To what extent did the trial of Giordano Bruno set a precedent for that of Galileo?
The trials of Giordano Bruno and Galileo were connected, not because Bruno was a proto-Galileo, but because the Inquisition associated Galileo’s Copernicanism with Bruno’s condemned Hermeticism and theological heresies, creating a precedent for condemning Galileo. 2008-02-15