Giordano Bruno and the Kabbalah

by Karen Silvia DeLeón-Jones

In this major new interpretation of the thought of the heretical philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Karen de Leon-Jones depicts the influential thinker as mystic and Kabbalistic. She rejects the popular view of Bruno as Hermetic magus - a position initiated by Frances Yates and widely accepted by succeeding scholars. Bruno's interest in mysticism and the Kabbalah was not merely intellectual or satiric, de Leon-Jones contends: a close look at his study of the Kabbalah reveals him as a practicing believer. This book sets Bruno's thought in the context of the widespread interest in non-Christian religions in fifteenth- and sixteenth century Italy. His quest for an alternative model to the strict spirituality of post-Reformation churches, for a way to encompass both scientific and mystical views of the universe, led Bruno to the Kabbalah. De Leon-Jones argues that Bruno's dialogue Cabala del cavallo (Kabbalah of the pegasean horse) expressed his mystical, kabbalistic doctrine. For Bru