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What happened during Giordano Bruno’s 1584 debate with Oxford scholars?
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Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno, statue.
In February 1584, Giordano Bruno was invited by Fulke Greville to discuss his theories regarding the movement of the Earth with several Oxford doctors.1
Rather than a productive academic exchange, the meeting degenerated into a quarrel. Following this hostile encounter, Bruno expressed his frustration with the pedantry of the Oxonian doctors in his work Cena de le Ceneri (1584; "The Ash Wednesday Supper"), where he also reaffirmed his support for the heliocentric theory and argued that the Bible should be interpreted for its moral teachings rather than its astronomical implications.1