The 400th anniversary of the execution of Giordano Bruno in Rome was a catalyst to more intensive research on this prolific philosopher and heretic. Even though a critical edition of his works is still not completed, much progress has been made in recent years. In 2000, the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome held an exhibition in honor of Bruno and his works indicted by the Inquisition. The book under review here is the catalog that accompanied the exhibition. It describes all 300 exhibited items and contains illustrations of a large number of them. The introductory portion includes a biography of Bruno, 23 portraits of the philosopher, a chronology of Bruno's life, and a bibliography. Two appendixes list a selection of documents related to Bruno's life and work. The catalog is divided into 19 sections, chronologically following Bruno's life that led him from Rome to Toulouse, Paris, Oxford, Wittenberg, Prague, Helmstedt, Frankfurt, and finally to Venice, where he was accused by the Inquisition in 1592, and transported to Rome. The last three sections deal with the proceedings of the Inquisition against Bruno in Venice and Rome. Eugenio Canone prefaces every section with a brief, informative introduction. This catalog includes a wealth of information and materials. Unfortunately, it lacks indexes. [ch/ba]

 

The French physician and philosopher Julien Offray de La Mettrie scandalized Europe with his 1748 treatise L'homme machine [Man a Machine], to the extent that he had to seek protection at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia, who admired his work; shortly thereafter, at the age of 41, he died of a mysterious case of food poisoning. This bibliography by the head of the Harvard College Library's Rare Books Department documents La Mettrie's medical and philosophical writings, along with numerous underground editions (up to 1799) of his most notorious work, other works attributed to him, and commentaries both for and against L'homme machine. Entries include a full description and collation, a characterization of the content, and location information. Indexes of titles and bibliographically significant persons are included, but an index of places of publication would have been useful as well. La Mettrie's medical dissertation (1736) is also presented, in a facsimile of one of the few extant copies. [sh/gw]

 

It is no wonder that the Metzler publishing house wished to include a volume on Nietzsche in its successful series of handbooks, given that author's profound effect on 20th-century language and literature, as well as on other disciplines. The work consists of five parts: (1) a description of Nietzsche's life and times; (2) a chronological listing of the texts written by the author; (3) a lexicon of 220 "concepts, theories, and metaphors" with accompanying explanations; (4) the presentation of Nietzsche's reading matter, as well as sources and influences for his thought; and (5) the reception and legacy of Nietzsche's work in various disciplines, including philology, psychology, sociology, architecture, music, literature, philosophy, and politics.

The editors have chosen to take a "micro-analytical" approach to the subject, which has resulted in a somewhat fragmented, rather than a unified presentation of Nietzsche scholarship. This is apparent in several aspects of the handbook, including the dictionary-like thesaurus mentioned above. Many different authors have contributed to the work, and the bibliography of secondary literature is broken up into small sections as it relates to specific subjects. The general bibliography is limited to major editions of Nietzsche's works used for citation in the book. Two indexes, for personal names and for works and topics, facilitate detailed inquiries. [hak/akb]