The interest excited by the personality of Giordano Bruno must always have prevented his name from being quite forgotten. For above two centuries after his death, however, his writings were scarcely at all known. It was not until 1830 that the Italian works were collected, and the complete edition of the Latin works, published at the expense of the Italian Government, is much more recent. Since Wagner's edition of 1830, not only have the events of Bruno's life formed the subject of more than one investigation, but his philosophy also has attracted new attention. This renewed interest in Bruno may be ascribed in part, but not wholly, to the historical spirit of the age. The study of his works, besides confirming the impression which his intellectual power and philosophical genius produced at first throughout Europe, and which has perpetuated itself in the history of philosophy, will in the end make it clear that his ideas have still a direct bearing on thought.

Recent biographical investigations have added considerably to our knowledge of the life of Bruno. The materials for his biography were till lately, besides the letter of Scioppius written from Rome on the 17th of February, 1600 (the day when Bruno was burned in the Campo dei Fiori), chiefly the occasional references to events of his life that are to be found in his works. All that could be known at the time was embodied by Bartholméss in the first volume of his monograph on Bruno, published in 1846.