The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast

Spaccio della bestia trionfante

Giordano Bruno author Hilary Gatti editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Toronto Press

Published:20th May '24

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This hardback is available in another edition too:

The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast cover

Published in London in 1584, The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast is Giordano Bruno’s first work of moral philosophy. It is dedicated with a long Explicatory Letter to Elizabeth I’s most cultured courtier, Sir Philip Sidney. It is a book about moral reform, expelling the beasts of evil, and putting virtues in their place. Its theme is presented as an allegorical drama in which ancient myths assume modern meanings questioning the ways in which moral and religious reform have been conceived in both the ancient world and the cultures of Renaissance Europe.

This new Italian text, based on the original printed text of 1584 held in the British Library, presents a less modernized version than those presently available, while maintaining a modern page format. The aim is to provide a text closer to the sound of Bruno’s original mix of classical Tuscan Italian and Neapolitan dialectical forms. This edition also presents a new translation designed to render Bruno’s complex and baroque Italian into easily readable modern English.

Hilary Gatti introduces The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, underlining Bruno’s meta-literary reflection on the nature of allegory and myth as well as the dramatic structure of his text. Drama, philosophy, and religion combine in this work to give an epic dimension to the perennial cosmic battle between evil and good.

“We have no Empire, such as did the Romans, so powerful that subject cities spontaneously sought to emulate their rulers’ speech … Nonetheless it can clearly be seen how, in our present times, many diverse people of intelligence and refinement, outside Italy no less than within Italy, devote much effort and study to learning and speaking our language for no other reason than love.” -- Giovan Batista Gelli * Ragionamento sulla lingua, 1551 *

ISBN: 9781487552008

Dimensions: 236mm x 160mm x 33mm

Weight: 700g

466 pages