This translation of Giordano Bruno’s Cena de le ceneri, with facing Italian text and comment, has been many years in the making, during which time I have incurred a number of important debts to various institutions. My thanks to the University of Rome “La Sapienza” for the periods of study leave that made the project possible, to the Warburg Institute in London, whose library and archives have provided invaluable material over the years, to the British Library and the library of the Scuola Normale in Pisa, whose fine collections of “Bruniana” have proved indispensable, and to the Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies of the University of California at Los Angeles, whose directors past and present, Brian Copenhaver and Massimo Ciavolella, were responsible for including this text in the Lorenzo da Ponte Library.
I am also indebted to a number of individual scholars for help, advice, and support. Elisabetta Tarantino’s work on the textual problems involved has proved essential; David Marsh contributed numerous helpful suggestions for the translation; Robert Westman has provided valuable advice on Bruno’s reading of Copernicus. For their more general support of my Bruno studies, particular thanks to Eugenio Canone, Ornella Faracovi, Marta Fattori, Martin McLaughlin, and Ingrid Rowland.
This book is dedicated to the memory of the three distinguished scholars who, in the early years of its inception, constantly encouraged me in my endeavour: Giovanni Aquilecchia (formerly of University College, London, and nominee of the Centro Studi Bruniani “Giovanni Aquilecchia” in Naples); Eugenio Garin (formerly of the Scuola Normale in Pisa, and former Director of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in Florence), and J.B. Trapp (former Director of the Warburg Institute in London).