ABSTRACT:
Giordano Bruno's visit to England is a topic of much debate and controversy. Defying contemporary ecclesiastical doctrines and scholarly authorities through his groundbreaking work in the art of memory, his unconventional approach to Neo-Platonism and his pioneering support of Copernicus, Bruno simultaneously thrilled and infuriated. In only two years (1583-1585), Bruno managed to reach the sophisticated intelligentsia of Tudor England in ways that set him apart from most of his contemporaries. His lectures caused such furor that he had to abandon Oxford and return to London. Here, well-versed in the exercise of rhetoric (on the topic of which he later wrote a treatise, Artificium perorandi), Bruno knew how to address his audience. Although grounded on classical principles, the exuberant, elaborate and carefully constructed nature of his discourse is in a class of its own. As an advocate of the hermetic tradition, he operates with several levels of meaning simultaneously, and form and style, in his case, are conceived as keys to unlocking enigmatic layers of his work.
The manuscripts of his writings were published without delay, and in numerous copies. From the impact they had on Elizabethan letters, they seem to have been among the bestsellers of their time. Unlike the rest of Bruno's work however, the pieces he published in England are all under false imprint. There is little information documenting the transfer and reproduction of Bruno's manuscripts into print.
This paper aims to fill some of the gaps by following the trail of a publisher who appears to have been involved in other risky enterprises. Beyond the attitude of the publisher however, it is the position of the author with regard to the printed editions of his Italian Dialogues which interests us. Their deceiving imprint, pretending to be something which they are not, may well have been part of Bruno's scheme to convey a certain type of subtext, the nature of which he was trying to signal in more than one way.
