PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kodera, Sergius
TI  - The Mastermind and the Fool. Self-Representation and the Shadowy Worlds of Truth in Giordano Bruno's Candelaio (1582)
DP  - 2020 Mar 30
TA  - Aither
PG  - 86--111
VI  - 12
IP  - 1
AID - 10.5507/aither.2020.006
IS  - 18037879
AB  - 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.