Hiding in Plain Sight: The Trial of Giulio Cesare Vanini (1618–19)

Chapter 3 explores the extraordinary journey of Vanini; a shadowy figure adept in the art of simulation who was eventually executed by the Parlement de Toulouse for blasphemy. A wandering Italian philosopher, Vanini first ingratiated himself with the Archibishop of Canterbury who took him to be a sincere Anglican convert. Once his ruse had been discovered, Vanini subsequently fled to Toulouse under a false identity, where he was able to rub shoulders with influential aristocrats before his true beliefs once again came to light. This chapter offers the first full account of Vanini’s story in English, and uses his ordeals in England to contextualise his actions in France for which comparatively few documents survive. It then constructs an account of his trial using these remaining sources, and presents new archival evidence revealing forgotten witnesses. It argues that the one person reported to have testified against him – ‘Francon’ – could not have played the crucial role that scholars have since attributed to him. The chapter ends by evaluating Vanini’s performance at his execution in relation to his wider subversive tendencies evinced by epistolary exchanges and his texts.