Vanini, Giulio Cesare (1585–1619)

Although he wrote little, Giulio Cesare Vanini occupies a secure place in European intellectual history. His philosophical atheism connects the developments in late Italian Renaissance thought with the audacious libertins érudits of seventeenth-century France. He is identified with the Aristotelian naturalism of Padua and disseminated the Machiavellian view of religion as a political tool. Conflicts with ecclesiastical authorities in Italy, England and France forced him to travel widely. He fled Paris when the condemnation of his second book was imminent, briefly finding refuge in Toulouse under a false name. In 1619, unaware of his true identity, the Parlement there executed him for atheism, blasphemy and impiety.