Giuliano Di Bernardo was born in Penne (Pescara) on 1 March 1939.

He devoted his adolescence to the study of philosophy. 

At the age of sixteen he discovered the existence of Freemasonry and was fascinated by it because he saw it as the linkage between the abstractness of philosophy and real life.

As seventeen he was received by the Grand Secretary of the Grand Orient of Italy, in Via Giustiniani, who gave him a letter of introduction to a freemason of Bologna, the city to which he was about to move.

At the age of nineteen he transferred with his family to Bologna.

 

In 1961, he received Masonic initiation to the "Risorgimento-8 Agosto" Lodge.

In 1962, he enrolled at the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Sociali (which later became the Faculty of Sociology) to undertake studies on the philosophy of the social sciences.

In those two years, he made the choices that would constitute the pillars on which the whole of his life would rest: the University and Freemasonry.

In 1962, he began the studies that would lead to the award of his degree in 1967 (he was one of the first ten graduates from the Faculty of Sociology) on discussion of a thesis on  deontic logic.

In the same year, he was appointed assistant to the chair in ‘Methodology of the Social Sciences’ whose holder was Alberto Pasquinelli, full professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Bologna.

In that period, he resumed and deepened his studies on deontic logic – a logic concerned with norms – founded by the Finnish philosopher G.H. von Wright in 1951.

In 1972, Il Mulino published his first book on this topic: Introduzione alla Logica del Sistemi Normativi, which was the first introduction to deontic logic in the Italian literature.

In 1975, the first international conference on deontic logic, chaired by G.H. von Wright, was held in Bielefeld (Germany). The task of editing the conference proceedings was given to Di Bernardo, who produced a volume entitled Logica Deontica e Semantica published by Il Mulino.

In 1974, he qualified as a university teacher in ‘Methodology of the Social Sciences’ and became a lecturer in that discipline  at the Faculty of Sociology.

In those years, his main academic interest was in the epistemological foundation of the social sciences which found first expression in the book L’Indagine del Mondo Sociale published by Angeli in 1979.

In the same year, he was awarded a professorship in Philosophy of Science and Logic at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Trento, where he would occupy that chair until his withdrawal from academic life.

In 1978, the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (founded by Albert Einstein) elected him a corresponding member after he had organized the Académie’s annual conference on the theme: “Spécificité des sciences humaines en tant que sciences” at the University of Trento. 

Meanwhile his studies on the epistemological foundation of the social sciences continued. In 1983, il Saggiatore published his book Le Regole dell’Azione Sociale in which he examined the logical aspects of that foundation.

However, the results achieved by Le Regole dell’Azione Sociale left him unsatisfied. He felt that he was on the right road but the fundamental insights still evaded him. He decided to publish his next book only when he had reached complete understanding of the epistemological foundation. Twenty-three years would pass.

In fact, in 2010 he published La conoscenza umana. Dalla fisica alla sociologia alla religione in which he proposed a neo-Enlightenment vision in which the sciences (natural and social), ethics, and religion found their proper places. The centuries-long relationship between the natural and social sciences was construed in entirely new terms with respect to the past.

At the University of Trento, he was Vice-Rector and Director of the Department of Social Sciences.

In this first period of his life, he accomplished its first ‘pillar’: the University. The photograph below is a visual representation.

 

 

After his initiation into Freemasonry in Bologna in 1961, he continued to attend the "Risorgimento-8 Agosto" Lodge, even if his commitments increasingly took him to Trento.

In 1968, after receiving his degree, he married and definitively transferred his residence to Trento.

In 1974, he obtained passage to the "Zamboni-De Rolandis" Lodge of Bologna, constituted by eminent university professors. This Lodge would be investigated on the accusation of ‘covertly’ obstructing the election of Fabio 

Roversi  Monaco as Rector of the University in Bologna.

From 1974 to 1985, he attended this Lodge and participated in its cultural activities, among them constitution of the Academy of San Marino.

The interlude in his studies on the epistemological foundation of the social sciences and the re-ignited debate on Freemasonry persuaded him to reflect on the philosophical principles of  Freemasonry. In fact, the opinions that laypersons and freemasons had of Freemasonry were almost always wrong, with the consequence that they expressed unfounded judgements on it. The situation resembled a Tower of Babel where everyone spoke of Freemasonry in different languages. He therefore felt it necessary, as a philosopher studying man and society, to clarify the meaning of the concept ‘Freemasonry’: What is Freemasonry?

