Lucilio Vanini, or, as he styled himself in his works,
Giulio Cesare (
1585 -
February 9, 1619), was an
Italian free-thinker, born at
Taurisano, near
Lecce.
He studied
philosophy and
theology at
Rome, and after his return to Lecce applied himself to the physical studies which had come into vogue with the
Renaissance. Like
Giordano Bruno, though intellectually inferior to him, he was among those who led the attack on the old
scholasticism and helped to lay the foundation of modern philosophy. Vanini resembles Bruno, not only in his wandering life and in his tragic death, but also in his anti-
Christian ideas.
From Naples he went to
Padua, where he came under the influence of the
Alexandrist Pomponazzi, whom he styles his divine master. At Padua he studied law, and was ordained priest. Subsequently he led a roving life in
France, Switzerland and the
Low Countries, supporting himself by giving lessons and disseminating anti-religious views. He was obliged to flee from
Lyon to
England in
1614, but was imprisoned in
London for an unknown reason for forty-nine days.
Returning to Italy he made an attempt to teach in
Genoa, but was driven once more to France, where he tried to clear himself of suspicion by publishing a book against
atheists, Amphitheatrum Aeternae Providentiae Divino-Magicum (1615). Though the definitions of
God are somewhat pantheistic, the book is sufficiently orthodox. The arguments are largely ironic, however, and cannot be taken as expounding his real views.
Vanini expressly tells us so in his second (and only other published) work,
De Admirandis Naturae Reginae Deaeque Mortalium Arcanis (Paris, 1616), which, originally certified by two doctors of the
Sorbonne, was later re-examined and condemned. Vanini then left Paris, where he had been staying as chaplain to the
marechal de Bassompierre, and began to teach in
Toulouse. In November 1618 he was arrested, and after a prolonged trial was condemned, as an atheist, to have his tongue cut out, and to be strangled at the stake, his body to be afterwards burned to ashes. The sentence was executed on the 9th of February 1619.
Note: According to Namer's book (see below), Giulio Cesare was Vanini's given name, not one he assumed. The Britannica entry is wrong here and follows false allegations by his detractors of an alleged megalomaniac desire to liken himself to Caesar. 
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