Poetry

Giordano Bruno’s Journey To London

by Armando Halpern

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was a Renaissance philosopher who spent most of his life in motion, mostly to escape prosecution from the Inquisition, but also to seek out rare books and knowledge. He lived in Venice, Geneva, Toulouse, London, Oxford, Wittenberg, Prague and Frankfurt. His fiery spirit, together with his controversial teachings, which covered topics such as the multiplicity of the worlds, the defence of heliocentrism, and pantheism, won him plenty of enemies. After his return to Venice he was seized by the Inquisition. Although he recanted, he was sent to Rome where, after nearly eight years of interrogation, he refused to recant a second time. He was burnt at the stake at Campo dei Fiori on 17th February 1600.

And so you went while feeding your inner hunger,
when a sea was a sea and a mile still a mile,
when knowing was so demanding and so valuable

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