Because of his heterodox tendencies, Bruno came to the attention of the Inquisition in Naples and in 1576 he left the city to escape prosecution. When the same happened in Rome, he fled again, this time abandoning his Dominican habit. For the next seven years he lived in France, lecturing on various subjects and attracting the attention of powerful patrons. From 1583 to 1585 he lived at the house of the French ambassador in London. During this period he published the books that are most important for our purposes, Cena de le Ceneri ("The Ash Wednesday Supper") and De l'Infinito, Universo e Mondi ("On the Infinite Universe and Worlds"), both published in 1584. In Cena de le Ceneri, Bruno defe...

Because of his heterodox tendencies, Bruno came to the attention of the Inquisition in Naples and in 1576 he left the city to escape prosecution. When the same happened in Rome, he fled again, this time abandoning his Dominican habit. For the next seven years he lived in France, lecturing on various subjects and attracting the attention of powerful patrons. From 1583 to 1585 he lived at the house of the French ambassador in London. During this period he published the books that are most important for our purposes, Cena de le Ceneri ("The Ash Wednesday Supper") and De l'Infinito, Universo e Mondi ("On the Infinite Universe and Worlds"), both published in 1584. In Cena de le Ceneri, Bruno defended the heliocentric theory of Copernicus . It appears that he did not understand astronomy very well, for his theory is confused on several points. In De l'Infinito , Universo e Mondi, he argued that the universe was infinite, that it contained an infinite number of worlds, and that these are all inhabited by intelligent beings.