Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola (Italian: [dʒoˈvanni ˈpiːko
della miˈrandola]; 24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an
Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher.[1] He was the founder of
the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key tenet of early modern
Western esotericism. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the
age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy,
natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote
the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the
"Manifesto of the Renaissance",[2] and a key text of Renaissance
humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation".[3]
His 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by
the Church.[4]
Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Family
1.2 Education
1.3 900 Theses
1.4 Death
2 Writings
3 Cultural references
4 See also
5 References
5.1 Footnotes
6 Sources and further reading
7 External links
Biography[edit]
Castle of
Mirandola

Mirandola (Duchy of Modena) in 1976
Family[edit]
Giovanni was born at Mirandola, near Modena, the youngest son of
Gianfrancesco I Pico, Lord of
Mirandola

Mirandola and Count of Concordia, by his
wife Giulia, daughter of Feltrino Boiardo, Count of Scandiano.[5] The
family had long dwelt in the Castle of
Mirandola

Mirandola (Duchy of Modena),
which had become independent in the fourteenth century and had
received in 1414 from the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund the fief of
Concordia.
Mirandola

Mirandola was a small autonomous county (later, a duchy) in
Emilia, near Ferrara. The Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola were closely related to
the Sforza, Gonzaga and Este dynasties, and Giovanni's siblings wed
the descendants of the hereditary rulers of Corsica, Ferrara, Bologna,
and Forlì.[5]
Born twenty-three years into his parents' marriage, Giovanni had two
much older brothers, both of whom outlived him: Count Galeotto I
continued the dynasty, while Antonio became a general in the Imperial
army.[5] The Pico family would reign as dukes until Mirandola, an ally
of Louis XIV of France, was conquered by his rival, Joseph I, Holy
Roman Emperor, in 1708 and annexed to
Modena

Modena by Duke Rinaldo d'Este,
the exiled male line becoming extinct in 1747.[6]
Giovanni's maternal family was singularly distinguished in the arts
and scholarship of the Italian Renaissance. His cousin and
contemporary was the poet Matteo Maria Boiardo, who grew up under the
influence of his own uncle, the Florentine patron of the arts and
scholar-poet Tito Vespasiano Strozzi.[7]
Giovanni had a paradoxical relationship with his nephew Gianfrancesco
Pico della Mirandola, who was a great admirer of his uncle, yet
published Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium (1520) in opposition to
the "ancient wisdom narrative" espoused by Giovanni, described by
historian Charles B. Schmitt as an attempt "to destroy what his uncle
had built."[8]
Education[edit]
A precocious child with an exceptional memory, Giovanni was schooled
in Latin and possibly Greek at a very early age. Intended for the
Church by his mother, he was named a papal protonotary (probably
honorary) at the age of ten and in 1477 he went to Bologna to study
canon law.[9]
At the sudden death of his mother three years later, Pico renounced
canon law and began to study philosophy at the University of
Ferrara.[9] During a brief trip to Florence, he met Angelo Poliziano,
the courtly poet Girolamo Benivieni, and probably the young Dominican
monk Girolamo Savonarola. For the rest of his life he remained very
close friends with all three, including the ascetic and anti-humanist
Savonarola.[10] He may also have been a lover of Poliziano.[11] From
1480 to 1482, he continued his studies at the University of Padua, a
major center of
Aristotelianism

Aristotelianism in Italy.[9] Already proficient in
Latin and Greek, he studied Hebrew and Arabic in
Padua

Padua with Elia del
Medigo, a Jewish Averroist, and read Aramaic manuscripts with him as
well. Del Medigo also translated Judaic manuscripts from Hebrew into
Latin for Pico, as he would continue to do for a number of years. Pico
also wrote sonnets in Latin and Italian which, because of the
influence of Savonarola, he destroyed at the end of his life.
He spent the next four years either at home, or visiting humanist
centres elsewhere in Italy. In 1485, he travelled to the University of
Paris, the most important centre in Europe for scholastic philosophy
and theology, and a hotbed of secular Averroism. It was probably in
Paris that Giovanni began his 900 Theses and conceived the idea of
defending them in public debate.
900 Theses[edit]
Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici by Giorgio Vasari, c. 1533-1534
During this time two life-changing events occurred. The first was when
he returned to settle for a time in
Florence

