L'ateismo trionfato, ovvero riconoscimento filosofico della religione universale contra l'antichristianesimo macchiavellesco

This book, which consists of two volumes, is a critical edition by Germana Ernst of the original vernacular version of Campanella's important work. It shows us what he had written before inquisitors and other censors had read it and forced him to make changes in the Latin versions of the work. Volume 2 is an anastatic copy of Campanella's original manuscript that was the basis of Ernst's edited translation in the first volume: Ms Barb. Lt. 4458 of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
The modern reader of the book's short title might think it is about triumphant 'atheism'. This is not the case, however.
To Campanella, 'atheism' did not mean the non-existence of God but rather the belief in a Calvinist God predestining the eternal fate of human beings who have no free will and therefore no ability to chose good over evil. He therefore saw his book as an attack on this triumphant Protestant theology that threatened God with charges of cruelty and injustice.
In this book, Campanella also accounts as heretics of true Christian religion such writers as Niccol" Machiavelli and others who assert that the ends justify the means.
Although he clearly believed in God and disbelieved in predestination, his book seemed too liberal for the likes of his critical inquisitorial readers. No wonder, then, that the Latin edition of 1631, published in Italy, had to go through rewriting and, even after publication, was removed from bookstores' shelves for further emendations. It could only find unfettered publication in Paris in 1636.