MAN IN FLAMES

by Serge Filippini

Rome, 10th February 1600. In seven days' time, the poet-philosopher Giordano Bruno will burn at the stake, condemned by the Inquisition for his 'heretical' beliefs. Defiant to the last, he refuses to recant and spends his remaining days writing the story of his own turbulent life.
Pugnacious and earthy, Bruno has incurred the enmity of corrupt, bigoted churchmen and academics, and been forced to travel the length and breadth of Europe, battling to teach and publish his that the universe is infinite and in perpetual motion, that God is not outside the world but everywhere in Nature, and that men should be free to think as they choose.
Bruno's charisma and talent have won him many friends and admirers in high Henri III of France, Montaigne, Philip Sydney, Arcimboldo the painter, and a brilliant, seductive young actor called Snitterfield, soon to become famous and change his name to Shakespeare; and the handsome, elegant Cecil, Bruno's greatest love and inspiration.

367 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Henry Gee]

To the modern mind, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) is a martyr to an embryonic science in an age of intolerant religion, burned at the stake for his doctrine that each star was a Sun with its own system of planets. There was more to it, of course. In addition to his cosmological speculations, Bruno evolved a philosophy -- even a religion -- based on the idea that God lived in all things, and that people should be free to worship as they wished. It was a dangerous time to hold such views, and Bruno was nothing if not tactless in promoting his prolific works and disparaging of anyone who didn't agree with him. Not surprisingly he made more enemies than friends and was forced to leave the city in which he resided at any time and hit the road. He never stayed anywhere long, and lived the life of a perpetually peripatetic scholar (nowadays we'd call this a 'postdoc'), picking up lecturing jobs where he could before the tides of religion and politics turned against him. Born in what was then the Kingdom of Naples and initially a Dominican monk -- before he was (inevitably) excommunicated -- he progressed through Italy, Switzerland, France, England, France again, Germany and was lured back to Italy where, in Venice, he was betrayed, imprisoned, tried, transferred to Rome, tried again, and finally executed. The Man In Flames is the autobiography he (probably) never wrote, during the final ten days of his life, as revealed to author Serge Filippini and translated from the French by Liz Nash. The book stays fairly close to what is known of his life, but of course takes some license,  allowing us to meet, through Bruno's eyes, contemporaries such as Montaigne, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Giacomo Archimboldo, Philip Sidney, King Henri III of France, Queen Elizabeth I of England and even a young William Shakespeare. A story of passionate love runs through the book like a thread: the love of Bruno's life is Cecil, a brother of Philip Sidney, who, as a diplomat to the Venetian Republic, is unlike Bruno in every way. Cecil is calm and urbane where Bruno is an excitable loudmouth who promotes his heterodox views to everyone he meets, whether they are welcome or not. Even Cecil cannot save Bruno from a fate that he seems to have brought upon himself. As a book, The Man In Flames is an enjoyable, occasionally scatological romp through an often lethally turbulent time in early modern history.

[Nikos Pappas]

μόνο στα γαλλικά, το λήμμα Serge Filippini στη Wikipedia. η (κατά τ' άλλα) φρικώδης υπόθεση της Ιεράς Εξέτασης και της γενικευμένης σκοτεινιάς του Μεσαίωνα είναι ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον εκτεταμένο πεδίο μελέτης, αλλά και ένα ατμοσφαιρικό πλαίσιο καλλιτεχνικής δημιουργίας (για τους απανταχού γκοθάδες), με κύριο εκπρόσωπο τον Έκο (και την εφιαλτική έκο των στοών της λαβυρινθώδους βιβλιοθήκης του μοναστηριού των Βενεδικτίνων στο Όνομα του Ρόδου). πόθεν προκύπτει η μετάφραση του τίτλου στα ελληνικά δε γνωρίζω, θυμίζει λίγο τον ζήλο των πάλαι ποτέ συνοικιακών κινηματογράφων. Σινέ Σιβιλιάνα, όλο συγκίνηση και πάθος. εκτός αν εννοεί τον έρωτα για τη γνώση. σε κάθε περίπτωση ευχαριστούμε, γιατί μέσα από το βιβλίο μαθαίνουμε (όσοι αγνοούσαμε) για τον Giordano Bruno, which is great, και επομένως την κριτική για τη μυθιστορηματική διασκεύη της ζωής του από τον Filippini την αφήνω για πιο προχωρημένους. κλισέ η λέξη, αλλά είναι συγκλονιστικό να καίγεται ένας άνθρωπος επειδή ψαχνόταν λίγο παραπάνω και το ανακοίνωσε. από τη Wiki: "κατά την επικρατούσα άποψη των μελετητών καταδικάστηκε λόγω μη αποκήρυξης των απόψεων του". κατά μια εναλλακτική θεωρία, επειδή τους χάλασε το γεωκεντρικό μοντέλο του Κόσμου. η εναλλακτική ίδια με την επικρατούσα, δηλαδή.

σερνάμενοι στον ανηλεή Ιούλιο ήλιο της Ρώμης, συναντήσαμε τυχαία το μνημείο του Giordano Bruno στην πλατεία Campo de' Fiori, τοποθετημένο αντιδιαμετρικά (με άξονα τον Τίβερη) του Βατικανού, στο μέσο μόνιμης λαϊκής αγοράς.

με την άδεια των ΚΒ και ΜΔ,
πόσο κοστίζει να 'σαι νέος και ελεύθερος χωρίς αναστολή?