Editing Lucilio Vanini (section)

==Life==
===Early life (1585–1612)===
[[Image:Casa Giulio Cesare Vanini Taurisano.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Vanini's birthplace, Taurisano]]
Lucilio Vanini was born in 1585 in Taurisano, [[Terra d'Otranto]], Italy. His father was Giovan Battista Vanini, a businessman from Tresana in Tuscany, while his mother was the daughter of a man named Lopez de Noguera, a customs contractor of the Spanish royal family's lands in [[Bari]], Terra d'Otranto, [[Capitanata]], and [[Basilicata]]. A document dated August 1612, discovered in the [[Vatican Secret Archives]], describes Vanini as of [[Apulia]], which is consistent with the native land he mentions in his own works.

The government census of the population of the hamlet of Taurisano, in 1596, includes the names of Giovan Battista Vanini, his lawful son Alexander, born in 1582, and his natural son Giovan Francesco, while there is no mention of Vanini's wife or of another lawful son called Lucilio (or Giulio Cesare). In 1603 Giovan Battista Vanini is reported for the last time in Taurisano.

Lucilio Vanini entered the University of Naples in 1599.<ref name="Galileo Project">{{cite web |url=http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/vanini.html |title=Vanini, Giulio Cesare |last1=Westfall |first1=Richard S. |website=The Galileo Project |publisher=Rice University, USA |access-date=26 November 2014}} (based on works by Emile Namer and Andrzej Nowicki)</ref> In 1603 he entered the [[Carmelites|Carmelite order]],<ref>A letter from the English ambassador to Venice, Dudley Carleton, dated 7 [but 17] February 1611 [but 1612]; the episode refers to nine years before, or 1603.</ref> taking the name of Fra Gabriele. He earned a doctorate in canon and civil law from the [[University of Naples Federico II|University of Naples]] on 6 June 1606.<ref name="Galileo Project" />

Afterwards, he remained in the Naples area for two years, apparently living as a friar,<ref name="Galileo Project" /> or alternatively he returned to Lecce and studied the new [[Renaissance]] sciences, chiefly medicine and astronomy. By now, he had assimilated much knowledge and "speaks very good Latin and with great ease, is tall and a bit thin, has brown hair, an aquiline nose, lively eyes and a pleasant and ingenious physiognomy".

[[Image:Campo Santa Fosca - Paolo Sarpi.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Statue of Paolo Sarpi in Venice]]
In (probably) 1606, Vanini's father died in Naples. Vanini, now come of age, was recognised by a court in the capital as heir of Giovan Battista and guardian of his brother Alexander. With a series of deeds and power of attorney drawn up in Naples, Vanini began to settle the financial consequences of the death of his father: selling a house he owned in Ugento, a few miles from his home country; in 1607 mandating a maternal uncle to fulfil assignments of the same type; in 1608 instructing friend Scarciglia to recover a sum and sell some goods remaining in Taurisano and held in custody by the two brothers.

In 1608, Vanini moved to [[Padua]], a town under the rule of Venice, to study theology at that university (although there is no record of him subsequently obtaining a degree).<ref name="Galileo Project" /> While there he came into contact with the group led by [[Paolo Sarpi]] that, with the support of the English embassy in Venice, fueled anti-papal polemics. In 1611 he participated in the [[Lent]]en sermons, attracting the suspicions of the religious authorities. During that period, the controversy over the [[Venetian Interdict|1606 interdict]] placed on the Republic of Venice by [[Pope Paul V]] was still raging, and Vanini showed himself unambiguously in favour of the Republic.<ref name="Galileo Project" /> Consequently, the Prior General of his order, Enrico Silvio, commanded him to return to Naples, where he would have been disciplined, probably severely, but instead Vanini sought refuge with the English ambassador to Venice in 1612.<ref name="Galileo Project" />

===In England (1612–1614)===
Vanini then fled to England, along with his Genoese companion Bonaventure Genocchi. They passed through [[Bologna]], [[Milan]], the Swiss canton of [[Graubünden]], and descended via the [[Rhine]], through [[Germany]] and the [[Netherlands]], to the [[North Sea]] coast and the [[English Channel]], finally reaching [[London]] and the [[Lambeth]] residence of the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. Here the two remained for nearly two years, hiding their true identity from their English guests. In July 1612, they both renounced their Catholic faith and embraced [[Anglicanism]].

