BRUNO, Giordano. Le ciel réformé. Essai de traduction de partie du livre italien, Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante. [Paris], 1750 [L'an 1000 700 50]
Estimation :
Start Price 1 300 €
Description
Small 8vo, mm. 150x98; Nice contemporary calf binding, triple gilded rules on the covers, spine enhanced, marbled endpapers, red edges; pp. 4 nn., 92. Half Title and Titlepage in red and black, vignette engraved on Titlepage. Bibliographic note written in french with black ink in the first endpaper, signature of ancient owner at the Halftitle.
Very rare first French edition. This is the first translation into French of the Sale of the Triumphant Beast, and presumably the second absolute translation of a work of Bruno, preceded only by the equally rare first English translation of the same book, in 1713. This work greatly influenced the French 0Enlightenment, who did not know the worldview of Bruno, condemned for his extreme and provocative thesis.
Copenhaver & Schmitt: “The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast" constitutes one of Bruno's main works and that of his works which proved to be most influential throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, profoundly affecting both science, philosophy and religion, as it "turns to social ethics and religious reform, but in a cosmic setting.” Ci fu quindi una particolare risonanza fra le concezioni di Bruno e il pensiero degli Illuministi che mettevano in discussione tutte le idee dominanti dell’ancien régime.
Copenhaver & Schmitt: “Magic, pantheism, idolatry, demonolatry, apostasy - just these few outrages from the long list in the ‘Spaccio’ would have been enough to anger the authorities, but there were more besides: Bruno doubted immortality, taught metempsychosis, recommended free-thinking, deserted positive for natural religion, criticized the Bible, defamed the Jews, slandered the Protestants, betrayed the Catholics, and condemned civil government besides.”
Rowland: “Bruno, who had already used geometric diagrams and philosophical terms to present an infinite universe, now wrote a dialogue in which he transformed the cosmos by transforming its imagery. He called it ‘The Triumphant Beast’, a phrase that brought to mind the book of Revelation [...] Unlike most of his contemporaries, who gave the universe about six thousand years of existence since creation, the Nolan philosopher had already proclaimed that it was infinitely old; in ‘The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast’, he insists that the universe holds cultures and memories that have come and gone and will come and go again.”
Salvestrini, 112; Copenhaver & Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy, 1992, p. 301-02; Ingrid D. Rowland, Giordano Bruno. Philosopher/Heretic, 2008, p. 164-65.
Condition Report: Specimen printed on strongpaper, very nice copy.
Very rare first French edition. This is the first translation into French of the Sale of the Triumphant Beast, and presumably the second absolute translation of a work of Bruno, preceded only by the equally rare first English translation of the same book, in 1713. This work greatly influenced the French 0Enlightenment, who did not know the worldview of Bruno, condemned for his extreme and provocative thesis.
Copenhaver & Schmitt: “The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast" constitutes one of Bruno's main works and that of his works which proved to be most influential throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, profoundly affecting both science, philosophy and religion, as it "turns to social ethics and religious reform, but in a cosmic setting.” Ci fu quindi una particolare risonanza fra le concezioni di Bruno e il pensiero degli Illuministi che mettevano in discussione tutte le idee dominanti dell’ancien régime.
Copenhaver & Schmitt: “Magic, pantheism, idolatry, demonolatry, apostasy - just these few outrages from the long list in the ‘Spaccio’ would have been enough to anger the authorities, but there were more besides: Bruno doubted immortality, taught metempsychosis, recommended free-thinking, deserted positive for natural religion, criticized the Bible, defamed the Jews, slandered the Protestants, betrayed the Catholics, and condemned civil government besides.”
Rowland: “Bruno, who had already used geometric diagrams and philosophical terms to present an infinite universe, now wrote a dialogue in which he transformed the cosmos by transforming its imagery. He called it ‘The Triumphant Beast’, a phrase that brought to mind the book of Revelation [...] Unlike most of his contemporaries, who gave the universe about six thousand years of existence since creation, the Nolan philosopher had already proclaimed that it was infinitely old; in ‘The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast’, he insists that the universe holds cultures and memories that have come and gone and will come and go again.”
Salvestrini, 112; Copenhaver & Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy, 1992, p. 301-02; Ingrid D. Rowland, Giordano Bruno. Philosopher/Heretic, 2008, p. 164-65.
Condition Report: Specimen printed on strongpaper, very nice copy.
