This article brings into focus Campanella’s use of the biblical prophecy of Noah as a 'figura' of... more This article brings into focus Campanella’s use of the biblical prophecy of Noah as a 'figura' of universal governance. The philosopher’s prophetic, political, and theological writings show this prophecy to be a fundamental source employed to underpin his theories on dovetailing religious and political authority. Although Noah’s eldest son, Shem, is presented as prefiguring the papacy, under whose aegis the universal monarchy was to be established, this article argues that, ultimately, the realization of global governance mattered more to Campanella than who would accomplish it.
Early Modern Letters Online (eds H. Hotson and M. Lewis), 2021
The catalogue contains the 172 known extant letters by Campanella. It includes dedicatory letters... more The catalogue contains the 172 known extant letters by Campanella. It includes dedicatory letters published in some of his works, as well as fragments of letters that have been indicated as such. The letters are in Italian and Latin, bar one written in Spanish. Addressees include notable scientists and scholars (for example, Galileo, dal Pozzo, Gassendi, Peiresc), popes, cardinals and other prelates, as well as rulers and civil authorities. Campanella’s letters are an especially rich source of biographical information, and an indispensable point of reference for the study of the intricate history of his writings. The subject matter of the correspondence ranges from philosophical, scientific, and political discussions to self-advocacy and lists of completed and projected works. Campanella’s correspondence is particularly valuable for the number of people mentioned in it.
Giordano Bruno. Law, Philosophy, and Theology in the Early Modern Era (ed. M. Traversino di Cristo). Paris: Classiques Garnier, pp. 241-273, 2020
Due to similarities in their ideas, parallels in their biographies, and overlaps in the history o... more Due to similarities in their ideas, parallels in their biographies, and overlaps in the history of their reception, Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella are often placed alongside one another in the literature. Through its focus on two major works, this chapter discusses points of convergence and divergence in the philosophers’ treatment of law and religion, nature and truth, unity and 471universality. An English translation of the dedicatory letter of Campanella’s Ateismo is included in an appendix.
Studi campanelliani - per Germana Ernst (ed. A. Cerbo), 2020
Questo contributo mette in risalto il concetto di amicizia nel pensiero di Tommaso Campanella e r... more Questo contributo mette in risalto il concetto di amicizia nel pensiero di Tommaso Campanella e rileva il suo nesso con il sapere e lo studio, attività tese non all’isolamento e al distacco ma, al contrario, a un’apertura relazionale che stimola ad agire per il bene. Il contributo prosegue nel dimostrare come il richiamo alle origini metafisiche e naturali presente nella visione campanelliana dell’amicizia e del sapere serva ad articolare un progetto di riconciliazione sul fronte politico e religioso.
Foreword to Tommaso Sgarro, Un inquieto domenicano: Temi e figure della Seconda Scolastica nella ... more Foreword to Tommaso Sgarro, Un inquieto domenicano: Temi e figure della Seconda Scolastica nella filosofia di Tommaso Campanella. Biblioteca filosofica di Quaestio. Bari: Edizioni di Pagina, 2018, pp. vii-xi.
Proceedings of History Week 2015 (eds S. Azzopardi, J. Borg and D. Mallia), 2018
This article presents and offers the first commentary on a series of poems by Giano Pelusio (1520... more This article presents and offers the first commentary on a series of poems by Giano Pelusio (1520-1600), which have as their focus figures and events connected to the 1565 Siege of Malta. While giving an overview of the poet's life and works, the article invites a reflection on how an ostensibly distant commentator such as Pelusio could have contributed to the fashioning of the collective imaginary of Malta and the Knights of St John.
Campanella’s Quod reminiscentur is known mostly as a work on missiology, in which he suggests the... more Campanella’s Quod reminiscentur is known mostly as a work on missiology, in which he suggests the convening of a world council of religious and political leaders to debate matters of faith, in a bid to move closer towards political and religious unity. Its contents are organised in a series of legations addressed to all the nations of the world. This article focuses on the legation to China and explores its contents against the backdrop of Campanella’s naturalistic and universalistic philosophy of religion and political thought. The identification of Botero as Campanella’s main source of information is discussed briefly with the intention of opening a path for further research.
