Supper of Ashes
As noted in my inaugural blog post, "Supper of Ashes" was the name I gave to a bookselling and book trading business I established at Philadelphia in the early 1980s. The name itself is a literal translation of La Cena de le ceneri, written by the great Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, but more appropriately translated as The Ash Wednesday Supper. Given my longstanding interest in early science, and in the struggle over ideas in the early modern period, I chose that name for my book business, and have employed it sporadically ever since that time, as I do here.
By the way, Bruno was the last person to be executed by the Inquisition -- he was burned at the stake -- on account of his persistence in promoting the Copernican, or heliocentric, model of the universe, a heresy in violation of Church doctrine. The Ash Wednesday Supper, published at London in 1584, was Bruno's major statement of that position, and a prickly source of antagonism for the Church. Bruno was eventually handed over to the Roman Inquisition, and spent the last eight years of his life in prison. He was executed at Rome, on the morning of 17 February 1600.
The above is my way of providing a sort of headnote to this discussion page. I'll use the blog page of this website to add additional content, and meanwhile would hopefully ask visitors to contribute thoughts or comments here, or in the comments section of the blog.