The Correspondence of Tommaso Campanella

Primary Contributors:

Jean-Paul De Lucca (University of Malta)


Tommaso Campanella, by an unknown artist. Oil on canvas, 68 by 62 cm. (Musée Départemental de l’Oise, Beauvais; source of image: Wikimedia Commons)

Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639)

A foremost early modern philosopher, Tommaso Campanella was born on 5 September 1568, in Stilo, Calabria, and joined the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) at a young age. He spent most of his life in the prisons of Naples and Rome after being found guilty of high treason against the Spanish Crown and heresy. While in captivity, he wrote many works that formed his projected encyclopaedia of knowledge and kept in correspondence with intellectual, religious, and political figures of his time. Through his writings, he expounded his plans for a general reform of knowledge and society aimed at bringing about political and religious unity. Drawing on his own experience, and on his steadfast criticism of Machiavelli’s followers, the friar-philosopher wrote about the perennial persecution of prophets and philosophers at the hands of politicians and courtiers.

A staunch opponent of Aristotelianism, Campanella was influenced by the naturalist philosopher Bernardino Telesio (1509–1588), whose ideas he defended in his first published work (Philosophia sensibus demonstrata, 1591). His writings often sought to reconcile natural philosophy with his own brand of Renaissance Thomism. Campanella defended Galileo’s intellectual freedom (Apologia pro Galileo, 1622) while writing a series of impassioned letters to popes, cardinals, and rulers demanding his own freedom and the licence to publish his books. Thanks to his contact with German friends who visited him in prison, several of his works were published in Germany.

After his release in 1629, Campanella became acquainted with the French intellectual circle in Rome. He fled to Paris in 1634, where he lived the last few years of his life under the protection of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, tending to the publication of his works and maintaining an intense correspondence within and outside France. Campanella was the astrologer summoned to draw up the nativity chart of the future Louis XIV, ‘the Sun King’, who was born seventy years to the day after him. The philosopher died on 21 May 1639.

Although he is known today especially for his utopia, The City of the Sun (1602; published 1623 and 1637), Campanella’s mixed reception during the 17th and 18th centuries resulted partly from his intriguing life story, but mostly from his works on natural philosophy, medicine, sense, and magic, as well as from his political writings (particularly those concerning the Spanish Monarchy).

 


Partners and Additional Contributors

Campanella’s letters, based on Ernst’s edition (see ‘Key Bibliographic Source’ below), have been transcribed and made available by Archivio Tommaso Campanella [ATC], which forms part of Archivio dei filosofi del Rinascimento, a project of the Istituto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee [ILIESI], Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [CNR–Rome]. Each letter in Campanella’s Catalogue on EMLO is linked to the corresponding transcription on ATC. Thanks are due to Eugenio Canone and Annarita Liburdi for supporting the partnership between EMLO and ATC.

Antonio Viteritti’s assistance during his Erasmus+ traineeship under the supervision of Jean-Paul De Lucca at the Department of Philosophy, University of Malta, is gratefully acknowledged.

The Principal Contributor is most grateful to EMLO editor Miranda Lewis for her learned and dynamic support in the realisation of this catalogue and to editorial assistant Charlotte Marique for her help in the preparation of the metadata for upload.

This EMLO catalogue is dedicated to the memory of Germana Ernst.


Key Bibliographic Source(s)

Campanella, Tommaso, Lettere, ed. Germana Ernst with the use of unpublished preparatory material by Luigi Firpo (Firenze: Olschki, 2010).


Contents

The catalogue contains the 172 known extant letters by Campanella. It includes dedicatory letters published in some of his works, as well as fragments of letters that have been indicated as such. The letters are in Italian and Latin, bar one written in Spanish. Addressees include notable scientists and scholars (for example, Galileo, dal Pozzo, Gassendi, Peiresc), popes, cardinals and other prelates, as well as rulers and civil authorities. Campanella’s letters are an especially rich source of biographical information, and an indispensable point of reference for the study of the intricate history of his writings. The subject matter of the correspondence ranges from philosophical, scientific, and political discussions to self-advocacy and lists of completed and projected works. Campanella’s correspondence is particularly valuable for the number of people mentioned in it.

A summary (in English) of each letter will be added to this catalogue in due course.

Detail from the letter of 18 November 1624 from Tommaso Campanella to Cassiano dal Pozzo, written and signed in Campanella’s own hand. (Archivio Tommaso Campanella; original: Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana [Rome), Archivio Dal Pozzo, vol. XII.10, c. 257)




Further resources

The section ‘Testi’ in ATC contains digitalized versions of most of Campanella’s works (as facsimiles or transcriptions of original or modern editions). Full bibliographic references are provided.

For a short intellectual biography and a select bibliography, see Ernst, Germana and Jean-Paul De Lucca, ‘Tommaso Campanella‘, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta.

 

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