“My Profession Has Been and Is Letters and All Science.” Profile of a Defendant

This chapter reviews the fundamental stages of the personal and political-intellectual biography of Giordano Bruno, starting with his early days between Naples and Rome, through his travels in Calvinist Geneva and the sovereign courts of France, England and the Holy Roman Empire (Paris, London, Prague), up to his stay in Frankfurt in the early 1590s, where the philosopher’s intention to return to Italy matured. The goal of the chapter is to highlight the conception and evolution of what the book suggests was Bruno’s specific political project – the religious pacification of a Europe torn apart by religious wars – as well as the intellectual and interpersonal tools that Bruno brought to bear in its pursuit.