Giordano Bruno and the Dedication of his Latin Poems

Any closer investigation of Giordano Bruno’s dedications shows from the very beginning the relevant role of this textual genre in Bruno’s practice. The dedication is integrated in his works, both on literary and philosophical level. In most cases it is presented as clavis, offered by the author to encorage and help the reader in interpretating the text. Within the dedication, the biography of Bruno can be seen as a peculiar moment of his radical project devoted to the definition of a new rational interpretation of the world and of a new language of knowledge and science. This paper examines the dedications prefaced to the three Latin poems publicated in Frankfort. Though offered all to the Duke of Braunschweig, the three dedications are conceived in very different ways, giving us the opportunity to focus both on the practice of dedicanting in the late sixteenth century in general and on Bruno’s personal use in particular.