VMs: Giordano Bruno, was Re: Astrology etc.

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

Giordano Bruno is a truly interesting character.
Before going into Pamela's post, I'd like to mention
that there is a little-known threory that the VMs
was actually written by Bruno. I wonder if anyone
has read the publication in question and could
summarise its main points to the list. It is cited
at Jim Reeds' bibliography, which I cannot access
right now (I tried Stolfi's mirror copy).

Bruno was in Prague for a few months in 1588.
He dedicated a book to Rudolf, for which the
emperor gave him 300 Thalers.
(I have no no idea how that relates to ducats).

--- Pamela Richards <spirlhelix@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> [...] this one contains a description of the
historical
> setting of the few facts we know of the death of
> Giordano Bruno.  

[...]

> The records of Bruno's inquisition trial no longer
> exist, from what I understand.  So we are not able
> to state clearly for which of his unorthodox beliefs
> he suffered.  

What one may read in reliable literature is that
he stated that the Sun is not unique in the universe,
but that all stars are like our Sun; furthermore that
the universe is infinite. This was seen by the church
as an insult to God, for which he was burnt.
Rather, it was not so much his thesis, as the fact
that, when challenged by the church, he took a
polemic stance and refused to phrase his theory
in more acceptable terms. It is believed that he
should not have died if it weren't for this attitude.
 
> [...] he did concurr with Copernicus on the position
> of the Earth relative to the Sun, this was not the
> major thrust of his writing.

In my daily work (orbit computation of artificial
satellites) I don't know what is the centre of the
Universe but I do know what is the centre of my
coordinates system, and that is the centre of
the Earth. Thus, I use the Tychonic system:
Moon and Sun revolve around the Earth and the
rest revolves about the Sun. I also know that it
doesn't matter at all. Now why did it matter to
the people in the 15th-17th Century? That is
because they came from the belief that the 
heavenly bodies were attached to crystalline spheres,
so their orbits could never intersect (it would
shatter
the spheres).
Bruno also maintained that this idea of crystalline
spheres was 'silly', and modern thought of course
agrees with him (as it does on the topic of
Sun and stars).

Cheers, Rene


		
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