Having flung his frock to the nettles, he journeyed--how, we do not know--to Genoa, and thence to Noli on the Riviera.

The next time Bruno entered the Dominican convent of S.
Maria sopra Minerva, it was as a culprit condemned to death by the Inquisition.
At Noli Bruno gained a living for about five months by teaching grammar to boys and lecturing in private to some gentlefolk upon the Sphere.

The doctrine of the Sphere formed a somewhat miscellaneous branch of mediaeval science.

It embraced the exposition of Ptolemaic astronomy, together with speculations on the locality of heaven, the motive principle of the world, and the operation of angelical intelligences.
Bruno, who professed this subject at various times throughout his wanderings, began now to use it as a vehicle for disseminating Copernican opinions.

It is certain that cosmography formed the basis of his philosophy, and this may be ascribed to his early occupation with the sphere.