Florence in November 1484 and met
Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici and Marsilio Ficino. It was an astrologically
auspicious day that Ficino had chosen to publish his translations of
the works of
Plato

Plato from Greek into Latin, under Lorenzo's enthusiastic
patronage. Pico appears to have charmed both men, and despite Ficino's
philosophical differences, he was convinced of their Saturnine
affinity and the divine providence of his arrival. Lorenzo would
support and protect Pico until his death in 1492. Without Lorenzo's
support, it is doubtful that Pico would have survived the Inquisition
coming after him.
Soon after this stay in Florence, Pico was travelling on his way to
Rome where he intended to publish his 900 Theses and prepare for a
"congress" of scholars from all over Europe to debate them. Stopping
in
Arezzo

Arezzo he became embroiled in a love affair with the wife of one of
Lorenzo de' Medici's cousins. It almost cost him his life. Giovanni
attempted to run off with the woman, but he was caught, wounded and
thrown into prison by her husband. He was released only upon the
intervention of Lorenzo himself. The incident is wholly representative
of Pico's often audacious temperament and of the loyalty and affection
he nevertheless could inspire.
Pico spent several months in
Perugia

Perugia and nearby Fratta, recovering
from his injuries. It was there, as he wrote to Ficino, that "divine
Providence ... caused certain books to fall into my hands. They are
Chaldean books ... of Esdras, of
Zoroaster

Zoroaster and of Melchior, oracles of
the magi, which contain a brief and dry interpretation of Chaldean
philosophy, but full of mystery."[12] It was also in
Perugia

Perugia that Pico
was introduced to the mystical Hebrew Kabbalah, which fascinated him,
as did the late classical Hermetic writers, such as Hermes
Trismegistus. The
Kabbalah

Kabbalah and Hermetica were thought in Pico's time
to be as ancient as the Old Testament. The most original of his 900
theses concerned the Kaballah. As a result he became the founder of
the tradition known as Christian Kabbalah, which went on to be a
central part of early modern Western esotericism.[13] Pico's approach
to different philosophies was one of extreme syncretism, placing them
in parallel, it has been claimed, rather than attempting to describe a
developmental history.[14]
Pico based his ideas chiefly on Plato, as did his teacher, Marsilio
Ficino, but retained a deep respect for Aristotle. Although he was a
product of the studia humanitatis, Pico was constitutionally an
eclectic, and in some respects he represented a reaction against the
exaggerations of pure humanism, defending what he believed to be the
best of the medieval and Islamic commentators, such as
Averroes

Averroes and
Avicenna, on
Aristotle

Aristotle in a famous long letter to
Ermolao Barbaro

Ermolao Barbaro in
1485. It was always Pico's aim to reconcile the schools of
Plato

Plato and
Aristotle

Aristotle since he believed they used different words to express the
same concepts. It was perhaps, for this reason, his friends called him
"Princeps Concordiae", or "Prince of Harmony" (a pun on Prince of
Concordia, one of his family's holdings).[15] Similarly, Pico believed
that an educated person should also study the Hebrew and Talmudic
sources, and the Hermetics, because he thought they represented the
same concept of God that is seen in the Old Testament, but in
different words.
He finished his "Oration on the Dignity of Man" to accompany his 900
Theses and traveled to Rome to continue his plan to defend them. He
had them published together December 1486 as "Conclusiones
philosophicae, cabalasticae et theologicae", and offered to pay the
expenses of any scholars who came to Rome to debate them publicly. He
wanted the debate to begin on 6 January, which was, as historian
Steven Farmer has observed, the feast of Epiphany and "symbolic date
of the submission of the pagan gentes to Christ in the persons of the
Magi". After emerging victorious at the culmination of the debate,
Pico planned not only on the symbolic acquiescence of the pagan sages,
but the conversion of Jews as they realised that Jesus was the true
secret of their traditions. According to Farmer, Pico may have been
expecting quite literally that "his Vatican debate would end with the
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse crashing through the Roman skies".[16]
Innocent VIII, 15th century
In February 1487,
Pope Innocent VIII

