Campanella

Campanella, Tommaso, monk, was born at Stilo, Calabria, in 1568. Entering the order of the Dominicans at Cosenza, he there became attracted by the writings of Telesius, which inspired his Philosophia sensibus demonstrata, 1591, a defence of Telesius against the Aristotelians. This drew the attention of the authorities upon him, and after a few years of wandering he was arrested in 1599 and thrown into a Neapolitan prison, being treated with great severity. In 1626 he was liberated by Pope Urban VIII., and in 1634, in dread of further persecution, retired to France, where he enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Richelieu. He died in the Dominican monastery of St. Honors, Paris, in 1639. He was contemporary with Bacon, and, like him, sought to reform thought by a more extended study of nature. His chief works were, De sensu rerum et magia, Atheismus Trinmphatus, Monarchia Messiae Jesi, and Civitas Solis, in which last is outlined an ideal state, after the manner of More's Utopia. He also wrote sonnets of great power.