Mediterranea: International Journal on the Transfer of Knowledge, 2017
This contribution offers an intertextual reading of Tommaso Campanella’s early political writings... more This contribution offers an intertextual reading of Tommaso Campanella’s early political writings and his utopia, The City of the Sun, with a view of bringing to the fore his stance on the radical shift in early modern maritime geopolitics. Campanella’s proposals for the establishment of world governance were informed by his enthusiasm for inventions such as the navigational compass, and by his emphasis on maritime prowess as a necessary condition for creating a universal monarchy. The dialogical and poetic character of The City of the Sun, and the choice of its imaginary interlocutors, may suggest an interpretation of Campanella’s utopia as a distinctively Mediterranean encounter between the ‘Old World’ and the ‘New World’. The transfer of knowledge and communication thus emerge as crucial linchpins in Campanella’s project for universal reform and unity.
Anima-corpo alla luce dell'etica: antichi e moderni (ed. E. Canone)
Prendendo le mosse dagli scritti e dalle varie fonti di Campanella (bibliche, neoplatoniche, tomi... more Prendendo le mosse dagli scritti e dalle varie fonti di Campanella (bibliche, neoplatoniche, tomiste e naturaliste), questo contributo traccia la sua concezione triadica dell’uomo composto di corpo, spirito e anima-mente. Nel sistema campanelliano lo spiritus serve ad affrontare il problema anima-corpo e, al contempo, a delineare il quadro entro cui si articola la concezione teologica e antropologica della libertà: da una prospettiva etico-psicologica, poi, la libertà viene identificata con la natura ‘divina’ dell’uomo che ha l’abilità e la possibilità di agire secondo la ragione per giungere al proprio fine, e cioè il sommo bene dell’autoconservazione. Le virtù che conducono l’uomo verso questa finalità e i vizi a essi contrapposti collegano l’agire dell’uomo – oggetto dell’etica – con il suo essere triadico.
Parole chiave: autoconservazione – libertà – sommo bene – spirito – virtù
In his edition of 'Aforismi Politici', Firpo included the text of Hugo Grotius’s observations on ... more In his edition of 'Aforismi Politici', Firpo included the text of Hugo Grotius’s observations on Campanella’s work. Part of the introduction to the volume is devoted to the complex and intertwined questions pertaining to the version of the aphorisms Grotius might have read and to when he might have penned his observations. While Firpo found little help in “only two and minor” references to Campanella in the Dutch scholar’s epistolary, this ‘footnote’ corroborates his conclusion on the dating of the 'Observata' by referring to four other letters mentioning the Calabrian philosopher. The letters do not answer the question as to whether the two luminaries had ever met, but they do shed light on Grotius’s previously overlooked acquaintance with Campanella’s life and activities.
This article brings into focus Campanella’s use of the biblical prophecy of Noah as a 'figura' of... more This article brings into focus Campanella’s use of the biblical prophecy of Noah as a 'figura' of universal governance. The philosopher’s prophetic, political, and theological writings show this prophecy to be a fundamental source employed to underpin his theories on dovetailing religious and political authority. Although Noah’s eldest son, Shem, is presented as prefiguring the papacy, under whose aegis the universal monarchy was to be established, this article argues that, ultimately, the realization of global governance mattered more to Campanella than who would accomplish it.
Early Modern Letters Online (eds H. Hotson and M. Lewis), 2021
The catalogue contains the 172 known extant letters by Campanella. It includes dedicatory letters... more The catalogue contains the 172 known extant letters by Campanella. It includes dedicatory letters published in some of his works, as well as fragments of letters that have been indicated as such. The letters are in Italian and Latin, bar one written in Spanish. Addressees include notable scientists and scholars (for example, Galileo, dal Pozzo, Gassendi, Peiresc), popes, cardinals and other prelates, as well as rulers and civil authorities. Campanella’s letters are an especially rich source of biographical information, and an indispensable point of reference for the study of the intricate history of his writings. The subject matter of the correspondence ranges from philosophical, scientific, and political discussions to self-advocacy and lists of completed and projected works. Campanella’s correspondence is particularly valuable for the number of people mentioned in it.