Pope Innocent VIII halted the proposed debate, and
established a commission to review the orthodoxy of the 900 Theses.
Although Pico answered the charges against them, thirteen of them were
condemned. Pico agreed in writing to retract them, but he did not
change his mind about their validity. Eventually all 900 theses were
condemned. He proceeded to write an apologia defending them, as
Apologia J. Pici Mirandolani, Concordiae comitis, published in 1489,
which he dedicated to his patron, Lorenzo. When the pope was apprised
of the circulation of this manuscript, he set up an inquisitorial
tribunal, forcing Pico to renounce the Apologia, in addition to his
condemned theses, which he agreed to do.
The pope declared 900 Theses to be:
In part heretical, in part the flower of heresy; several are
scandalous and offensive to pious ears; most do nothing but reproduce
the errors of pagan philosophers...others are capable of inflaming the
impertinence of the Jews; a number of them, finally, under the pretext
of 'natural philosophy', favor arts [i.e., magic[17]] that are enemies
to the Catholic faith and to the human race.[18]
This was the first time that a printed book had been banned by the
Church, and nearly all copies were burned.[19] Pico fled to France in
1488, where he was arrested by Philip II, Duke of Savoy, at the demand
of the papal nuncios, and imprisoned at Vincennes. Through the
intercession of several Italian princes – all instigated by Lorenzo
de' Medici – King Charles VIII had him released, and the pope was
persuaded to allow Pico to move to
Florence

Florence and to live under
Lorenzo's protection. But he was not cleared of the papal censures and
restrictions until 1493, after the accession of
Alexander VI

Alexander VI (Rodrigo
Borgia) to the papacy.
The experience deeply shook Pico. He reconciled with Savonarola, who
remained a very close friend. It was at Pico's persuasion that Lorenzo
invited Savonarola to Florence. But Pico never renounced his
syncretist convictions.
He settled in a villa near
Fiesole

Fiesole prepared for him by Lorenzo, where
he wrote and published the Heptaplus id est de Dei creatoris opere
(1489) and De Ente et Uno (Of Being and Unity, 1491). It was here that
he also wrote his other most celebrated work, the Disputationes
adversus astrologiam divinicatrium (Treatise Against Predictive
Astrology), which was not published until after his death. In it, Pico
acidly condemned the deterministic practices of the astrologers of his
day.
After the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, in 1492, Pico moved to Ferrara,
although he continued to visit Florence. In Florence, political
instability gave rise to the increasing influence of Savonarola, whose
reactionary opposition to Renaissance expansion and style had already
brought about conflict with the Medici family (they eventually were
expelled from Florence) and would lead to the wholesale destruction of
books and paintings. Nevertheless, Pico became a follower of
Savonarola. Determined to become a monk, he dismissed his former
interest in Egyptian and Chaldean texts, destroyed his own poetry and
gave away his fortune.[20]
Death[edit]
Angel Appearing to Zacharias (detail), by Domenico Ghirlandaio, c.
1486-90 - showing (l-r) Marsilio Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, Angelo
Poliziano
.jpg)
Poliziano and Demetrios Chalkondyles
In 1494, at the age of 31, Pico was poisoned under mysterious
circumstances along with his friend Angelo Poliziano.[21] It was
rumored that his own secretary had poisoned him because Pico had
become too close to Savonarola.[18] He was interred together with
Girolamo Benivieni

Girolamo Benivieni at San Marco and Savonarola delivered the funeral
oration. Ficino wrote: "Our dear Pico left us on the same day that
Charles VIII was entering Florence, and the tears of men of letters
compensated for the joy of the people. Without the light brought by
the king of France,
Florence

Florence might perhaps have never seen a more
somber day than that which extinguished Mirandola's light."[18]
In 2007, the bodies of
Poliziano
.jpg)
Poliziano and Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola were exhumed
from St. Mark's Basilica in Florence. Scientists under the supervision
of Giorgio Gruppioni, a professor of anthropology from Bologna, wished
to use modern technology to determine the cause of the two men's
death.[10] In February 2008 they announced that these forensic tests
showed that both
Poliziano
.jpg)
Poliziano and Pico died of arsenic poisoning,
probably at the order of Lorenzo's successor, Piero de' Medici.[22]
Writings[edit]
Opera quae exstant omnia (1601)
In the Oratio de hominis dignitate (Oration on the Dignity of Man,
1486), Pico justified the importance of the human quest for knowledge
within a Neoplatonic framework.
The Oration also served as an introduction to Pico's 900 theses, which
he believed to provide a complete and sufficient basis for the
discovery of all knowledge, and hence a model for mankind's ascent of
the chain of being. The 900 Theses are a good example of humanist
syncretism, because Pico combined Platonism, Neoplatonism,
Aristotelianism,
Hermeticism

