I am doing a school project in which we have to write about a great turning point in history. I chose to write about the Protestant Reformation, and how it dismantled the catholic churches power in europe. As you probably know, the protestants praised science and drew much inspiration from the ancient greeks. I want to use Giordano Bruno as an example of the catholic churches view of scientists at the time, and how it differs from the protestants. I have tried my best, but i cannot find a primary source from the trials of Giordano Bruno, can anyone help me out?
Let me start with the disclaimer that I am not an expert on Giordano Bruno. Which primary sources are available to you depends on whether or not you can read Latin, and how extensive of a collection your school has (or how long you are willing to wait for interlibrary loan).
The trial records are incomplete, and much of what does survive is not available electronically, or has not been translated into English (or both). Bruno’s trial lasted nearly eight years, so there was a lot of material. In case you haven’t found it yet, an English translation of the formal sentence against him is available here. Supposedly a larger collection of (Latin) trial documents is contained in Luigi Firpo’s Il Processo di Giordano Bruno, though it appears that the commentary is in Italian. I can’t find anything like a similar collection in English translation.
The classic text is Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances Yates, published in the 1960s. Some of her central claims have more recently been disputed, though it may still be a fine text if you're just looking for primary sources to quote. More recent English language works have been published by Alberto Martinez and Ingrid Rowland. Martinez’s Burned Alive: Bruno, Galileo and the Inquisition and Rowland’s Giordano Bruno: Philosopher/Heretic both lean towards being popular history, rather than strictly academic works, but Martinez and Rowland are both legitimate historians. Martinez in particular quotes the available primary sources pretty extensively. You might want to try to get your hands on a copy.
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