On the Infinite, the Universe and the Worlds

In 1584, while living in the household of Michel de Castelnau, the French Ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England, Giordano Bruno completed three books of cosmological dialogues: The Ash Wednesday Supper; On Cause, Principal and Unity; and the current volume, On the Infinite, the Universe and the Worlds. Drawing on the work of Lucretius, Nicholas da Cusa, Nicholas Copernicus and others, Bruno developed his theory of an infinitely extensive and eternal universe, filled with stars like our sun, planets like our own, and every world populated by people just like us.

Giordano Bruno's heretical ideas and forceful personality led to a turbulent life, during which he travelled to most of the great academic centers of Europe, and which culminated in his trial and execution at the hands of the Roman Inquisition in 1600.