Routledge History of Philosophy Volume IV

RENAISSANCE AND SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY RATIONALISM 45
that of ancient Egypt, as portrayed in the Hermetic corpus; a religion which left
behind Christian superstitions, such as transubstantiation and the virgin birth, and
adopted in their place beliefs and values that reflected the cosmological, physical
and metaphysical principles which he had uncovered. 179 Bruno was not simply
defending the rights of reason, he was usurping those of faith; and it was this, far
more than his espousal of Copernicanism or the infinite universe, which led the
Church to burn him at the stake on 17 February 1600. 180
Some of Bruno’s ideas had a limited influence after his execution, but his
philosophy never gained a wide following. 181 Nor did that of other sixteenthcentury
opponents of Aristotelianism, although individual doctrines gained the
approval of later thinkers. The critiques of Peripatetic philosophy formulated in
the late Italian Renaissance undoubtedly helped to weaken it, but it was the
scientific and epistemological revolutions of the seventeenth century which
delivered the death blow.
NOTES
1 Pietro d’Abano (c. 1250–1316) noted that this outlook had been endorsed by
Albertus Magnus: Pietro d’Abano [1.29], diff. IX, propter 3; see also Paschetto [1.
40].
2 E.g. Blasius of Parma (Biagio Pelacani, c. 1365–1416): see Blasius of Parma [1.
22], I.8, and also Federici Vescovini [1.33].
3 Pietro d’Abano [1.29], diff. IX, propter 3; Blasius of Parma [1.22], 58. See
Aristotle, De caelo I.10 and Physics VIII.
4 Blasius of Parma [1.22], 71; see also Federici Vescovini [1.33], 395–402; Nardi [1.
14], 47–8, 55–8, 71–3.
5 Petrarch [1.25], 21; see also Foster [1.34]; Mann [1.39]; Kristeller [1.11], ch. 1.
6 Petrarch [1.30], 58–9, 76; see also Garin [1.6], 149–50.
7 Petrarch [1.31], vol. 1, 37 (I.7); see also Petrarch [1.27], 52 (Secretum I); Petrarch
[1.28], 75.
8 Petrarch [1.25], vol. 3, 213 (XVI.14); Petrarch [1.32], 245–8 (Seniles V.2); see also
Garin [1.6], 150–2; Gilbert [1.36], 210–16; Vasoli [1.19], 9–15.
9 Petrarch [1.24], 40, 62, 65; see also Kamp [1.37].
10 Petrarch [1.30], 53; see also Petrarch [1.26], 65 (II.31); Petrarch [1.24], 61.
11 Petrarch [1.26], 65 (II.31); Petrarch [1.24], 67.
12 Petrarch [1.30], 142–3 (Seniles XII.2 and XV.6); Petrarch [1.32], 247 (Seniles V.
2); see also Kamp [1.37], 37–9; Kristeller [1.10], vol. 1, 210; Garin [1.6], 147–9.
13 See, for example, Kuksewicz [1.23], 127–46.
14 Petrarch [1.30], 93, 95, 117.
15 Petrarch [1.26], 27–9 (I.25); Petrarch [1.30], 58, 72, 75; Petrarch [1.25], vol. 1, 93
(II.9), vol. 3, 255 (XVII.8); see also Gerosa [1.35]; Kamp [1.37]; Garin [1.6], 269,
277.
16 Petrarch [1.24], 58, 94. On the availability of Plato in Latin see p. 26 below.
17 Petrarch [1.24], 76. On the Greek manuscript see Kristeller [1.12], 57, 153–4.