Giordano Bruno

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Book Presentation
The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast
(Spaccio della bestia trionfante)
(2024, Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library at Agincourt Press, University of Toronto Press)

by
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)
Originally published in London in 1584

Edited and translated by
Hilary Gatti

The publication of this volume was made possible by
NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò

A presentation by
Nicola Cipani, NYU

with the remote participation of
Hilary Gatti

In ENGLISH

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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.

The Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library is an organic collection of Italian texts translated into English. Its role is to make available a series of one hundred works by Italian authors who have made significant literary, philosophical, juridical, and historical contributions to the world of international culture. The books of the Lorenzo da Ponte Italian Library are published under the aegis and with the financial assistance of Agincourt Press, a division of University of Toronto Press.