Perspectives on Giordano Bruno

This book presents a series of studies on key aspects of the philosophical thought of this versatile Renaissance philosopher. The essays, written at conferences in German, English and Italian, focus on one work in particular: "Spaccio de la bestia trionfante" ("The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast"), a dialogue that appeared during Bruno's stay in London in 1585. Recurrent topics are Bruno's style and his views on language. Blum is a wayward and independent Bruno researcher, she shuns unnecessary polemics, but she does not shy away from clear-cut statements and taking precise positions in the international Bruno debate. The first essay is a kind of Bruno-encyclopedia in nuce, which through a bird eye's view focusses not only on his biography, education and the arising new world view in the Renaissance, but which also makes an effort to define the central issues in Bruno's philosophy, including those regarding God, the world (infinite universe as unity of form and matter, the end of man's privileged position), the theory of knowledge (moderate relativism), magic, religion, and his idea of the symbolic representation of truth. The second paper examines Bruno's position regarding religion in general, and the Christian confessions in particular, in relation with philosophy and politics. Here, Blum decidedly rejects the several partisan and tendentious interpretations of Bruno and she distances herself from the many attempts of distortion of Bruno's thought for the demands of later ideologies. Then follows a short essay with the apparently anachronistic title "Giordano Bruno's criticism of globalization", which focusses on Bruno's rejection of internationalism, as he was firmly convinced of the need to respect the peoples's will to live their own way of life. The next essay entitled "Conflicting forces: the tensions between universal providence, chance, and human agency in Giordano Bruno's ‚Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast'" offers an indepth analysis of fate, providence and fortune in this dialogue. At the outset Blum clearly defines these three concepts: regards the law and order of the entire material universe (universal change in temporal succession); "providence" relates to the individual and to small events, it is the link between the universal cause and the remote, individual effect; finally, "fortune" is viewed as random occurrence, it interferes only with purposes, with the voluntary choices of reasonable creatures. For Bruno the issue of human free will and agency is not a metaphysical but a practical problem: he sees no opposition between providence and human agency, on the contrary, human rationality and purposefulness are firmly embedded in, and an integral part of, universal providence. Providence counts on man's meddling with the course of things and employing magical practices in order to obtain special benefices from the gods. It embraces all human deeds and misdeeds. Now, while providence favors human activity, fortune is its false friend and true enemy. Only visible in relation to intelligent purpose, which it may favor or cross, fortune's main job in the order of things is to disappoint hopes, spoil plans, and frustrate expectations. The fifth essay is devoted to Bruno's choice for the vernacular in his dialogues published in London (1584-1585). Blum extensively discusses and dismisses the several historical options for explaining this choice, among which (1) new subject required new language and (2) his contempt of universities and his presumed desire to please the local court. She asks attention for the presence of Italian heterodox refugees (Pietro Martire Vermigli) in London and their importance in the formation of the Anglican Church, the personal interest of Elisabeth I in the sermons of Bernardino Ochino, and the role played by Reginald Pole (restored Catholicism under Mary, while he was seen as suspect by Rome). Thus, "Bruno succeeded in uniting a widely divergent and scattered set of contemporary impulses and ideas into a rather convincing and mostly consistent philosophical system". Indeed, Bruno fully developed the critical potentialities of the vernacular dialogue. Turning upside down traditional values and certainties merely based on a consuetudo credendi, Bruno's dialogues can be viewed as a "laboratory", that is, as a set of experimental texts which inherit the most innovative aspects of what can be defined as an "alternative classicism" and thus of the heterodox strand of Renaissance literature and philosophy: from Pietro Aretino to Anton Francesco Doni, and from Ortensio Lando to Nicolò Franco.