Giordano Bruno. Coloured artwork of the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600). He was a supporter of the Copernican view that the earth revolved around the sun, but went beyond this to propose the infinity of space and the multiplicity of worlds. He was a member of the Dominican Order but left to air his radical views. He travelled widely in Europe and it is possible that he was a political spy in England in the early 1580s. He was arrested by the Inquisition in 1592 and, on refusing to recant his unorthodox views, was burnt alive at the stake.