On Wednesday, July 10, 2024, at 2.30 – 4.30 pm, Dr. Luisa Brotto (University of Piza) who is our former Fellow will meet with us at the Centre for the History of Renaissance Knowledge to speak about the following: Giordano Bruno on education: fides as a teaching model. Comments around the volume ‘Attraverso e oltre il limite. Sulla nozione di fides nell’opera di Giordano Bruno‘ (Approximate English translation: ‘Across the Limit and Beyond. On the Notion of Fides in Giordano Bruno’s Works‘).
The event will take place in a hybrid form, via Google Meet and at room 143 of the Staszic Palace.
Description of the event is given below as well.
Although he is best known for his ideas on cosmology and ontology, as well as his challenging views on morality and religion, Giordano Bruno was throughout his life a teacher who sought to educate students and to find loyal disciples. He examined the dynamics of teaching and learning, constantly seeking new ways to engage and be understood by his contemporaries.
Born in Italy, he studied in Naples and France. The variety and breadth of his peregrinatio – including Paris and Oxford, Wittenberg, Prague – make his life and work relevant to a study of the relations between knowledge transfer and migration in early modern Europe.
In her recent book Attraverso e oltre il limite. Sulla nozione di fides nell’opera di Giordano Bruno (Approximate English translation: Across the Limit and Beyond. On the Notion of Fides in Giordano Bruno’s Works), Luisa Brotto addresses Giordano Bruno’s views on teaching and learning by considering them as part of a broader exploration of the role of trust developed in many of Bruno’s writings, from the early De umbris idearum to the Summa terminorum metaphysicorum published after his death. The author argues that Bruno’s views on education developed in conjunction with an analysis of the epistemological role of fides, namely the ability to trust by managing assent and identifying reliable elements – both socially and cognitively.
In the 2-hour event organised by IFiS PAN on July 10, 2024, Brotto will share the results of her work with the researchers based at the Centre for the History of Renaissance Knowledge, as well as with all those interested in attending the event. She will present her main conclusions in a dialogue with prof. Danilo Facca, who will highlight some features of the work that are particularly close to the Centre’s activity. Particular attention will be paid to the connection between Bruno’s experience as a foreign student and teacher willing to be understood and the way in which he addressed the issues of trust and communication in his work. Bruno’s views on trust and teaching will be the starting point for a broader open debate on the possible relevance of the notion of trust in early modern theories of education and knowledge transfer.