Presenze luterane in Giulio Cesare Vanini

A small Luther in Vanini's medallion on the Roman monument to Giordano Bruno suggests that for some people there is a certain affinity between the great Reformer and the Prince of the Libertines. The two are very different in thought and character. Luther is a believer hungry of God, Domini miles, Vanini is an unbeliever and he ungodly compares himself to God: vel Deus vel Vaninus. Few are the references in the Salentino's works to the great Saxon, however he shows to respect him in the Amphitheatrum. Even in the ambiguity of the vaninian positions, it has to be pointed out a certain closeness between the two on the power or not of man to think and act according to his will (free will). Schopenhauer, in his essay "The freedom of the human will", states that for both Luther and Vanini man is preordained and acts not according to freedom but according to necessity (servant will). Luther abhorred astrology. For the oblique Vanini, man depends sometimes entirely on God, sometimes on the stars.