
The monument was paid by two internationaluniversity
committees, made of men of culture from all over Europe, in the 1880s.
The City of Rome agreed on locating the monument in Campo de 'Fiori, the actual place of Giordano Bruno’s execution.
On January 20, 1600, the Pope Clement VII declared Bruno an heretic and the inquisition issued a death sentence.
He was accused of holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith (about Trinity, Christ, Incarnation, the Virgin Mary, etc.), speaking against his ministers, believing in metempsychosis and dealing with divination and magic.
He was burnt at a stake on February 17,1600 in the Campo dei Fiori:
“his tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words”.
The author of Giordano Bruno’s monument is Ettore Ferrari; in
his first version he represented Giordano Bruno defiantly before the Inquisition, but the sketch was not accepted and he made a new one with Giordano Bruno depicted in the attitude of the philosopher, reflecting, with his hands crossed on his book and looking straight ahead.
On the monument's granite base are eight bronze medallions with portraits of free thinkers and three reliefs with the most important episodes in the life of Bruno. The statue, made of bronze, was cast at the foundry Crescenzi in Rome.