Campanella, Tommaso

Prodromus philosophiae instaurandae. Frankfurt: Johann Bringerus for Godefried Tampach, 1617, woodcut device on title-page, with final blank leaf
Realis philosophiae epilogisticae partes quatuor, hoc est, de rerum natura, hominum moribus, politica, (cui civitas solis iuncta est) & oeconomica. Frankfurt: (Egenolph Emmel for) Godefried Tampach, 1623, title printed without engraved border, woodcut diagrams, without final errata leaf
Apologia pro Galileo, mathematico florentino. Frankfurt: Erasmus Kempffer for Godefried Tampach, 1622, title printed without engraved border, with final blank leaf, paper flaw in A3 with loss of a few letters
RODERICUS ZAMORENSIS. Speculum omnium statuum totius orbis terrarum... recensitum & editum ex bibliotheca V.N. Melchioris Goldasti Haiminsfeldii &c. Hanau: heirs of Johann Aubry, 1613, woodcut printer's device on title-page and final verso, with final blank leaf, small stain at head of gutter towards end

4 works in one volume, 4to (217 x 162mm.), contemporary vellum, some deckle edges, manuscript note about Campanella on front flyleaf

BL STC German C185, C188, C183 and S204; Firpo, Campanella 3, 8h, 7; Mellon 73, 81, 80, -; VD17 23:000423W, 23:000294P, 23:000424D; 23:000212W; Apologia pro Galileo: Cinti 75; Riccardi i, 217

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FIRST EDITIONS of three of Campanella's works.

Campanella (1568-1639), a Dominican monk, became interested in questions of natural philosophy and astrology at an early age, partly under the influence of Giambattista della Porta in Naples, which led to charges of magic and atheism, resulting in various trials and torture and imprisonment. He spent the years 1599-1629 in prison in Naples and Rome, and manuscripts of his works were smuggled to Germany for printing, far from the influence of the Inquisition.

His main treatise was the utopian De civitate solis, a work of political philosophy, but he also waded into the Copernican debate with his strong support of Galileo, Apologia pro Galileo, in which he affirmed Galileo's belief that Nature, not the Bible, is the source of scientific knowledge. Despite his trials at the hands of the Church (which he survived, unlike his older Neapolitan contemporary Giordano Bruno), he died in Paris at the Dominican convent and never turned to Protestantism.

The editor of these texts, Tobias Adami from Saxony, travelled to Italy in 1611 and met Campanella in his Naples prison; he took Campanella's manuscripts with him and had them published after his return to Saxony in 1616. Adami also met both Federico Cesi and Galileo.