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In 1600, Giordano Bruno, one of the leading intellectuals of the Renaissance, was burned at the stake on the charge of heresy by the Roman Inquisition. He is remembered primarily for his cosmological theories, particularly that the universe was infinite with the Earth not being at its centre. Today, he has become a symbol of the struggle for religious and philosophical tolerance. The Trial of Giordano Bruno, originally published in Italian in 2018, provides English audiences with a complete and updated reconstruction of the inquisitorial trial by analysing the accusations, witnesses, and legal proceedings in detail. The author also gives a detailed profile of Bruno as well as the body which arrested and accused him – the Inquisition. This book will appeal to all those interested in the life and death of Giordano Bruno, as well as those interested in Early Modern legal proceedings, the Roman Inquisition, and the history of religious and philosophical tolerance.
This treatise investigates the emergence of the early modern law of nations, focusing on Alberico Gentili’s contribution to the same. A religious refugee and Regius Professor at the University of Oxford, Alberico Gentili (1552–1608) lived in difficult times of religious wars and political persecution. He discussed issues that were topical in his lifetime and remain so today, including the clash of civilizations, the conduct of war, and the maintenance of peace. His idealism and political pragmatism constitute the principal reasons for the continued interest in his work. Gentili’s work is important for historical record, but also for better analysing and critically assessing the origins of international law and its current developments, as well as for elaborating its future trajectories.
In The Radical Reformation and the Making of Modern Europe, Mario Biagioni presents an account of the lives and thoughts of some radical reformers of the sixteenth century (Bernardino Ochino, Francesco Pucci, Fausto Sozzini, and Christian Francken), showing that the Radical Reformation was not merely a subplot of heretical history within the larger narrative of the Magisterial Reformation. Religious radicalism was primarily an extraordinary laboratory of ideas, which played a pivotal role in the rise of modern Europe: it influenced the intellectual process leading to the cultural revolution of the Enlightenment. Secularism, toleration, and rationalism ― three basic principles of Western civilization ― are part of its cultural heritage.
Migration is a problem of highest importance today, and likewise is its history. Italian migrants who had to leave the peninsula in the long sixteenth century because of their heterodox Protestant faith is a topic that has its deep roots in Italian Renaissance scholarship since Delio Cantimori: It became a part of a twentieth century form of Italian leyenda negra in liberal historiography. But its international dimension and Central Europe (not only Germany) as destination of that movement has often been neglected. Three different levels of connectivity are addressed: the materiality of communication (travel, printing, the diffusion of books and manuscripts); individual migrants and their biographies and networks; and the cultural transfers, discourses, and ideas migrating in one or in both directions.
Delving into the life and work of John Dee, Renaissance mathematician and "conjurer to Queen Elizabeth," György E. Szo‹nyi presents an analysis of Renaissance occultism and its place in the chronology of European cultural history. Culling examples of "magical thinking" from classical, medieval, and Renaissance philosophers, Szo‹nyi revisits the body of Dee's own scientific and spiritual writings as reflective sources of traditional mysticism. Exploring the intellectual foundations of magic, Szo‹nyi focuses on the ideology of exaltatio, the glorification or deification of man. He argues that it was the desire for exaltatio that framed and tied together the otherwise varied thoughts and activities of John Dee as well.
Gaetano Salvemini (1873 – 1957), one of the most influential Italian intellectuals of his generation, was an historian, a professor, and a tireless anti-fascist who mentored a new generation of young intellectuals and political activists, such as Piero Gobetti, Ernesto Rossi, and Carlo & Nello Rosselli. After losing his wife and children in the 1908 Messina earthquake, Salvemini began a new family with his second wife, Fernande Dauriac, and her two children, Jean and Ghita. Yet, despite its marked influence on his life and politics, Salvemini’s second family and its involvement with fascism has never been studied before. By exploiting hitherto unused archival sources, The Inimical Son explores an until-now little known dimension of Salvemini's life; it uncovers the personal costs of his anti-fascism, including the tragic embrace of fascism by his stepson, Jean Luchaire.
Publisher Description
Giordano Bruno is known as the Prophet of the New Age, and his vision of an infinite universe grounded in science is increasingly celebrated. One of the principal forces behind his rediscovery was the great British historian Frances Yates. In calling attention to Giordono Bruno, she paved the way for a revaluation of the esoteric influences at play during the onset of the modern era. Today, when traditional answers about the universe and our place within it are under increasing scrutiny, Giordono Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition proves itself a true classic for our time.