In this volume, Germano Maifreda elevates the analysis of the trial of Giordano Bruno da Nola, the most prolific and intriguing intellectual/philosopher and renegade friar of early modern Italy, to the next level of sophistication and rigor. Maifreda, a renowned scholar of the economics of the Italian Inquisition, presents a microhistorical study that was originally published in Italian in 2018 but here includes a new introduction. The study brings to light new interpretations extrapolated from inquisitorial account books and ledgers kept during the eighty months of Bruno's imprisonment in Venice from 1592 to 1593 and in Rome from 1593 to 1600. Maifreda's main discovery is the recurring hovering presence of a Capuchin friar, Giovan Antonio Arrigoni, alias Celestino da Verona, who gave testimony against Bruno on more than one occasion, and who happened to be in prison at the same time as Bruno in both Venice and Rome. Maifreda traces the political factions, alliances, and dynamics that might have caused this monk to be placed in the same prison as Bruno, enabling him to persuade the philosopher to choose death rather than recantation.
Maifreda convincingly argues that the Roman Inquisition—an elitist group of clergymen who were expected to dedicate their time and energy to maintaining religious purity in Italy—were transparent in neither their operations nor their application of procedures. The lack of any records of their actions could well indicate deviation from inquisitorial law or even foul play. Maifreda meticulously attempts to discern the power dynamics behind the actions of powerful people such as popes Sixtus V and Clement VIII; Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santori of Santa Severina, protector of the Capuchin Order; Inquisitor General Giovanni Vincenzo Arrigoni of Venice; and the Jesuit scientist Roberto Bellarmino.
Their particular actions (which might have included blackmail) related to the clash between the papacy and the Holy Office regarding the king of France, Henry IV of Bourbon, and the theoretical and doctrinal hardening in the Catholic Church. Bruno's trial also gives us a window into the complex interactions that took place between the local Holy Office in Venice, where the presence of three deputized laymen could limit the power of Rome's inquisitors and the Supreme Congregation of the Roman Holy Office that managed to extradite Bruno to Rome.
In his introduction, Maifreda provides his reader with Giordano Bruno's historical background and asks two fundamental questions. He asks, first, why Bruno, accused of opposing and denying elements of the Catholic faith, would choose to be burned at the stake, and, second, what really happened during the long years of his imprisonment and trial to influence that choice. Maifreda believes that Bruno thought of his trial as a political enterprise. For most of the eight years, Bruno attempted to save the fundamental principles of his philosophy and showed a full willingness to recant in order to save his life. Maifreda sensed Bruno's excitement, once he had been moved to Rome, that he might finally be able to launch the political project that he had developed in France, England, and Germany before Pope Clement VIII—a single ethical and philosophical religion, free of heresies and dogmas, but fundamentally Catholic. It is clear that when, on 10 September 1599, the philosopher changed his position and refused to recant, he had abandoned these aspirations.
Maifreda divides the book into three parts. Part 1 (chapters 1–4) describes the inquisitorial trial, states its questions and unresolved problems, and proposes an interpretive lens for what occurred. Part 2 (chapters 5–8) introduces the character of Celestino da Verona, and suggests how the Capuchin, after his arrest by the Inquisition, might have been manipulated by the Holy Office in the 1590s, and exploited to denounce and spy on Bruno. Part 3 (chapters 9–12) examines meticulously the trial events of 1599 and what sort of contact and interaction Celestino might have had with Bruno and the effect of this. Why, when Celestino da Verona was also imprisoned in 1599 in Rome and sentenced to death, was he given incomparably more food, provisions, and clothing (of a very different type) than all the other prisoners, including Giordano Bruno?
Maifreda allows us to enter the day-to-day running of inquisitorial prisons, their culture, and the potential interactions of the inmates during their long days and nights of incarceration. I conclude by emphasizing my enthusiasm for Maifreda's accomplishment. This is a profound and sophisticated study, and I have been enlightened by his provocative thinking.