By 1613, however, Vanini was having doubts, so he appealed to the Pope to be allowed back into the Catholic fold, but as a secular priest rather than as a friar; the request was granted by the Pope himself.<ref name="Galileo Project" /> Around the start of 1614, Vanini visited the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and confided to some acquaintances his imminent flight from England, so in January, he and Genocchi were arrested on the orders of the Archbishop of Canterbury, [[George Abbot (bishop)|George Abbot]]. They managed to escape however, Genocchi in February 1614 and Vanini in March. The Spanish ambassador in London and the chaplain of the embassy of the Venetian Republic were thought to have engineered their escapes. The two passed through the hands of the papal nuncio in Flanders, [[Guido Bentivoglio]], to the papal nuncio in Paris, [[Roberto Ubaldini]].

===In France (1614–1618)===
In Paris, in the summer of 1614, Vanini subscribed to the principles of the [[Council of Trent]], to prove the sincerity of his return to the Catholic faith. He then journeyed to Italy, going first to Rome, where he had to face the difficult final stages of the process in the court of the Inquisition, then to Genoa for a few months, where he found his friend Genocchi and taught philosophy to children of Scipio Doria for a time.

[[Image:Lucilio (Julius Caesar) Vanini. Line engraving. Wellcome V0005991.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Line engraving of Lucilio (Giulio Cesare) Vanini]]
Despite assurances, the return of Vanini and Genocchi was not entirely peaceful; in January 1615 Genocchi was arrested by the Inquisitor of Genoa. Vanini therefore, fearing the same fate, ran away again to France and headed to Lyon. There, in June 1615, he published ''Amphitheatrum'', a book against atheism, which he hoped would clear his name with the Roman authorities.

A short time later Vanini returned to Paris, where he asked Nuncio Ubaldini to intervene on his behalf with the authorities in Rome. Insufficiently assured, Vanini decided not to return to Italy, and instead cultivated connections with prestigious elements of the French nobility.

In 1616, Vanini completed the second of his two works, ''De Admirandis'', and got it approved by two theologians at the Sorbonne. The work was published in September in Paris. It was dedicated to [[François de Bassompierre]], a powerful man at the court of [[Marie de' Medici]], and was printed by Adrien Périer, a Protestant. The work was immediately successful among those aristocratic circles populated by young spirits who looked with interest to the cultural and scientific innovations that came from Italy. The ''De Admirandis'' was a [[summa]], lively and brilliant, of the new knowledge, and became a kind of "manifesto" for these cultural free spirits, giving Vanini a chance to stay safe in circles close to the French court. However, a few days after the publication of the work, the two theologians at the Sorbonne who had expressed their approval were presented to the Faculty of Theology in formal session and the outcome was a ''de facto'' ban on the movement of the text.

Now, unwelcome in England, unable to return to Italy and threatened by some circles of French Catholics, Vanini saw his room for manoeuvre shrinking and his chances of finding a stable place in French society failing. Fearing that a court case would be started against him in Paris, he fled and went into hiding at [[Redon Abbey]] in Brittany, where Abbott Arthur d'Épinay de Saint-Luc acted as his protector. But other factors gave cause for concern: in April 1617 [[Concino Concini]], favorite of Marie de' Medici, was killed in Paris, giving rise to a wave of hostility to Italian residents at court.

===Final year (1618–1619)===
In the following months, a mysterious Italian, with a strange name (Pompeo Uciglio<ref name="Galileo Project" />) and in possession of great knowledge but an uncertain past, appeared in some cities of [[Guyenne]], then the [[Languedoc]] and finally [[Toulouse]]. Duke [[Henri II de Montmorency]], protector of ''esprits forts'' of the time, was the governor of this region and seemed to grant protection to the fugitive, who still continued to keep carefully hidden.

The presence of this mysterious character in Toulouse did not however pass unnoticed and attracted the suspicions of the authorities. In August 1618 he was apprehended and interrogated. In February 1619, the [[Parlement of Toulouse]] found him guilty of atheism and blasphemy and, in accordance with the regulations of the time, his tongue was cut out, he was strangled and his body was burned. After the execution it emerged that the stranger was in fact Vanini.