i PADUA : VENICE 69 



the rumour, although I have it on good authority. You 

 shall tell me whether it is true or false." But clearly 

 ill rumours were spreading, for on the third of March March 3, 

 he wrote in a different tone, " I no longer wonder about 

 that other sophist, so diverse and incredible are the tales 

 I hear daily of him here." l Probably Bruno did not 

 understand what manner of reputation he had ; he still 

 regarded himself as belonging to the Catholic Church. 

 Ciotto deposed he had heard nothing from Bruno's lips 

 which might suggest a doubt of his being a good 

 Catholic and Christian. Venice was a free and powerful 

 state, Mocenigo the son of a powerful house, so that he 

 may well have looked for safety ; and it was his beloved 

 Italy, for which he had never ceased to yearn since the 

 day he had crossed the Alps. 



To Venice, at any rate, he came, living for a time by 

 himself, and spending some three months also at Padua, 

 the neighbouring university town, where he gathered 

 pupils about him, and wrote as constantly as before. 

 Some manuscripts that were bought in Paris a few years 

 ago, and which had belonged to Bruno, were partly 

 written in the hand of one of these pupils, Jerome 

 Besler, whom Bruno had known in Helmstadt, and who 

 acted there as his copyist. Others of his German, and 

 possibly some English friends were met with at this 

 renowned university. 2 It was only a few months after 

 he left that Galilei was invited to teach in Padua " the 

 creator of modern science following in the steps of its 

 prophet." 3 The university was in a state of ferment 

 at the time Bruno arrived, one of the hottest disputes 

 being that between the students and certain professors, 



1 Vide Op. Lot., vol i., introd. p. xx. 



2 Bertano described him as lecturing at Padua to some German scholars (Doc. 7). 

 On Beder, and Bruno's connection with him, f . Stblzle, Archil) f. Geschichte d. 

 PhiL, iii. 3 Riehl, Giordano Bruno, 