He thus began rigorous research on the documentary sources (the documents issued by the United Grand Lodge of England since 1717) to construct an image of man according to Masonic principles.

In 1987, he set out the results of this research in Filosofia della Massoneria published by Marsilio.

The book was an immediate success. The lodges discussed it and invited the author to present it. The idea thus gained ground that he might be the next Grand Master, considering that Armando Corona was about to conclude his Grand Mastership and could not be re-elected. It was thought that, for the first time in the history of Italian Freemasonry, a philosopher could sit on the throne of King Solomon. 

On 18 March 1990 Giuliano Di Bernardo became Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, the historic Freemasonry which had also had Giuseppe Garibaldi as its Grand Master.

His Grand Mastership, which ceased in 1993 with his resignation, was the only true attempt to give Italy a Freemasonry able to interpret the challenges raised by politics, the economy, and science.

After the fall of Berlin Wall, Freemasonry resumed its activities in the countries of Eastern Europe. Grand Master Giuliano Di Bernardo, a convinced advocate of  international relations, worked to promote Masonic rebirth in those countries.

From 1990 to 1993, he revived Freemasonry in Romania by establishing the National Grand Lodge of Romania.

In the same period, he participated, with the Grand Masters of Austria and Germany, in constitution of the Grand Lodges of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

 The photograph below depicts him in this brief period as head of the Grand Orient of Italy.

In 1993, he realized that his project for the renewal of Italian Freemasonry was only an illusion, and he resigned from the Grand Orient of Italy.

With the support of the United Grand Lodge of England, he founded the "Regular Grand Lodge of Italy" on the model of English Freemasonry.

On 8 December 1993 he obtained the prestigious recognition of the United Grand Lodge of England, which he had already received from the Grand Orient of Italy. Shortly thereafter, also the Grand Lodges of Scotland, Ireland, France (GLNF) and Israel recognized the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy.

With the new Grand Lodge, his activity in the countries of Eastern Europe grew increasingly intense. Between 1996 and 1998, he created the Grand Lodge of Ukraine and the Grand Lodge of Moldova.

This period is represented by the photograph that follows.

The Regular Grand Lodge of Italy should have been the realization of pure English Freemasonry. Instead, conspiracies, conflicts, and unworthy admissions caused it to degenerate. The differences with respect to the Grand Orient of Italy, which should have been stellar, constantly diminished. Giuliano Di Bernardo’s dream of giving Italy a Freemasonry identical to that of England faded into nothing.

It was time to look elsewhere. A new century was beginning. The Project that he had unsuccessfully pursued with Freemasonry was still awaiting fulfilment. But what project?

It was an ethical project intended to gather into an international community of the Elect all persons with an inner ‘light’, regardless of their gender, skin colour, religion, language, and culture. They were to be the ‘Guardians’ of humanity, the protectors and the defenders of the Good, the Beautiful, the True and the Just.

What conception of man and life could convey these principles? His experience in Freemasonry had taught him that the society of reference must be esoteric and initiatory, since only this could unite the adepts with a strong and enduring bond. The search must therefore be directed towards the esoteric societies present in the history of humanity, primarily Orphism.

The choice fell on the Illuminati, and in particular the Illuminati of Bavaria. In 2002, he founded the Academy of the Illuminati with its headquarters in Piazza di Spagna, Rome. Eminent philosophers, scientists, jurists, economists, artists, men of letters, political scientists, communicators, laymen and clerics joined the Academy, in Italy and abroad.

This period is depicted by the following photograph.

 

The Illuminati, as thinking intellects, have the task of creating projects for the development of humanity representing the ideal, the ought-to-be, which social reality strives to achieve. Such projects, however, should be undertaken to improve the moral and material conditions of humanity.

Who has the task of achieving such projects? Not the Illuminati, who have produced them, because they do not know the practical and concrete conditions of society. The search must therefore be directed towards those men, always of quality and with inner light, who have the necessary knowledge of society: politicians, doctors, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, writers, and the like. It is precisely these men, united in a community, who represent the project’s operational counterpart.

The society that unites them is an esoteric Order denominated by Giuliano Di Bernardo Dignity. Ordine per la Difesa della Dignità dell’Uomo. It is an International Order founded in Italy and which then spread to other countries of the world.

The emblem of Dignity is this:

 

At present, Giuliano Di Bernardo is continuing his search for men with inner light, both to construct the Prject and to realize it in society.