Bruno, Giordano (1548–1600) Italian philosopher
The son of a soldier, Bruno was born at Nola, near Naples,
and joined the Dominican Order in 1563. For unknown
reasons he was forced in 1576 to flee both Naples and his
order. By this time he had already established his reputa-
tion as a teacher of the then fashionable discipline of
mnemonics (see MEMORY, ART OF) and was probably al-
ready committed to the hermetic neoplatonic views that
he later expounded throughout his extensive European
travels. After visiting Italy and Switzerland, he appeared at
the court of HENRY IIIin Paris in 1581, and in 1585 he dis-
cussed his system with the scholars of Oxford. In 1591 he
was arrested in Venice, extradited to Rome, and later tried
and burnt at the stake as a heretic. Unfortunately, the pre-
cise nature of Bruno’s offense remains a matter of specula-
tion as the trial papers were not preserved. It is known,
however, from his Cena de le ceneri (The Ash Wednesday
supper; 1584) that he supported the COPERNICAN SYSTEM.
More likely to have sent him to the stake were the claims,
expressed in his De l’infinito universo e mondi (1584), that
“there are innumerable suns, and an infinite number of
earths revolve around these suns, just as the seven we can
see revolve around the sun close to us.”
Further reading: Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and
the Hermetic Tradition (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1964; new ed. 2002).
Brussels A city in the Netherlands (now Belgium). By the
late Middle Ages Brussels had developed from an island
fort into a thriving market community at a road–river
junction in the duchy of Brabant. Thousands of workers
employed in the manufacture of luxury fabrics made a few
merchant families very rich. These families abused their
considerable political power and provoked a number of
workers’ revolts (1280, 1303, 1421); after the 1421 revolt
the guilds of workers and craftsmen gained some political
influence. The count of Flanders occupied Brussels
briefly; his expulsion from the city (1357) was followed
by the construction of strong city walls.
Under Burgundian rule Brussels prospered as a center
of art, learning, and administration. Its most distinguished
artist at this time was Rogier van der WEYDEN. Under
Hapsburg rule (from 1477) the guilds were excluded from
the administration of the city by CHARLES V(1528), but
Brussels remained the administrative center of the Nether-
lands. In 1577 radical supporters of the Calvinist cause
seized power in Brussels, but the Spanish Hapsburgs re-
gained control in 1585. Notable buildings from the Re-
naissance period include the Coudenberg palace, the
Hôtel de Ville (1402–54), and fine early 17th-century
baroque buildings. Otto van VEENand RUBENSwere at-
tached to the court of the Hapsburg Archdukes in Brussels
in the early 17th century.
Bry family See DE BRY FAMILY
Bucer, Martin (Martin Butzer, 1491–1551) German
reformer and theologian
Born at Schlettstadt (now Sélestat in France), Bucer be-
came a Dominican monk, but was won to the side of Re-
formation by Martin LUTHERat the Heidelberg Disputation
(1518), and embarked on a career as a Lutheran preacher.
In 1523 he settled in Strasbourg where he remained for 25
years, emerging in this period as a leading figure among
the reformers. He attempted to mediate in the Eucharistic
controversy between Luther and ZWINGLIand later took a
leading role in the conferences with leading Catholic the-
ologians at Worms and Regensburg (1540–41) aimed at
reuniting the Church. His organizational work at Stras-
bourg also had a profound influence, particularly on John
CALVIN, who spent three formative years there.
Forced to leave Strasbourg in 1549 by the imposition
of the AUGSBURGInterim, Bucer settled in England, where
CRANMERsecured for him the post of regius professor of
divinity at Cambridge. Although he died less than two
years later, he exercised a major influence on the English
Reformation, submitting at Cranmer’s request detailed
suggestions for the revision of the 1549 Prayer Book
(known as the Censura of 1550; see BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER). His last work, De regno Christi, a blueprint for a
godly commonwealth dedicated to King Edward VI, was
published posthumously (c. 1557). It is available in Eng-
lish translation, together with Philipp Melanchthon’s Loci
communes, in Melanchthon and Bucer (London: SCM Press,
1969). Brill of Leyden began to issue an edition of Bucer’s
correspondence (in Latin with French or German com-
mentary), edited by Jean Rott et al, in 1979. His Censura
was republished in Latin with English text by the Alcuin
Club in 1974.
Further reading: Constantin Hopf, Martin Bucer and
the English Reformation (Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1946);
Christian Krieger and Marc Lienhard (eds), Martin Bucer
and Sixteenth-Century Europe (Leyden, Netherlands: Brill,
1993).Buchanan, George (1506–1582) Scottish humanist
scholar
Buchanan was born at Killearn and attended St. Andrews
university (1524). In 1526 he moved to Paris, where he
subsequently taught. Back in Scotland (1536) he became
tutor to an illegitimate son of James V, but the furore
caused by his verse satires against the friars forced him to
flee back to France. There he established his reputation
for scholarship and wrote some highly admired Latin po-
etry and four tragedies on classical models, including Bap-
tistes (1554); MONTAIGNEwas among his pupils who acted
in these plays. Invited to Coimbra (1547), he fell foul of
the Inquisition and was imprisoned (1549–51). He held
several more teaching posts in Europe before returning to
Scotland (c. 1560) where, although now openly a Protes-
tant, he was tutor to MARY, Queen of Scots, and active in7744 BBrruunnoo,, GGiioorrddaannoo