Giordano Bruno. Law, Philosophy, and Theology in the Early Modern Era (ed. M. Traversino di Cristo). Paris: Classiques Garnier, pp. 241-273, 2020
Due to similarities in their ideas, parallels in their biographies, and overlaps in the history o... more Due to similarities in their ideas, parallels in their biographies, and overlaps in the history of their reception, Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella are often placed alongside one another in the literature. Through its focus on two major works, this chapter discusses points of convergence and divergence in the philosophers’ treatment of law and religion, nature and truth, unity and 471universality. An English translation of the dedicatory letter of Campanella’s Ateismo is included in an appendix.
Studi campanelliani - per Germana Ernst (ed. A. Cerbo), 2020
Questo contributo mette in risalto il concetto di amicizia nel pensiero di Tommaso Campanella e r... more Questo contributo mette in risalto il concetto di amicizia nel pensiero di Tommaso Campanella e rileva il suo nesso con il sapere e lo studio, attività tese non all’isolamento e al distacco ma, al contrario, a un’apertura relazionale che stimola ad agire per il bene. Il contributo prosegue nel dimostrare come il richiamo alle origini metafisiche e naturali presente nella visione campanelliana dell’amicizia e del sapere serva ad articolare un progetto di riconciliazione sul fronte politico e religioso.
Foreword to Tommaso Sgarro, Un inquieto domenicano: Temi e figure della Seconda Scolastica nella ... more Foreword to Tommaso Sgarro, Un inquieto domenicano: Temi e figure della Seconda Scolastica nella filosofia di Tommaso Campanella. Biblioteca filosofica di Quaestio. Bari: Edizioni di Pagina, 2018, pp. vii-xi.
Proceedings of History Week 2015 (eds S. Azzopardi, J. Borg and D. Mallia), 2018
This article presents and offers the first commentary on a series of poems by Giano Pelusio (1520... more This article presents and offers the first commentary on a series of poems by Giano Pelusio (1520-1600), which have as their focus figures and events connected to the 1565 Siege of Malta. While giving an overview of the poet's life and works, the article invites a reflection on how an ostensibly distant commentator such as Pelusio could have contributed to the fashioning of the collective imaginary of Malta and the Knights of St John.
Campanella’s Quod reminiscentur is known mostly as a work on missiology, in which he suggests the... more Campanella’s Quod reminiscentur is known mostly as a work on missiology, in which he suggests the convening of a world council of religious and political leaders to debate matters of faith, in a bid to move closer towards political and religious unity. Its contents are organised in a series of legations addressed to all the nations of the world. This article focuses on the legation to China and explores its contents against the backdrop of Campanella’s naturalistic and universalistic philosophy of religion and political thought. The identification of Botero as Campanella’s main source of information is discussed briefly with the intention of opening a path for further research.
Mediterranea: International Journal on the Transfer of Knowledge, 2017
This contribution offers an intertextual reading of Tommaso Campanella’s early political writings... more This contribution offers an intertextual reading of Tommaso Campanella’s early political writings and his utopia, The City of the Sun, with a view of bringing to the fore his stance on the radical shift in early modern maritime geopolitics. Campanella’s proposals for the establishment of world governance were informed by his enthusiasm for inventions such as the navigational compass, and by his emphasis on maritime prowess as a necessary condition for creating a universal monarchy. The dialogical and poetic character of The City of the Sun, and the choice of its imaginary interlocutors, may suggest an interpretation of Campanella’s utopia as a distinctively Mediterranean encounter between the ‘Old World’ and the ‘New World’. The transfer of knowledge and communication thus emerge as crucial linchpins in Campanella’s project for universal reform and unity.
