The Ash Wednesday Supper: A New Translation

by Giordano Bruno

Overview

Giordano Bruno’s The Ash Wednesday Supper is the first of six philosophical dialogues in Italian that he wrote and published in London between 1584 and 1585. It presents a revolutionary cosmology founded on the new Copernican astronomy that Bruno extends to infinite dimensions, filling it with an endless number of planetary systems. As well as opening up the traditional closed universe and reducing earth to a tiny speck in an overwhelmingly immense cosmos, Bruno offers a lively description of his clash of opinions with the conservative academics and theologians he argued with in Oxford and London.

This volume, containing what has recently been claimed as the final version of Bruno’s Ash Wednesday Supper, presents a new translation based on a newly edited text, with critical comment that takes account of the most current discussion of the textual, historical, cosmological and philosophical issues raised in this dialogue. It considers Bruno’s work as a seminal text of the late European renaissance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487513191
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	03/12/2018
Series:	Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	376
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Giordano Bruno (1548 – 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and cosmological theorist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then-novel Copernican model. In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial concepts of geometry to language.

Hilary Gatti is a retired professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Rome, La Sapienza.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. A Note on the Text

3. Complete Italian Text: newly edited according to the so-called vulgate version

4. Translation of the Dedication (+ notes)

5. Translation of Dialogue 1 (+ notes)

6. Translation of Dialogue 2 (+ notes)

7. Translation of Dialogue 3 (+ notes)

8. Translation of Dialogue 4 (+ notes)

9. Translation of Dialogue 5 (+ notes)

10. Appendix: Alternative Italian text of folio D

11. Appendix: Alternative English translation of folio D

12. Bibliography of Cited Works

What People are Saying About This

Ingrid Rowland

"Hilary Gatti brings all the depth of her specialized expertise on Bruno's science, his philosophy and his relationship with the English court to bear on this translation. Gatti transmits the sparkle of Bruno's wit in a vibrant English that is a delight to read. The poetic translations capture Bruno's combination of lightness and seriousness of tone in crystal-clear language that runs true to the original text."

Sherry Roush

"Hilary Gatti deserves much praise for the difficult undertaking of a new English translation of Giordano Bruno's Ash Wednesday Supper. Most happily, this English rendition is lively and accurate."

Editorial Reviews

"The volume’s most important contributions to Bruno studies are the extended "Notes" that offer background, interpretation, and explanation of Bruno’s provocative debate."

—Paul Richard Blum, Loyola University Maryland, Isis, vol 110, 1

"Hilary Gatti deserves much praise for the difficult undertaking of a new English translation of Giordano Bruno's Ash Wednesday Supper. Most happily, this English rendition is lively and accurate."

—Sherry Roush, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, Penn State

"Hilary Gatti brings all the depth of her specialized expertise on Bruno’s science, his philosophy and his relationship with the English court to bear on this translation. Gatti transmits the sparkle of Bruno’s wit in a vibrant English that is a delight to read. The poetic translations capture Bruno’s combination of lightness and seriousness of tone in crystal-clear language that runs true to the original text."

—Ingrid Rowland, University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway

From the Publisher

"The volume's most important contributions to Bruno studies are the extended "Notes" that offer background, interpretation, and explanation of Bruno's provocative debate."

Isis, vol 110, 1 - Paul Richard Blum