Tommaso Campenella -

Italiano: Ritratto di Tommaso Campanella, Collezione Camillo Caetani, Sermoneta, Italia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tommaso Campenella  was born 5 September 1568 and he died on  21 May 1639,  he was baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella.   Campenella was an Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.

Born in Stignano (in the county of Stilo) in the province of Reggio di Calabria in Calabria, southern Italy, Campanella was a child prodigy. Son of a poor and illiterate cobbler, he entered the Dominican Order before the age of fifteen, taking the name of fra' Tommaso in honour of Thomas Aquinas.  He studied theology and philosophy with several masters.

Deutsch: Kupferstich mit dem Portrait Tommaso Campanellas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In Naples he was also initiated in astrology; astrological speculations would become a constant feature in his writings. Campanella's heterodox views, especially his opposition to the authority of Aristotle, brought him into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities. Denounced to the Inquisition and cited before the Holy Office in Rome, he was confined in a convent until 1597.

Campanella spent twenty-seven years imprisoned in Naples, often in the worst conditions. During his detention, he wrote his most important works:

The Monarchy of Spain (1600),
Political Aphorisms (1601),
Atheismus triumphatus (Atheism Conquered, 1605–1607),
Quod reminiscetur (1606?), 
Metaphysica (1609–1623), 
Theologia (1613–1624),
The City of the Sun
(originally written in Italian in 1602; published in Latin in Frankfurt (1623) and later in Paris (1638).  His most famous work.

Pope Urban VIII (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Campanella was finally released from his prison in 1626, through Pope Urban VIII, who personally interceded on his behalf with Philip IV of Spain.

Taken to Rome and held for a time by the Holy Office, Campanella was restored to full liberty in 1629. He lived for five years in Rome, where he was Urban's advisor in astrological matters.

In 1634, however, a new conspiracy in Calabria, led by one of his followers, threatened fresh troubles. With the aid of Cardinal Barberini and the French Ambassador de Noailles, he fled to France, where he was received at the court of Louis XIII with marked favour.

Protected by Cardinal Richelieu and granted a liberal pension by the king, he spent the rest of his days in the convent of Saint-Honoré in Paris. His last work was a poem celebrating the birth of the future Louis XIV
(Ecloga in portentosam Delphini nativitatem).

Biography from Wikipedia

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