The Heroic Enthusiasts

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Eroici Furori), by Giordano Bruno
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Title: The Heroic Enthusiasts,(1 of 2) (Gli Eroici Furori)
An Ethical Poem
Author: Giordano Bruno
Translator: L. Williams
Release Date: November 15, 2006 [EBook #19817]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ENTHUSIASTS ***
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THE
HEROIC ENTHUSIASTS
(_GLI EROICI FURORI_)
An Ethical poem
BY GIORDANO BRUNO

PART THE FIRST
TRANSLATED BY
L. WILLIAMS
_WITH AN INTRODUCTION, COMPILED CHIEFLY FROM
DAVID LEVI'S
GIORDANO BRUNO O LA RELIGIONE DEL
PENSIERO_
LONDON
GEORGE REDWAY
YORK STREET, COVENT
GARDEN
1887
PREFACE.
When this Translation was begun, more than two years ago, for my
own pleasure, in leisure hours, I had no knowledge of the difficulty I
should find in the work, nor any thought of ever having it printed; but
as "Gli Eroici Furori" of Giordano Bruno has never appeared in English,
I decided to publish that portion of it which I have finished.
I wish to thank those friends who have so kindly looked over my work
from time to time, and given me their help in the choice of words and
phrases. I must, moreover, confess that I am keenly alive to the
shortcomings and defects of this Translation.
I have used the word "Enthusiasts" in the title, rather than
"Enthusiasms," because it seemed to me more appropriate.
L. W.
FOLKSTONE, _September 1887_.
ERRATA
Page 3, line 10, _for_ "also mother" _read_ "also my mother." Page 47,
line 9, _for_ "poisons" _read_ "poison."

INTRODUCTION.
Nola, a city founded by the Chalcidian Greeks, at a short distance from
Naples and from Vesuvius, was the birth-place of Giordano Bruno. It is
described by David Levi as a city which from ancient times had always
been consecrated to science and letters. From the time of the Romans to
that of the Barbarians and of the Middle Ages, Nola was conspicuous
for culture and refinement, and its inhabitants were in all times
remarkable for their courteous manners, for valour, and for keenness of
perception. They were, moreover, distinguished by their love for and
study of philosophy; so that this city was ever a favourite
dwelling-place for the choice spirits of the Renaissance. It may also be
asserted that Nola was the only city of Magna Græcia which, in spite of
the persecutions of Pagan emperors and Christian princes and clergy,
always preserved the philosophical traditions of the Pythagoreans, and
never was the sacred fire on the altar of Vesta suffered to become
entirely extinct. Such was the intellectual and moral atmosphere in
which Bruno passed his childhood. His paternal home was situated at
the foot of Mount Cicada, celebrated for its fruitful soil. From early
youth his pleasure was to pass the night out on the mountain, now
watching the stars, now contemplating the arid, desolate sides of
Vesuvius. He tells how, in recalling those days--the only peaceful ones
of his life--he used to think, as he looked up at the infinite expanse of
heaven and the confines of the horizon, with the towering volcano, that
this must be the ultimate end of the earth, and it appeared as if neither
tree nor grass refreshed the dreary space which stretched out to the foot
of the bare smoky mountain. When, grown older, he came nearer to it,
and saw the mountain so different from what it had appeared, and the
intervening space that, seen from afar, had looked so bare and sterile,
all covered with fruit-trees and enriched with vineyards, he began to
see how illusory the judgment of the senses may be; and the first doubt
was planted in his young soul as he perceived that, while the mind may
grasp Nature in her grandeur and majesty, the work of the sage must be
to examine her in detail, and penetrate to the cause of things. When he
appeared before the tribunal of the Holy Office at Venice, being asked
to declare who and what he was, he said: "My name is Giordano, of the
family of Bruno, of the city of Nola, twelve miles from Naples. There

was I born and brought up. My profession has been and is that of letters,
and of all the sciences. My father's name was Giovanni, and my mother
was Francesca Savolini; and my father was a soldier. He is dead, and
also mother. I am forty-four years old, having been born in 1548."