Burnin' For You

"Perhaps you, my judges, pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it."

These were the final words of Giordano Bruno, a man I knew nothing about. His haunting statue is the focal point of a plaza, the Campo de' Fiori, that was just outside our hotel.

Now, after a bit of reading, I know his statue marks the spot where he was stripped naked and burned at the stake, just after having his jaw locked into an iron gag and having a spike driven through his tongue.

Bruno was convicted of numerous crimes by the Roman Inquisition. He had some very controversial views for his era, including the whole 'the earth isn't the center of the universe' idea. He also held beliefs that had contradictions with the Christian idea of the Trinity. Further, he apparently had developed a system of mnemomics that provided him with an incredible memory. This brought him both some fame and some problems. The fame side landed him a job teaching a duke of Venice his memory tricks. The problems came when some of his critics attributed his abilities to magic. Eventually, his gig with the Duke went sour and the Duke turned him in to the Man aka the Inquisition. It was downhill from there. The final straw was when Pope Clemente VIII showed he was in favor of a guilty verdict. On February 17, 1600, he was executed.

400 hundred years later, a statement was issued during the papacy of John Paul II, basically saying they were sorry and that mistakes had been made regarding his execution. Not every one agrees, but Bruno is now considered to be a significant contributor to modern chains of thought in both science and philosophy. The statue above was erected in 1889 and gazes in the direction of the Vatican. His story has been used in several literary works, fiction and not. He also has a crater on the moon named after him.

There, now we all know a little bit more about my creepy statue pic. Cheers!