Anima-corpo alla luce dell'etica: antichi e moderni (ed. E. Canone)
Prendendo le mosse dagli scritti e dalle varie fonti di Campanella (bibliche, neoplatoniche, tomi... more Prendendo le mosse dagli scritti e dalle varie fonti di Campanella (bibliche, neoplatoniche, tomiste e naturaliste), questo contributo traccia la sua concezione triadica dell’uomo composto di corpo, spirito e anima-mente. Nel sistema campanelliano lo spiritus serve ad affrontare il problema anima-corpo e, al contempo, a delineare il quadro entro cui si articola la concezione teologica e antropologica della libertà: da una prospettiva etico-psicologica, poi, la libertà viene identificata con la natura ‘divina’ dell’uomo che ha l’abilità e la possibilità di agire secondo la ragione per giungere al proprio fine, e cioè il sommo bene dell’autoconservazione. Le virtù che conducono l’uomo verso questa finalità e i vizi a essi contrapposti collegano l’agire dell’uomo – oggetto dell’etica – con il suo essere triadico.
Parole chiave: autoconservazione – libertà – sommo bene – spirito – virtù
In his edition of 'Aforismi Politici', Firpo included the text of Hugo Grotius’s observations on ... more In his edition of 'Aforismi Politici', Firpo included the text of Hugo Grotius’s observations on Campanella’s work. Part of the introduction to the volume is devoted to the complex and intertwined questions pertaining to the version of the aphorisms Grotius might have read and to when he might have penned his observations. While Firpo found little help in “only two and minor” references to Campanella in the Dutch scholar’s epistolary, this ‘footnote’ corroborates his conclusion on the dating of the 'Observata' by referring to four other letters mentioning the Calabrian philosopher. The letters do not answer the question as to whether the two luminaries had ever met, but they do shed light on Grotius’s previously overlooked acquaintance with Campanella’s life and activities.
Paper presented at a Round Table commemorating Germana Ernst during the 25th World Congress of Ph... more Paper presented at a Round Table commemorating Germana Ernst during the 25th World Congress of Philosophy (Rome, 2024)
Books, along with their provenance and marginal notes, provide valuable insights into the intelle... more Books, along with their provenance and marginal notes, provide valuable insights into the intellectual milieu in which they were read. This lecture will focus on the heterogeneous collection of early modern printed books, covering various fields of philosophical inquiry, housed at Malta’s National Library. By bringing to the fore examples of works by Italian and Northern humanists, along with texts on natural philosophy and epistemology that shaped the dawn of modernity, the lecture will shed light on the significance of the collection. Though partial and inevitably incomplete, this preliminary bibliographic survey reveals an array of famous and lesser-known philosophers, testifying to the wider interests of readers when compared to more ‘canonical’ texts used typically in formal academic institutions and religious houses of studies.
A Public Lecture series organised by the National Library of Malta and the Department of Philosop... more A Public Lecture series organised by the National Library of Malta and the Department of Philosophy, University of Malta. Coordinators: Maroma Camilleri, Jean-Paul De Lucca, Mevrick Spiteri. https://www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/news/2023/11/dept-philosophy-collaboration-public-lectures
Legendary and elusive, yet authoritative and inspiring, the figure of Socrates has been the objec... more Legendary and elusive, yet authoritative and inspiring, the figure of Socrates has been the object of fascination for more than two millennia. Attempts to reconstruct the personality and teachings of the historical Socrates can never escape what has come to be known as the ‘Socratic problem’, the contradictory accounts of his life and ideas given by his contemporaries. The history of Socrates is very much the history of the transmission and reception of his fashioning by later authors. This lecture will look at the fashioning of Socrates through a selection of key sources from Antiquity, the Christian and Islamic Middle Ages, and the Italian and Northern Renaissance. Plato’s fashioning of Socrates gradually but steadily emerges as the predominant account of his teacher’s life and ideas. This provides an important backdrop for understanding how more recent philosophers such as Nietzsche, Derrida and Hadot have engaged, both admiringly and critically, with the ostensibly self-fashioned Gadfly. Particular reference will be made to Socrates in the works of Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655).
