Giordano Bruno and the new order of nature between Copernicus and Galilei

Even though the presence of hermetical and magical themes in G. Bruno’s thought is duly acknowledged, it is not possible to neglect the great contribution given by the most eminent Italian Renaissance philosopher to the rise and early development of modern scientific thought. Haunted by a true passion for natural inquire, he resolutely interpreted the Copernican system as a physical reality rather than as a mere calculation device, in agreement with Copernicus’s himself personal inspiration. Even more, he went beyond Copernicus in drawing cosmological consequences – as the elimination of heavenly spheres and the infinity and homogeneity of the universe – from that system. Besides, as a natural philosopher, though at a qualitative and non experimental level, Bruno originally developed the arguments leading to Galileo’s Principle of Relativity, even by anticipating some of his passages and expressions. Bruno’s atomism also approached, at least partially, Galileo’s view of nature, even though it was also characterized, at variance with this one, by vitalistic, hermetical and even mystical elements