[179] Bouterwek, Hist. of Spanish and Portuguese Literature, Eng. tr. 1823, i, 331. [↑]
[182] Bouterwek, whose sociology, though meritorious, is ill-clarified, argues that the Inquisition was in a manner congenital to Spain because before its establishment the suspicion of heresy was already “more degrading in Spain than the most odious crimes in other countries.” But the same might have been said of the other countries also. As to earlier Spanish heresy see above, vol. i, p. 337 sq. [↑]
[183] Despite the many fallacies retained by Copernicus from the current astronomy, he must be pronounced an exceptionally scientific spirit. Trained as a mathematician, astronomer, and physician, he showed a keen and competent interest in the practical problem of currency; and one of the two treatises which alone he published of his own accord was a sound scheme for the rectification of that of his own government. Though a canon of Frauenburg, he never took orders; but did manifold and unselfish secular service. [↑]
[184] It was shielded by thirteen popes—from Paul III to Paul V. [↑]
[185] Galileo, Dialogi dei due massimi sistemi del mondo, ii (Opere, ed. 1811, xi, 303–304). [↑]
[186] A good study of Bruno is supplied by Owen in his Skeptics of the Italian Renaissance. He has, however, omitted to embody the later discoveries of Dufour and Berti, and has some wrong dates. The Life of Giordano Bruno, by I. Frith (Mrs. Oppenheim), 1887, gives all the data, but is inadequate on the philosophic side. A competent estimate is given in the late Prof. Adamson’s lectures on The Development of Modern Philosophy, etc., 1903, ii, 23 sq.; also in his art. in Encyc. Brit. For a hostile view see Hallam, Lit. of Europe, ii, 105–111. The biography of Bartholmèss, Jordano Bruno, 1846, is extremely full and sympathetic, but was unavoidably loose as to dates. Much new matter has since been collected, for which see the Vita di Giordano Bruno of Domenico Berti, rev. and enlarged ed. 1889; Prof. J. L. McIntyre, Giordano Bruno, 1903; Dufour, Giordano Bruno à Génève: Documents Inédits, 1884; David Levi, Giordano Bruno, o la religione del pensiero: l’uomo, l’apostolo e il martire, 1887; Dr. H. Brunnhofer’s Giordano Bruno’s Weltanschauung und Verhängniss, 1882; and the doctoral treatise of C. Sigwart, Die Lebensgeschichte Giordano Brunos, Tübingen, 1880. For other authorities see Owen’s and I. Frith’s lists, and the final Literaturnachweis in Gustav Louis’s Giordano Bruno, seine Weltanschauung und Lebensverfassung, Berlin, 1900. The study of Bruno has been carried further in Germany than in England; but Mr. Whittaker (Essays and Notices, 1895) and Prof. McIntyre make up much leeway. [↑]
[187] Cp. Bartholmèss, i, 49–53; Lange, Gesch. des Materialismus, i, 191–94 (Eng. tr. i, 232); Gustav Louis, as cited, pp. 11, 88. [↑]