Born in Stignano (in the county of Stilo) in the province of Reggio
di Calabria in 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. Early on, he became disenchanted with the
Aristotelian orthodoxy and attracted by the empiricism of
Bernardino Telesio (1509-1588), who taught that knowledge is
sensation and that all things in nature possess sensation.
Campanella wrote his first work, Philosophia Sensibus Demonstrata
("Philosophy demonstrated by the senses"), published in 1592, in
defence of Telesio. 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. After his liberation, Campanella returned to Calabria, where
he was accused of leading a conspiracy against the Spanish rule in
his hometown of Stilo. Campanella's aim was to establish a society
based on the community of goods and wives, for on the basis of the
prophecies of Joachim of Fiore and his own astrological
observations, he foresaw the advent of the Age of the Spirit in the
year 1600. Betrayed by two of his fellow conspirators, he was
captured and incarcerated in Naples, where he was tortured on the
rack. He made a full confession and would have been put to death if
he had not feigned madness and set his cell on fire. He was
tortured further (a total of seven times) and then, crippled and
ill, was sentenced to life imprisonment. 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, Political Aphorisms, Atheismus
triumphatus, Quod reminiscetur, Metaphysica, Theologia, and his
most famous work, The City of the Sun. He even intervened in the
first trial against Galileo Galilei with his courageous The Defense
of Galileo. Ironically, Galileo himself probably would not have
wanted Campanella's assistance because of Campanella's sometimes
outlandish ideas and prior conviction of heresy. 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 Honore in Paris. His last work was a poem, the Ecloga in
portentosam Delphini nativitatem, celebrating the birth of the
future Louis XIV.
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