CAMPANELLA, Tom maso, Italian philosopher : b. Stilo, Calabria, 5 Sept. 1568; d. Paris 1639. He displayed great quickness of parts when quite young, and at the age of 15 entered into the order of the Dominicans. He studied theology and other branches of knowledge with assiduity, but was principally attracted by philosophy. The opin ions of Aristotle, then generally taught in the schools, appeared to him unsatisfactory ; and in 1591 he published at Naples a work entitled (Philosophia Sensibus Demonstrata,' intended to show the futility of the prevailing doctrines. He claimed that God alone is pure Being, and that being implies as its essence the power whereby it acts, the knowledge that reveals it to itself, and the love which inclines it to will its good. He held a political theory based on self-love and individual liberty. This book procured him some admirers, and more enemies. He then went to Rome, and afterward to Florence, where he was well received by the Grand Duke Ferdinand. In 1598 he returned to Naples, and revisited shortly after Calabria, where, in the following year, he was arrested on a charge of conspiracy against the Spanish government, to which Naples was then subject. A scheme was imputed to him of having en gaged the Turks to assist him in making him self master of Calabria. On this improbable
and apparently unfounded accusation he was imprisoned, and after being repeatedly tortured, condemned to perpetual confinement. In this situation he wrote many learned works, after ward published. At length, in 1626, Pope Urban VIII procured his removal to Rome, and in 1629 gave him his liberty, and bestowed on him a pension. Dreading some further per secution from the Spaniards, he withdrew in 1634 to France, where he was honorably re ceived by Louis XIII and Richelieu, and much esteemed by the learned men of that country. He died at the monastery of his order. Cam panella was a firm believer in astrology and magic. Among his numerous works may be mentioned 'Atheismus Triumphatus' (1631) ; (Monarchia Messim) (1633) ; 'Prodromus Philosophise (1617) ; Sensu Rerum et Magia' (1620) ; Monarchia His panica Discursus> (1640) ; (Realis philosophise quattuor, hoc est de rerum natura, hominum moribus, politica, cui Avitas solis adiuncta est, et CEconomica) (1622). A 'Life of Campanella,' by Baldacchini, was published at Naples (1840-43).