an even more seductive title. To feel this disparaged by the outcome, man, what a tremendous let-down.

[Voyageur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is basically proto-Nietzschean thinking and it surpasses the former as it enacts a deeper and more structured transvaluation of value and meaning. Bruno’s work is concerned with true superiority, not as domination or mere power, but as the establishment of a new internal hierarchy within the soul and society, rooted in self-legitimated excellence. In line with the humanist tradition of thought contemporary to him, he believes man is the only being capable of shaping his own essence. In Expulsion, the purging of vices is not a theological cleansing but a re-centering of man as the universe’s and his own architect. The triumph of The Expulsion is this: it portrays man not as a creature of nature, not as a servant of fate, but as the creator of gods. That is to say Bruno goes further into humanist thinking by affirming man’s agency. The main theme of this book is man as the sovereign self — self-ordered, self-ruled, and self-created. Too many are caught up in cosmology and the truckload of references to Antiquity to see this.

[DAVIDE CIRO COZZOLINO · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non colui che ha poco, ma quello che molto desidera, è veramente povero

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned about this work from the recent book The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt (about Lucretius). I have to admit I skimmed parts of the book. The book contains a fascinating introduction that discusses the career and ideas of Bruno. The work itself is a dialogue where the Gods (Olympian) decide to clean up their act. Contains some funny (and heretical) "set pieces" such as when Mercury must carry out every mundane act ordained by Jove in a small Italian village.

[Josh Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love probing the depths reinesance esotericism as much as the next guy but my best advice is to pick a second source. Bruno's mind is fascinating, and there's some brilliant moments in this book. It is also the most dense. Holy shit.