:Giordano Bruno's Prelude to Contemporary Cosmology
by Ramon G. Mendoze, Ph.D.
From a small collection.
Superficial wear to the book's exterior. Other than the dustjacket, this book is clean/like new. Priced accordingly.
Hardcover, 294 pp.
"This is a beautifully written book, full of small and insightful nuances about the history of Bruno and his battle with the Catholic Church, as well as his detractors long after he was dead. It also evokes the punishing repression of the Catholic Church in the 16th century, hard to believe until one hears the details of the torture and ultimate execution of this free thinker. What weakens the book for me is the organization. The author, Mendoza, chooses to fully discuss the life of Bruno before he really exposes us to the man's unique and revolutionary ideas, which he reserves for the second half of the book. But it is exactly these revolutionary ideas, and their resemblance to what we regard as the "truth" today, that makes Bruno such a sympathetic character. His execution is painful enough to witness, but to realize his torture and death were all done because he proposed ideas we accept as commonplace today would have given the first section, his biography, so much more power. The author may have had good reasons in his mind to defer the cosmology until the end, but it really is the gist of the entire tale, and should have been woven through Bruno's life history, not tucked away at the end."
