John Crowley: “Today is the 17th of February, which in the face of subsequent calendar changes we take as the anniversary of Giordano Bruno's immolation in the Campo dei Fiori in Rome, in the year 1600. In the 19th century a statue was raised on the site by freethinking Italians then in conflict with the Vatican; the statue pictures a haggard and ascetic Bruno in the Dominican robes he never wore after his flight from Rome as a young man. Around the statue's base are medallions of other heroes of free thought who were burned or otherwise murdered by bigots and/or religious authorities ...”