Hermeticism and Kabbalah. They also included 72
theses describing what Pico believed to be a complete system of
physics.
Pico's De animae immortalitate (Paris, 1541), and other works,
developed the doctrine that man's possession of an immortal soul freed
him from the hierarchical stasis. Pico may have believed in universal
reconciliation, since one of his 900 theses was "A mortal sin of
finite duration is not deserving of eternal but only of temporal
punishment;" it was among the theses pronounced heretical by Pope
Innocent VIII in his bull of 4 August 1487.[23] In the Oration he
writes that "human vocation is a mystical vocation that has to be
realized following a three stage way, which comprehends necessarily
moral transformation, intellectual research and final perfection in
the identity with the absolute reality. This paradigm is universal,
because it can be retraced in every tradition."[24]
A portion of his Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem was
published in Bologna after his death. In this book Pico presents
arguments against the practice of astrology that have had enormous
resonance for centuries, up to our own time. Disputationes is
influenced by the arguments against astrology espoused by one of his
intellectual heroes, St. Augustine of Hippo, and also by the medieval
philosophical tale Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan which promoted autodidacticism as a
philosophical program.[25] Pico's antagonism to astrology seems to
derive mainly from the conflict of astrology with Christian notions of
free will. But Pico's arguments moved beyond the objections of Ficino,
who was himself an astrologer. The manuscript was edited for
publication after Pico's death by his nephew Giovanni Francesco Pico
della Mirandola, an ardent follower of Savonarola, and may possibly
have been amended to be more forcefully critical. This might possibly
explain the fact that Ficino championed the manuscript and
enthusiastically endorsed it before its publication.
Early in his career, Pico wrote a Commento sopra una canzone d'amore
di Girolamo Benivieni, in which he revealed his plan to write a book
entitled Poetica Theologia:[26]
It was the opinion of the ancient theologians that divine subjects and
the secret Mysteries must not be rashly divulged... the Egyptians had
sculpted sphinxes in all their temples, for no other reason than to
indicate that divine things, even when they are committed to writing,
must be covered with enigmatic veils and poetic dissimulation... How
that was done... by Latin and Greek poets we shall explain in the book
of our Poetic Theology.
— Commento, Libro Terzo, Cap. xi, Stanza Nona[27]
Pico's Heptaplus, a mystico-allegorical exposition of the creation
according to the seven Biblical senses, elaborates on his idea that
different religions and traditions describe the same God. The book is
written in his characteristic apologetic and polemic style:
If they agree with us anywhere, we shall order the Hebrews to stand by
the ancient traditions of their fathers; if anywhere they disagree,
then drawn up in Catholic legions we shall make an attack upon them.
In short, whatever we detect foreign to the truth of the Gospels we
shall refute to the extent of our power, while whatever we find holy
and true we shall bear off from the synagogue, as from a wrongful
possessor, to ourselves, the legitimate Israelites.
— Heptaplus, Proem to 3rd exposition[28]
On Being and the One (Latin: De ente et uno), has explanations of
several passages in Moses,
Plato

Plato and Aristotle. It is an attempted
reconciliation between Platonic and Aristotelian writings on the
relative places of being and "the one" and a refutation of opposing
arguments.
He wrote in Italian an imitation of Plato's Symposium. His letters
(Aureae ad familiares epistolae, Paris, 1499) are important for the
history of contemporary thought. The many editions of his entire works
in the sixteenth century sufficiently prove his influence.
Another notorious text by Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola is De omnibus
rebus et de quibusdam aliis, "Of all things that exist and a little
more" which is mentioned in some entries on Thomas More's Utopia and
makes fun of the title of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.
Cultural references[edit]
Part of a series on
Neoplatonism
Reconstructed bust believed to represent Plotinus
Concepts
Theory of Forms
Form of the Good
Demiurge
Henosis
Microcosm and macrocosm
Nous
Arche
Logos
Hypostasis
Works
Enneads
De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum
Liber de Causis
The Consolation of Philosophy
De divisione naturae
People
Plato
Ammonius Saccas
Plotinus (disciples)
Origen
Porphyry
Iamblichus
Julian the Apostate
Sallustius
Hypatia
Plutarch of Athens
Macrobius
Augustine of Hippo
Syrianus
Proclus
Pseudo-Dionysius
Damascius
Simplicius of Cilicia
Boethius
Maximus the Confessor
Johannes Scotus Eriugena
Al-Farabi
Solomon ibn Gabirol
Isaac the Blind
Thierry of Chartres
Gemistus Pletho
Marsilio Ficino
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Giordano Bruno
Cambridge Platonists
Related topics
Platonism (in the Renaissance)
Platonic Academy
Middle Platonism
Kabbalah
Spirituality
Druze
Allegorical interpretations of Plato
Plato's unwritten doctrines
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism and
Christianity / Gnosticism
Philosophy portal
v
t
e
In James Joyce's Ulysses, the precocious
Stephen Dedalus recalls with
disdain his boyhood ambitions, and apparently associates them with the
career of Mirandola: "Remember your epiphanies written on green oval
leaves, deeply deep...copies to be sent if you died to all the great
libraries of the world...Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola like."[29]
Of minor interest is a passing reference to
Mirandola

