Philipp Melanchthon’s and Giordano Bruno’s works are deeply permeated and inspired by a didactic intent of reform that applies not only to religion and society, but also to the knowledge system (artes liberales), preparing the ground for the philosophical debates of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Such a didactic intent originates, on the one hand, from a reflection on language and its uses in the different disciplines, e.g. philosophy, theology, dialectic, rhetoric, and astronomy, and on the other hand from a reflection on the faculties of the soul. Both Melanchthon and Bruno studied the relation between words and images. Not only are rhetorical figures, such as the metaphor, discussed in their works; the importance of symbols and analogies in philosophy and theology is also widely addressed, notably through a constant discussion of Aristotle, with the goals of redefining philosophical and theological notions. Interestingly, both Melanchthon and Bruno reformulate concepts of the soul and of language by reflecting on the metaphor of writing for the soul and the metaphor of painting for language.
Having read the work of Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin, Bruno was already familiar with the ideas of the Reformers when he arrived in Germany, and for him they were pedants (Spaccio de la bestia trionfante, London 1584, La cabala del cavallo pegaseo, London 1585) who did not deserve the appellative of theologians. Despite his initially negative opinion of the Protestant Reformation and its representatives, at the end of his stay in Wittenberg Bruno acknowledged that among Lutherans he experienced a salient quality of tolerance in which he finally felt free to attend to his philosophical works (Oratio valedictoria, Wittenberg 1588). In Germany, Bruno was also introduced to networks that brought him into contact with the revolution of the liberal arts (trivium and quadrivium) that was taking place in the Protestant world at the time and he took part in these discussions. Direct experience of the Reformation caused Bruno to reframe his opinion of it, praising the intellectual, social, and political Lutheran environments where he lived and worked as a professor. Considering the length of time and the degree of productivity during the periods when Giordano Bruno was in areas that were heavily influenced by Lutheran thought, LEUKOS’ research hypothesis was that the new ideas and the experience of societal reform that took place in these parts of Europe had a decisive impact on his own reform project.
LEUKOS compared Philip Melanchthon’s and Giordano Bruno’s philosophy of language and doctrine of the soul to clarify (1) the reception of Melanchthon’s works on rhetoric, dialectic, and psychology in Bruno’s works published or composed during his stay in Wittenberg (1586–1588), and (2) Bruno’s reconsideration of his opinion about the Lutheran Reform during his stay in Germany. These two aspects of the research question were investigated through a textual analysis of Melanchthon’s and Bruno’s works, and in a historical reconstruction of the social and intellectual environments which Bruno joined during his stay in Wittenberg. This project, also informed by approaches from gender studies, profited from engaging with the role of women in shaping Giordano Bruno’s experience of the Reformation. As Bruno had already showed awareness for the role of women and the symbolic value of gender-related concepts (e.g. the concept of nature related to that of fertility) in works composed in France and England, a reconstruction of Giordano Bruno’s German experience could not neglect the gender dimension. From a historical perspective this was achieved through research on how the Reformation women in Wittenberg contributed to the production and dissemination of knowledge, and from the perspective of textual analysis through paying special attention to the gendered dimension of the notion of soul in Giordano Bruno’s works. The Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) was the perfect choice of host institution for this project with its unique interdisciplinary research environment comprised of renowned researchers whose expertise helped in realising the objectives of LEUKOS: namely expertise in Reformation history including studies of the leading Reformers, history of rhetoric, university history, Renaissance philosophy, and gender studies. The required literary sources were readily available for scholars at UCPH via The Royal Danish Library. The training for the fellow was planned to enhance (1) the profile of the fellow as an interdisciplinary scholar (history of philosophy and church history), and (2) as project manager at a cultural institution, (3) opening career paths also in the Nordic countries.
