Giovanni+Pico+della+Mirandola

Biography

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola lived from February 24, 1463, to November 17, 1494. He was the youngest of three boys born to Francesco I and his wife Giulia. Pico was well educated, learning Latin and possibly Greek. His mother wanted him to go into the church so he was sent "to Bologna to study canon law" (Catholic Encyclopedia 2010). When she died three years later, Pico renounced his study of canon law and moved on to study philosophy at the University of Ferrara. He returned to Florence in 1485 where he met Lorenzo de' Medici. Lorenzo would prove to be a valuable patron, helping Pico out of jail after having an affair with the wife of one of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s cousins. Pico fled to France in 1488 but was arrested by Philip II of Savoy. Through the intervention of mostly Lorenzo de' Medici, Pico was released and allowed to live in Florence under Lorenzo's supervision. In 1493, he was pardoned by Pope Alexander VI. U nder the influence of Girolamo Savonarola, a militant preacher, Pico renewed his religious convictions. Pico is rumored to have died of arsenic poisoning, a plot ordered by Lorenzo's successor because Pico grew too close to Savonarola. Pico’s early death prevented the publication or completion of many of his works.

Works

As a typical humanist, Pico believed man achieves full humanity and contemplation through a liberal arts education. He maintained that wisdom could be gained by three routes: classical, biblical and Kabbalist (Copenhaver 17). His works assert that people are torn between developing their spirituality and rising to God, or following their base, sensual desires and being as low as the beasts. In an effort to find agreement amongst philosophical schools, Pico penned his // 900 Conclusions //, a series of theses printed in Rome in 1486 that joined together not only the teachings of Plato and Aristotle, but also Christian, Muslim and Jewish ideas. For an introduction, Pico wrote his most celebrated work, the //Oration on the Dignity of Man.// [|Complete Text] In the //Oration//, Pico writes, “Let us climb for the heights, panting; and let us strive with all our might to reach them, since we can do it if we will it. Let us scorn the things of earth… and leaving behind whatever is of the world, let us fly up to the hyper-cosmic court nearest the most exalted divinity…. As we emulate the Cherubic life on earth… dispelling the darkness of reason through dialectic…Then let us flood the soul… with the light of natural philosophy so that finally we may perfect it with knowledge of divinity…. [Then] we will fully enjoy the peace that we have longed for—// we shall be ourselves no longer, but shall be Him //, the very one who made us” (Copenhaver). Pico defended his theses in his //Apology//, but the Pope declared his work "in part heretical... several are scandalous and offensive to pious ears; most do nothing but reproduce the errors of pagan philosophers and others are capable of inflaming the impertinence of the Jews; a number of them, finally, under the pretext of 'natural philosophy,' favor arts that are enemies to the Catholic faith and to the human race" (All Experts 2010). Some of Pico’s other works include //Heptaplus//, an extension of his syncretistic ideas, and //Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology//, left unfinished at his death.

Significance

A pillar of the Renaissance, Pico’s main contribution to humanist thought consisted of his blending of Ficino, Neoplatonism, and Medieval Christianity. He also added a mystical sense to Renaissance humanism that is not seen in many of the other Renaissance humanists. Many of the Renaissance humanists agreed with Cicero that citizenship should be the ultimate goal of all man. Pico believed that man should strive for liberty and freedom. For Pico, “the chief thing is not to prove man’s substantial similarity with the world” but instead to recognize the “difference that confers on man his exceptional and in a sense privileged position” (Cassirer 320). The // Oration //// is // the work most central to Pico’s Renaissance ideas and beliefs: man in the image of God is not a gift given to him, but rather it is something that man must bring about (Cassirer 321).The // Oration // centered on his argument that God created humankind with unlimited freewill. Pico believed that a “dog must always behave like a dog” but that men had the ability and supremacy to influence his own development (Hale 288).

Bibliography:

Cassirer, Ernst. "Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola: A Study in the History of Renaissance Ideas." // Journal of the History of Ideas // 3, no. 3 (1942): 319-346.

Copenhaver, Brian. " Giovanni Pico della Mirandola." // Encyclopedia of the Renaissance //. 2 vol. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. Print.

-. "Giovanni Pico della Mirandola." // The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2008 Edition) //, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), []. 19 February 2010.

Hale, J.R. //Renaissance Europe.// Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971.

Lejay, Paul. "Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola" // The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10 //. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 19 February 2010.

Thompson, Bard. // Humanists and Reformers: A History of the Renaissance and Reformation //. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996. =[|For Further Study]=