viii GIORDANO BRUNO 



Bruno is based upon the documents published by 

 Berti, Dufour, and others, and on the personal refer- 

 ences in Bruno's own works. I have tried to throw 

 some light on Bruno's life in England, on his relations 

 with the French Ambassador, Mauvissiere, and on his 

 share in some of the literary movements of the time. 

 I have, however, been no more successful than others 

 in finding any documents referring directly to Bruno's 

 visit to England. 



In the second part The Philosophy of Bruno I 

 have sought to give not a systematic outline of Bruno's 

 philosophy as a whole under the various familiar head- 

 ings, which would prove an almost impossible task, but 

 a sketch, as nearly as possible in Bruno's own words, of 

 the problems which interested this mind of the six- 

 teenth century, and of the solutions offered. The first 

 chapter points out the sources from which Bruno derived 

 the materials of his thinking. The succeeding chapters 

 are devoted to some of the main works of Bruno, the 

 Causa (Chapter II.), Infinite and De Immense (Chapters 

 III. and IV.), De Minimo (Chapter V.), Spaccio (Chap- 

 ter VI.), and Heroici Furori (Chapter VII.), and contain 

 as little as possible of either criticism or comment, except 

 in so far as these are implied in the selection and arrange- 

 ment of the material. I have adopted this method 

 partly because Bruno's works are still comparatively 

 unknown to the English reader, and partly because his 

 style, full as it is of obscurities, redundances, repetitions, 

 lends itself to selection, but not easily to compact ex- 

 position. Several phases of Bruno's activity I have left 