Mirandola by H. P.
Lovecraft, in the story
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927).
Mirandola

Mirandola is given as the source of the fearsome incantation used by
unknown evil entities as some sort of evocation. However, this "spell"
was first depicted (as the key to a rather simple form of divination,
not a great and terrible summoning) by, and in all likelihood created
by,
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim in his Three Books of
Occult Philosophy. This was written several decades after Mirandola's
death and was the first written example of that "spell", so it is
almost impossible for
Mirandola

Mirandola to have been the source of those
"magic words".
Psychoanalyst Otto Rank, a rebellious disciple of Sigmund Freud, chose
a substantial excerpt from Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man
as the motto for his book Art and Artist: Creative Urge and
Personality Development, including: "...I created thee as a being
neither celestial nor earthly... so that thou shouldst be thy own free
moulder and overcomer...".[30]
In Umberto Eco's novel
Foucault's Pendulum

Foucault's Pendulum the protagonist Casaubon
claims that the idea that the Jews were privy to the enigma of the
Templars was "a mistake of Pico Della Mirandola" caused by a spelling
mistake he made between "Israelites" and "Ismaelites."
In Irving Stone's novel about Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstasy,
book 3, part 3 contains a paragraph's description of
Mirandola

Mirandola as part
of the scholarly circle that surrounded
Lorenzo di Medici in Florence.
Mirandola

Mirandola was described as a man who spoke 22 languages, was deeply
read in philosophy, and someone who made no enemies.
Philosopher

Philosopher of social science
René Girard

René Girard mentions Mirandola
passingly in his book Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde
(Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World), Girard writes in a
disparaging tone, "People will accuse us of playing at being Pico
della Mirandola—the renaissance man—certainly a temptation to be
resisted today, if we wish to be seen in a favourable light."
(p. 141, 1987)
In Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666, the philosophy professor Oscar
Amalfitano begins his three-columned list of philosophers with Pico
della Mirandola. Adjacent to Mirandola, Amalfitano writes Hobbes,
while beneath him he writes
Husserl

Husserl (p. 207, 2008).
In Frédéric Lenoir's novel L'Oracle della Luna (2006) the philosophy
of Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola forms one of the major teachings acquired by
the protagonist, Giovanni, from his main spiritual Master. The year is
1530. The major mentions are:
at the end of Chapter 21 the sage – a fictitious character – says
he has personally met Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola and discusses Mirandola's
disagreement with the pope about the 900 Theses (with Lenoir stating
that only 7 of them had not been accepted) and the philosopher's later
fate. In the words of the sage, the main goal of Ficino and Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola was to acquire universal knowledge, free from prejudice and
from linguistic and religious barriers;
at the end of Chapter 24, having discussed Luther's concept of free
will, the sage wants the acquaint Giovanni with Mirandola's ideas on
this issue and lets him read "De hominis dignitate"; Giovanni peruses
the book with great interest in Chapter 25;
at the beginning of Chapter 26, with Giovanni having now read the
Oration on the Dignity of Man, the sage discusses two issues from the
book with him. One is Pico della Mirandola's attempt to form one
unified and universal philosophy and the difficulties thereof. The
other one is Mirandola's concept of free will. Giovanni has learnt one
passage from the book by heart, about God addressing man and telling
him, that He has made him neither a heavenly nor an earthly creature
and that man is the forger of his own fate. This passage is quoted in
the novel.
English composer
Gavin Bryars

