Giordano Bruno was born in January 1548 in Nola. An Italian philosopher, mathematician and former Dominican friar, Bruno was born in Nola near Naples. He embraced Copernicus's idea that the Earth moves and went further, proposing that the universe is infinite, with innumerable stars like our sun, perhaps with their own inhabited worlds. He also wrote on memory techniques and magic, and travelled widely, teaching in France, England and Germany. His views and his doubts about doctrines such as the Trinity brought him before the Inquisition, first in Venice and then in Rome, which imprisoned him for years. He refused to recant, and he was burned at the stake in Rome in 1600. Historians debate how far he was a martyr for science or for religious dissent.
Before and after
- from 1547 to 1721Tsardom of Russia
- 28 January 1547Death of Henry VIII of England
- 29 September 1547Birth of Miguel de Cervantes
- 2 December 1547Death of Hernán Cortés
- January 1548Birth of Giordano Bruno
- 1550Construction of Süleymaniye Mosque
- 1550Founding of Concepción
- 1 February 1550Birth of John Napier
- 12 June 1550Founding of Helsinki
More in Science & technology
- 15 February 1564Birth of Galileo Galilei
- 24 February 1582Pope Gregory XIII reforms the calendar
- 25 December 1642Birth of Isaac Newton
- 1654Magdeburg hemispheres
- October 1684Leibniz publishes the first paper on calculus
- 28 August 1749Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.