Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 23/2020 (International issue no. 7):86-111 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.006

The Mastermind and the Fool. Self-Representation and the Shadowy Worlds of Truth in Giordano Bruno's Candelaio (1582)

Sergius Kodera
University of Vienna, Department of Philosophy

This article traces one of the main lines of argument in Giordano Bruno's only comedy. I will suggest that even though they occupy opposite places in the kaleidoscope of truth and hood, the antagonists Gioanbernardo, the mastermind, and Bonifacio, the fool, are embodiments of two aspects of an homogeneous physical reality that is accessible to human beings only through polyvalent images. I will suggest a specific pictorial representation of these two aspects, namely Christ and St. John the Baptist, as children. I shall also suggest that Bruno in the Candelaio uses the persona of this saint to point to his nolana filosofia. In such ways, the Candelaio is not only expressing philosophical concepts in the form of contemporary comedy, Bruno also developed his philosophy by making use of the representational possibilities that only the stage could offer him.

Published: March 30, 2020  Show citation

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Kodera, S. (2020). The Mastermind and the Fool. Self-Representation and the Shadowy Worlds of Truth in Giordano Bruno's Candelaio (1582). Aither, 12(23), 86-111. doi: 10.5507/aither.2020.006
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