Bruno, Giordano

From Encyclopediak

Bruno, Giordano (1548-1603), a renowned Italian scholar and reformer. As a boy, his knowledge of science, mathematics and the classics was remarkable. He joined the Dominican Order and for thirteen years studied in monastic seclusion. He then abandoned the order and began a life of wandering in Europe,—France, England, and Germany,—writing, lecturing and teaching, ardently supporting tlie new learning ushering in the modern age. His activity excited the hostility of the Inquisition, he was arrested, confined in a dungeon for six years, then burned to death in a public square in Rome. In 1889 a statue was erected on the place of execution to commemorate his life work for intellectual and religious freedom.