Il Candelaio ovvero Napoli come topografia del desiderio

This article aims at analysing certain aspects of the enigmatic structure of The Candle-Bearer, a play in Italian composed by Giordano Bruno in 1582. Firstly, as the author highlights from the very first lines, the play is intimately connected to contemporary mnemonic works and provides a privileged key to the innovative ars memoriae formulated by Bruno in those years. Constantly challenging the possibility of being staged, The Candle Bearer calls upon the reader-spectator by making his imagination the medium that makes it possible. Secondly, by constructing its plot around the ambiguous desire of Bonifacio, Bartolomeo and Manfurio (the one-and-triune protagonist of the play) in contrast to that of the other figures appearing on stage, The Candle-Bearer is proposed as a meditation on desire, the motor of human actions and universal vicissitude. Finally, Bruno’s play is also a reflection on the city and money, a multiform flux that enlivens the urban perimeter and that, embodying desires and relationships of late 16th-century urban civilisation, ends up embodying the very essence of things.