The metaphor, for Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639), is "the most famous and beautiful of all tropes... more The metaphor, for Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639), is "the most famous and beautiful of all tropes”, and yet it is “the daughter of poverty”. Taking its cue from this apparently ambivalent depiction in Rhetorica (the treatise constituting the third part of Philosophia rationalis (Paris, 1638)), this paper proposes to explore Campanella’s treatment of metaphors as a means to overcome linguistic and conceptual limitations as well as a worthy form of literary and pedagogical embellishment. In other writings, however, the philosopher also shows the limitations of metaphoric language and in some cases advises against its use. Campanella’s concern with metaphors seems to be predominantly of an epistemological nature, and his own use of metaphors is often closely related to the field of knowledge and its nexus with theology, natural philosophy, political thought, poetry and other areas of philosophical and practical inquiry. His most famous work, Civitas Solis, may be considered as an extended metaphor of encyclopaedic knowledge and of the ‘knowledge of the world’. Moreover, metaphors, and reflections thereon, feature prominently in Campanella’s own philosophical poems. The paper will also offer a brief analysis of some of Campanella’s metaphors, from lesser-known ones to the more famous ones, such as his adaptation of the Renaissance image of the worm in cheese or the worm in the human stomach, to that of souls masked by bodies in the world’s theatre, a metaphor connected to similar ones found in Shakespeare and Descartes.
Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) spent over a quarter century imprisoned in Naples, one of the larg... more Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) spent over a quarter century imprisoned in Naples, one of the largest and most bustling cities of the time. The many works written in the confines of his cell included The City of the Sun, an imagined city with seven circuits of walls serving both a defensive and a pedagogic purpose, and in which the carefully organised urban space embodied the author’s project of a renewed architecture of knowledge. Campanella also wrote about how not even the dire conditions of prolonged imprisonment could destroy his libertas philosophandi. Drawing on the philosopher’s own reflections on the paradoxes of incarceration, this paper looks at how the experience of forced seclusion in otherwise vibrant surroundings provided a space for writing and sustaining friendship networks, to the extent that a punishment intended to silence and isolate contributed to the philosopher’s fame and enabled the publication of his works in faraway Germany.
Intervention at the annual Human Rights Conference organized by the University of Malta's Human R... more Intervention at the annual Human Rights Conference organized by the University of Malta's Human Rights Programme in conjunction with the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society (7 December 2018).
A talk as part of the series 'On Good Governance' inspired by Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and B... more A talk as part of the series 'On Good Governance' inspired by Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government. Organised by PietreVive and the Centre for Ignatian Spirituality.
La critica campanelliana ai ‘machiavellisti’: Religione, politica, ragion di stato
- Martedì 8 ma... more La critica campanelliana ai ‘machiavellisti’: Religione, politica, ragion di stato - Martedì 8 maggio 2018 ore 15:00 Aula Verra
Il pacifismo della monarchia universale: il realismo utopico di Tommaso Campanella - Mercoledì 9 maggio 2018 ore 10:00 Aula Matassi
La corrispondenza epistolare nella storia intellettuale: Riflessioni e prospettive - Giovedì 10 maggio 2018 ore 11:00 Aula Verra
Renaissance Society of America - Annual Meeting (New Orleans, 22-24 March 2018)
Abstract:
A cor... more Renaissance Society of America - Annual Meeting (New Orleans, 22-24 March 2018)
Abstract: A cornerstone of Campanella’s philosophy is his view that the natural end of man is self-preservation. A fundamental requirement for achieving this end is peace, which Campanella identifies as the ultimate purpose of government and laws, and which in turn serves the higher purpose of leading to “the worship of God by means of the sciences and virtues”. Although Campanella often addresses the question of peace from the Thomistic perspective of the just war theory, in this paper I argue that a closer examination of his texts (particularly those concerning prophecy and monarchy) reveals a practical project of peacebuilding more akin to similar efforts by quasi-contemporaries such as Comenius and Leibniz. I also explore some tensions that arise within and from Campanella’s works dealing directly or indirectly with his project for establishing and maintaining lasting peace.
The lecture will explore links between Cicero’s thought and Utopia against the backdrop of the tr... more The lecture will explore links between Cicero’s thought and Utopia against the backdrop of the transmission of Ciceronian texts in Renaissance Humanism, of which More was a major figure.
