The Monument to Giordano Bruno, created by

Ettore Ferrari Ettore Ferrari (Rome, 25 March 1845 – Rome, 19 August 1929) was an Italian sculptor. Biography Born in Rome to an artistic family (his father was also a painter), Ferrari was one of the members of the artistic rebirth in the secular state bo ...

, was erected in 1889 at

Campo de' Fiori Campo de' Fiori (, literally "field of flowers") is a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, at the border between rione Parione and rione Regola. It is diagonally southeast of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and one block north ...

square in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy, to commemorate the italian philosopher

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (; ; la, Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; born Filippo Bruno, January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmologic ...

, who was burned there in 1600. Since its inception the idea of a monument dedicated to the executed heretic located in Rome, once the capital of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

, has generated controversy between anti-clerical and those more aligned with the Roman Catholic church.

Description

The inscription on the base recites: ( en, To Bruno - The Age he Predicted (erected this monument) - Here Where the Stake Burned) Along the top of the plinth are eight medallions with bust reliefs; they depict the Venetian

Paolo Sarpi Paolo Sarpi (14 August 1552 – 15 January 1623) was a Venetian historian, prelate, scientist, canon lawyer, and statesman active on behalf of the Venetian Republic during the period of its successful defiance of the papal interdict (1605–16 ...

, the Calabrian

Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and w ...

, the French

Petrus Ramus Petrus Ramus (french: Pierre de La Ramée; Anglicized as Peter Ramus ; 1515 – 26 August 1572) was a French humanist, logician, and educational reformer. A Protestant convert, he was a victim of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Early life ...

, the Roman

Lucilio Vanini Lucilio Vanini (15859 February 1619), who, in his works, styled himself Giulio Cesare Vanini, was an Italian philosopher, physician and free-thinker, who was one of the first significant representatives of intellectual libertinism. He was amon ...

, the Italian

Aonio Paleario Aonio Paleario (c. 1500July 3, 1570) was an Italian Christian termed a '' reformer''.William M. Blackburn, The Italian Reformer: The LIfe and Martyrdom of Aonio Paleario and the Book 'The Benefit of Christ's Death'," Solid Ground Christian Books, h ...

; the Spaniard Michele Serveto, the English

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...

, and the Bohemian

Jan Hus Jan Hus (; ; 1370 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspir ...

. In 1991, it was rediscovered that the medallion with a bust of Vanini, also had a small portrait of

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

. All these individuals had clashed with religious authorities; all but Serveto (who was burned for heresy by Swiss Calvinists) had conflict with the Catholic church. The medallion depicting Paolo Sarpi, was previously intended to represent Galileo, but since the astronomer had recanted his beliefs, he was not felt to fit in with the other recalcitrant thinkers. Base of Giordano Bruno monument by Ettore Ferrari, side 1 of 4, 1889 - Rome, Italy - DSC09713.jpg, Sarpi and Campanella medallions Base of Giordano Bruno monument by Ettore Ferrari, side 2 of 4, 1889 - Rome, Italy - DSC09717.jpg, Ramus and Vanini medallions Base of Giordano Bruno monument by Ettore Ferrari, side 3 of 4, 1889 - Rome, Italy - DSC09719.jpg, Paleario and Serveto medallions Base of Giordano Bruno monument by Ettore Ferrari, side 4 of 4, 1889 - Rome, Italy - DSC09723.jpg, Wycliffe and Hus medallions

History

The sculptor,

, would later become the Grand master of the

Grande Oriente d'Italia The Grand Orient of Italy (GOI) ( it, Grande Oriente d'Italia) is an Italian masonic grand lodge founded in 1805; the viceroy Eugene of Beauharnais was instrumental in its establishment. It was based at the Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, Italy fro ...

, the

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

jurisdiction of Italy. Masons had strongly supported the removal of Papal rule of Rome, and its incorporation into either a republic or the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century Political movement, political and social movement that resulted in the Merger (politics), consolidation of List of historic stat ...

under the Piedmontese Savoyard monarchy. His other sculptures include a monument in

Rovigo Rovigo (, ; egl, Ruig) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of Northeast Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. Geography Rovigo stands on the low ground known as Polesine, by rail southwest of Venice and south-southwest of P ...

dedicated to

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...

, who fought for Italian independence. On 20 April 1884,

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

published the encyclical ''

Humanum genus ''Humanum genus'' is a papal encyclical promulgated on 20 April 1884 by Pope Leo XIII. Released in the ascent of the industrial age, Marxism, and the aftermath of the September 20, 1870, Capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy military forces ...

''. Soon after, the

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

decided to create a statue of the

pantheist Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...

. The monument was funded with private donations, mainly a subscription started by students at the University of Rome, and the national councils of state did not prevent its erection. The council of the commune of Rome approve on 10 December 1888, by vote of 36 to 13 , the location of the monument to Campo di Fiori. There was strong opposition by the Catholic church against what was viewed as an ''offense against religion''. The statue was unveiled on 9 June 1889, at the site where Bruno was burnt at the stake for heresy on 17 February 1600, and the radical politician

Giovanni Bovio Giovanni Bovio (6 February 1837 – 15 April 1903) was an Italian philosopher and a politician of the Italian Republican Party. Bovio was born in Trani. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy. He wr ...

gave a speech surrounded by about 100 Masonic flags. Since thousands of individuals and students aligned with anticlerical movements had congregated in Rome for the unveiling, the Vatican had closed the museum and warned local churches and parishes to shutter their doors to avoid confrontations or incidents from what they considered an atheistic mob. In October 1890, Pope Leo XIII issued a further warning to Italy in his encyclical '' Ab Apostolici'' against Freemasonry; he commented on the monument in the following passage:

that eminently sectarian work, the erection of the monument to the renowned apostate of Nola, which, with the aid and favour of the government, was promoted, determined, and carried out by means of Freemasonry, whose most authorised spokesmen were not ashamed to acknowledge its purpose and to declare its meaning. Its purpose was to insult the Papacy; its meaning that, instead of the Catholic Faith, must now be substituted the most absolute freedom of examination, of criticism, of thought, and of conscience: and what is meant by such language in the mouth of the sects is well known.

Present day

Every year, on the anniversary of his execution, various groups of

freethinkers Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

—

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

pantheists Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...

— gather at the monument, and a representative of

's mayoralty places a wreath at its feet. A statue of a stretched human figure standing on its head designed by

Alexander Polzin Alexander Polzin (born 1973) is a German sculptor, painter, graphic artist, costume and set designer. Life Born in Berlin, originally trained as a stonemason, Polzin launched his international career as a freelance sculptor, painter, graphic ar ...

depicting Bruno's death at the stake was placed in

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corne ...

station in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany on March 2, 2008.http://bruno-denkmal.de/index.html Bruno-Denkmal website in German

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruno Giordano 1889 sculptures Outdoor sculptures in Rome Freemasonry in Italy Bronze sculptures in Rome Cultural depictions of Giordano Bruno Monuments and memorials in Rome