Caption: "Bronze statue of Giordano Bruno (1548--1600) by Ettore Ferrari (1845-1929), Campo de' Fiori, Rome," Italy, erected in 1889 (see Wikipedia: Giordano Bruno: Artistic depictions).

Giordano Bruno was an early Copernican and an early exponent of cosmic pluralism in the context of the Copernican Revolution.

Cosmic pluralism (AKA the plurality of worlds) is the theory that there are numerous other worlds in the universe that host extraterrestrial life. Ideas about cosmic pluralism may go back to Thales (c.624--c.546 BCE).

Bruno was executed by Roman Inquisition in 1600 for several heresies including cosmic pluralism and this seems to have been main charge (see Alberto A. Martinez, 2018, Scientific American).

Copernicanism in itself was NOT explicitly deemed a heresy at this time it seems. But the fact that Bruno was a Copernican and his cosmic pluralism was based in part on Copernicanism tended to make Copernicanism more suspect than before to the Roman Catholic Church.

Credit/Permission: Marie-Lan Nguyen (AKA User:Jastrow), 2006 / Public domain.
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