The public lecture, organised by the Malta Classics Association, also forms part of an events series being organised by the Departments of English, German and Philosophy within the University's Faculty of Arts to mark the 500th anniversary of the publication of More’s Utopia.
Communication during 'History Week 2015'
(Inquisitor's Palace, Vittoriosa, Malta - 14 November 2... more Communication during 'History Week 2015' (Inquisitor's Palace, Vittoriosa, Malta - 14 November 2015)
Seminario 'Tommaso Campanella: Anima-Corpo e la sfera etica'.
Istituto per il Lessico Intellettua... more Seminario 'Tommaso Campanella: Anima-Corpo e la sfera etica'. Istituto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Villa Mirafiori, Roma - 3 novembre 2015, ore 10:00
This volume includes some of the papers from the second and third instalments of the series Festi... more This volume includes some of the papers from the second and third instalments of the series Festival Bruniano, held in Geneva in 2015 and in Tours and Wittenberg in 2018, respectively. By picking up the baton from the inaugural edition of 2014 and the two preparatory colloquia that preceded it in 2013, this volume aims to discuss Giordano Bruno’s contribution to sixteenth-century ideas by focusing on some theological, moral, and legal-political aspects of his philosophy. Starting from a re-evaluation of Christianity after Luther’s Reformation, the four sections of this volume pay special, but not exclusive, attention to Bruno’s later philosophical teaching, including his Wittenberg period and the ‘Frankfurt trilogy’.
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Parole chiave: autoconservazione – libertà – sommo bene – spirito – virtù
Parole chiave: autoconservazione – libertà – sommo bene – spirito – virtù
Coordinators: Maroma Camilleri, Jean-Paul De Lucca, Mevrick Spiteri.
https://www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/news/2023/11/dept-philosophy-collaboration-public-lectures
Campanella’s concern with metaphors seems to be predominantly of an epistemological nature, and his own use of metaphors is often closely related to the field of knowledge and its nexus with theology, natural philosophy, political thought, poetry and other areas of philosophical and practical inquiry. His most famous work, Civitas Solis, may be considered as an extended metaphor of encyclopaedic knowledge and of the ‘knowledge of the world’. Moreover, metaphors, and reflections thereon, feature prominently in Campanella’s own philosophical poems.
The paper will also offer a brief analysis of some of Campanella’s metaphors, from lesser-known ones to the more famous ones, such as his adaptation of the Renaissance image of the worm in cheese or the worm in the human stomach, to that of souls masked by bodies in the world’s theatre, a metaphor connected to similar ones found in Shakespeare and Descartes.
- Martedì 8 maggio 2018 ore 15:00 Aula Verra
Il pacifismo della monarchia universale: il realismo utopico di Tommaso Campanella
- Mercoledì 9 maggio 2018 ore 10:00 Aula Matassi
La corrispondenza epistolare nella storia intellettuale: Riflessioni e prospettive
- Giovedì 10 maggio 2018 ore 11:00 Aula Verra
Abstract:
A cornerstone of Campanella’s philosophy is his view that the natural end of man is self-preservation. A fundamental requirement for achieving this end is peace, which Campanella identifies as the ultimate purpose of government and laws, and which in turn serves the higher purpose of leading to “the worship of God by means of the sciences and virtues”. Although Campanella often addresses the question of peace from the Thomistic perspective of the just war theory, in this paper I argue that a closer examination of his texts (particularly those concerning prophecy and monarchy) reveals a practical project of peacebuilding more akin to similar efforts by quasi-contemporaries such as Comenius and Leibniz. I also explore some tensions that arise within and from Campanella’s works dealing directly or indirectly with his project for establishing and maintaining lasting peace.
The public lecture, organised by the Malta Classics Association, also forms part of an events series being organised by the Departments of English, German and Philosophy within the University's Faculty of Arts to mark the 500th anniversary of the publication of More’s Utopia.
(Inquisitor's Palace, Vittoriosa, Malta - 14 November 2015)
Istituto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.
Villa Mirafiori, Roma - 3 novembre 2015, ore 10:00