Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno (February 1548–1600), born Filippo Bruno in Nola near Naples, entered the Dominican Order at seventeen and was ordained a priest in 1572. He demonstrated his famed mnemonic system before Pope Pius V.
Charged with heterodoxy, he fled Naples in 1576 and wandered Europe, teaching in Paris and London, where in 1584 he published Italian dialogues defending an infinite universe of suns circled by planets.
Denounced to the Venetian Inquisition in 1592, he was extradited to Rome in 1593 and tried for seven years. Refusing to recant, he was burned at the stake in the Campo de' Fiori on 17 February 1600.