Gavin Bryars makes use of the texts of Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola in his musical production; most notably in pieces like
"Glorious Hill", for vocal quartet/mixed choir, and "Incipit Vita
Nova", for alto and string trio.
Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola appears as the character Ikaros in Jo Walton's
novels
The Just City

The Just City and The
Philosopher

Philosopher Kings.
In the book Dying for Ideas; The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers
(2015) by Romanian philosopher Costica Bradatan, Mirandola's life and
work is taken as an early or even first example of taking human life
as a project of 'self-fashioning', relating this to Mirandola's
heretic idea of man being part of creation with 'an indefinite
nature'.
See also[edit]
Platonic Academy

Platonic Academy (Florence)
References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
^ "Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, Conte" in Grolier Encyclopedia of
Knowledge, volume 15, copyright 1991. Grolier Inc.,
ISBN 0-7172-5300-7
^
Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) wsu.edu Archived 4 January 2011
at the Wayback Machine.
^ Heiser, James D., Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in
the Fifteenth Century, Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2011.
ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4
^ Hanegraaff p.54
^ a b c Marek, Miroslav (16 September 2002). "Genealogy.eu". Pico
family. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
^ Schoell, M. (1837). "VIII". History of the Revolutions in Europe.
Charleston: S. Babcock & Co. pp. 23–24.
ISBN 0-665-91061-4. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
^ "Trionfi.com". Boiardo's Life: Time Table. Archived from the
original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
^ Hanegraff p.80
^ a b c Baird, Forrest (2000). "Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
(1463–1494)". Philosophic Classics. Prentice Hall. Archived from the
original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
^ a b "Medici writers exhumed in Italy". BBC News. 28 July 2007.
Retrieved 2015-12-11.
^ Strathern, Paul (2011). Death in Florence. London: Jonathan Cape.
p. 84. ISBN 978-0224089784.
^ "Bibliographie Giovanni Pico della Mirandola". lyber-eclat.net.
Retrieved 2016-03-21.
^ Hanegraaff p.54
^ Hanegraaff p.59
^ Paul Oskar Kristeller, Eight Philosophers of the Italian
Renaissance. Stanford University Press (Stanford, California, 1964.)
P. 62.
^ Hanegraaff p.57
^ Hanegraaff p.54
^ a b c Lyber-eclat.net op.cit.
^ Hanegraaff p.54
^ Borchardt, Frank L. (1 January 1990). "The Magus as Renaissance
Man". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 21 (1): 70.
doi:10.2307/2541132.
^ Ben-Zaken, Avner, "Defying Authority, Rejecting Predestination and
Conquering Nature", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural
History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011),
65–101.
^ Moore, Malcolm (7 February 2008). "Medici philosopher's mysterious
death is solved". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved
2008-02-07.
^ "Apocatastasis". New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious
Knowledge, Vol. I.
^ Prof. Pier Cesare Bori. "The Italian Renaissance: An Unfinished
Dawn?: Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola Archived 29 December 2007 at the Wayback
Machine.". Accessed 2007-12-05.
^ see Ben-Zaken, Avner, "Defying Authority, Rejecting Predestination
and Conquering Nature", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural
History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), pp.
65–100.
^ Butorac p.357
^ Hanegraaff p.64
^ Hanegraaff p.58
^ Source: ebooks.adelaide.edu.au Archived 9 January 2010 at the
Wayback Machine. (accessed: 15 September 2010)
^ Rank, Otto, Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality
Development, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1932.
Sources and further reading[edit]
Ben-Zaken, Avner, "Defying Authority, Rejecting Predestination and
Conquering Nature", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural
History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011),
pp. 65–100. ISBN 978-0801897399.
Borchardt, Frank L. "The Magus as Renaissance Man." Sixteenth Century
Journal (1990): 57–76. doi:10.2307/2541132.
Busi, G., "'Who does not wonder at this Chameleon?' The Kabbalistic
Library of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola", in "Hebrew to Latin, Latin
to Hebrew. The Mirroring of Two Cultures in the Age of Humanism.
Colloquium held at the Warburg Institute. London, October 18–19,
2004", Edited by G. Busi, Berlin-Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2006:
167–196.
Busi, G. with S. M. Bondoni and S. Campanini (eds.), The Great
Parchment: Flavius Mithridates’ Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text,
and an English Version, The Kabbalistic Library of Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola – 1. Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2004.
Danielle Layne; David D. Butorac (6 February 2017).
Proclus and his
Legacy. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-047162-5.
Campanini, S. The Book of Bahir. Flavius Mithridates' Latin
Translation, the Hebrew Text, and an English Version, with a Foreword
by G. Busi, The Kabbalistic Library of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
– 2. Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2005.
Campanini, Saverio. "Talmud, Philosophy, Kabbalah: A Passage from Pico
della Mirandola’s
Apologia and its Source." In The Words of a Wise
Man’s Mouth are Gracious. Festschrift for Günter Stemberger on the
Occasion of His 65th Birthday, edited by M. Perani, 429–447. Berlin
& New York: W. De Gruyter Verlag, 2005.
Cassirer, Ernst, Paul Oskar Kristeller, and John Herman Randall, Jr.
The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1948.
Corazzol, Giacomo (ed.), Menahem Recanati, Commentary on the Daily
Prayers. The Kabbalistic Library of Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola –
3. 2 volumes. Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2008.
Dougherty, M. V., ed. Pico della Mirandola. New Essays. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Dulles, Avery, Princeps Concordiae: Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola and the
Scholatic Tradition—The Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Prize Essay for 1940,
Cambridge, MA, 1941.
Farmer, S. A.
Syncretism

Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486): The
Evolution of Traditional Religious and Philosophical Systems. Temple,
AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998. (Contains
the Latin text of the 900 theses, an English translation, and detailed
commentary.)
Gilbhard, Thomas. "Paralipomena pichiana: a propos einer
Pico–Bibliographie". In Accademia. Revue de la Société Marsile
Ficin VII (2005): 81–94.
Hanegraaff, Wouter (2012). Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected
Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 9780521196215.
Heiser, James D., Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the
Fifteenth Century, Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2011.
ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4.
Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964.
Jurgan, Susanne, Campanini, Saverio, The Gate of Heaven. Flavius
Mithridates' Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text, and an English
Version. Edited with Introduction and Notes by S. Jurgan and S.
Campanini with a Text on Pico by Giulio Busi, in The Kabbalistic
Library of Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola 5, Nino Aragno Editore,
Torino 2012. ISBN 978-8884195449
Pater, Walter. "Pico Della Mirandola." In The Renaissance: Studies in
Art and Poetry, 24–40. New York: The Modern Library, 1871.
Quaquarelli, Leonardo, and Zita Zanardi. Pichiana. Bibliografia delle
edizioni e degli studi. Firenze: Olschki, 2005 (Studi pichiani 10).
Robb, Nesca A.,
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism of the Italian Renaissance, New York:
Octagon Books, Inc., 1968.
Martigli, Carlo A., "999 L'Ultimo Custode", Italia: Castelvecchi,
2009.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, "Apologia. L'autodifesa di Pico di
fronte al Tribunale dell’Inquisizione", a cura di Paolo Edoardo
Fornaciari, Firenze, Sismel – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010
(it:Società internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo latino)
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Works by or about Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola at Internet Archive
Works by Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola at Project Gutenberg
Works by Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola at Open Library
Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola at Goodreads
The Pico Project at the
University of Bologna

University of Bologna and
Brown University

Brown University is
a project to make accessible a complete resource for the reading and
interpretation of the Dignity of Man.
Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem [1]
Syncretism

Syncretism in the West Overview of the 900 Theses, with some
downloadable texts
Pico in English: A Bibliography, the works of Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola (1463–1494), with a List of Studies and Commentaries.
Edition of the complete translations by
Flavius Mithridates On Flavius
Mithridates' Hebrew-Latin Translations of kabbalistic works for
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
(in French) Biography
Pico della
Mirandola

Mirandola by Richard Hooker, 6 June 1999.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton
Company.
Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Giovanni Pico della Mirandola". Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Life of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Pico
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Appleton.
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WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 34491108
LCCN: n50019730
ISNI: 0000 0001 1024 5931
GND: 118742418
SELIBR: 83826
SUDOC: 029720109
BNF: cb12128375p (data)
ULAN: 500341594
NLA: 35747158
NDL: 00452781
NKC: jn20000604431
ICCU: ITICCUCFIV22983
BNE: XX898