Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (February 24, 1463 – November 17, 1494) was an Italian Renaissance humanist philosopher and scholar. February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events January 5 - Poet Francois Villon is banned from Paris Births January 17 - Friedrich III, Saxon elector (d. ... November 17 is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece. ... Events January 25 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. ... By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance *French Renaissance *German Renaissance *English Renaissance The Italian Renaissance was the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. ... Humanism is a system of thought that defines a socio-political doctrine (-ism) whose bounds exceed those of locally developed cultures, to include all of humanity and all issues common to human beings. ...

Most famous for the events of 1486, when at the age of twenty-three, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance" [1], and a key text of Renaissance humanism. An important element in private and civic life during the Renaissance, which was also reflected in the scholarship of the period, was the cultural movement and philosophy known as Humanism. ...

Biography

He belonged to a family that had long dwelt in the Castle of Mirandola (Duchy of Modena). To devote himself wholly to study, he left his share of the ancestral principality to his two brothers, and in his fourteenth year went to Bologna to study canon law and fit himself for the ecclesiastical career. Repelled, however, by the purely positive science of law, he devoted himself to the study of philosophy and theology, and spent seven years wandering through the chief universities of Italy and France, studying also Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. An impostor sold him sixty Hebrew manuscripts, asserting positively that they were written by order of Esdras, and contained the secrets of nature and religion. For many years he believed in the Kabbalah and interwove its tenets into his philosophical theories. His aim was to conciliate religion and philosophy. Like his teacher, Marsilius Ficinus, he based his views chiefly on Plato, in opposition to Aristotle, as by this time scholasticism was in decline. But Pico was constitutionally an eclectic, and in some respects he represented a reaction against the exaggerations of pure humanism. According to him, we should study the Hebrew and Talmudic sources, while the best products of scholasticism should be retained. His Heptaplus, a mystico-allegorical exposition of the creation according to the seven Biblical senses, follows this idea (Florence, about 1480); to the same period belongs the De ente et uno, with its explanations of several passages in Moses, Plato and Aristotle; also an oration On the Dignity of Man (published among the Commentationes). In Western culture, canon law is the law of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. ... The tree of life. ... Marsilio Ficino (also known by his Latin name, Marsilius Ficinus) (1433 – 1499) was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance, astrologer, and a reviver of Neoplatonism who was in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day. ... Statue of a philosopher, presumably Plato, in Delphi. ... Aristotle (sculpture) Aristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης AristotelÄ“s; 384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. ... Events Great standing on the Ugra river - Muscovy becomes independent from the Golden Horde. ...

With bewildering attainments due to his brilliant and tenacious memory, he returned to Rome in 1486 and undertook to maintain 900 theses on all possible subjects (Conclusiones philosophicae, cabalasticae et theologicae, Rome, 1486, in fol.). He offered to pay the expenses of those who came from a distance to engage with him in public discussion. Pope Innocent VIII was made to believe that at least thirteen of these theses were heretical, though in reality they merely revealed the state of natural philosophy in the fifteenth century. The proposed disputation was prohibited and the book containing the theses was interdicted, notwithstanding the author's defence in Apologia J. Pici Mirandolani, Concordiae comitis (1489). One of his detractors had maintained that Kabbala was the name of an impious writer against Jesus Christ. Despite all efforts Pico was condemned, and he decided to travel, visiting France first, but he afterwards returning to Florence. He destroyed his poetical works, gave up profane science, and determined to devote his old age to a defence of Christianity against Jews, Mohammedans, and astrologers. A portion of this work was published after his death (Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem, Bologna, 1495). Because of this book and his controversy against astrology, Pico marks an era and a decisive progressive movement in ideas. He died two months after his close friend Politian, on the day Charles VIII of France entered Florence. He was interred at San Marco, and Savonarola delivered the funeral oration. Events Tízoc, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan dies of poisoning. ... Events Tízoc, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan dies of poisoning. ... Innocent VIII, né Giovanni Battista Cibo (1432 – July 25, 1492), pope from 1484 to 1492, was born at Genoa, and was the son of Aran Cibo who under Calixtus III had been a senator at Rome. ... Events March 14 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. ... Charles VIII of France (June 30, 1470–April 7, 1498; French: Charles VIII de France), nicknamed the Affable (lAffable), was King of France from 1483 to his death. ... Girolamo Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo, ca 1498 Girolamo Savonarola (September 21, 1452–May 23, 1498), also translated as Jerome Savonarola or Hieronymous Savonarola, was a Dominican priest and, briefly, ruler of Florence, who was known for religious reformation and anti-Renaissance preaching and his book burning and destruction of art. ...

Writings

In the Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), Pico justifies the importance of the human quest for knowledge within a neo-Platonic framework. He writes that after God had created all creatures, he conceived of the desire for another, sentient being who would appreciate all his works, but there was no longer any room in the chain of being; all the possible slots from angels to worms had been filled. So, God created man such that he had no specific slot in the chain. Instead, men were capable of learning from and imitating any existing creature. When man philosophizes, he ascends the chain of being towards the angels, and communion with God. When he fails to exercize his intellect, he vegetates. Pico did not fail to notice that this system made philosophers like himself among the most dignified human creatures. The idea that man could ascend the chain of being through the exercise of their intellectual capacities was a profound endorsement of the dignity of human existence in this, earthly life. The root of this dignity lay in his assertion that only human beings could change themselves through their own free will, whereas all other changes in nature were the result of some outside force acting on whatever it is that undergoes change. He observed from history that philosophies and institutions were always in change, making man's capacity for self-transformation the only constant. Coupled with his belief that all of creation constitutes a symbollic reflection of the divinity of God, Pico's philosophies had a profound influence on the arts, helping to elevate writers and painters from their medieval role as mere artisans to the Renaissance ideal of the artist as genius. 1579 drawing of the great chain of being from Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana The Great Chain of Being is a classical and western medieval conception of the order of the universe, whose chief characteristic is a strict hierarchal system. ...

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 Plotinism, Aristotelianism, Hermeticism and Kabbalah. They also included 72 theses describing what Pico believed to be a complete system of physics. Syncretism is the attempt to reconcile disparate, even opposing, beliefs and to meld practices of various schools of thought. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Hermeticism is either of two things: The study and practice of occult philosophy and magic, of a type associated with writings attributed to the god Hermes Trismegistus, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, a syncretistic deity who combines aspects of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. ... The tree of life. ...

Besides the writings already mentioned, see his complete works (Bologna, 1496; Venice, 1498; Strasburg, 1504; Basle, 1557; 1573, 1601). He wrote in Italian an imitation of Plato's Banquet. 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. Events January 3 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine. ... Events Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Moçambique in southeastern Africa. ... // Events January 1 - French troops surrender Gaeta to the Spanish under Cordoba. ... Events Spain is effectively bankrupt. ... Events January - articles of Warsaw Confederation signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland. ... Bold textItalic textLink titlelink title // Headline text Media:Example. ... Events January 8 - Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany July 22 - Battle of Dornach - The Swiss decisively defeat the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I. July 28 - First Battle of Lepanto - The Turkish navy wins a decisive victory over the Venetians. ...

This article incorporates text from the Catholic Encyclopedia, which is in the public domain. The Catholic Encyclopedia is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the The writing of the encyclopedia began on January 11, 1905 under the supervision of five editors: Charles G. Herbermann, Professor of Latin and Librarian of the College of the City of New York Edward A. Pace, then... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

References and external links

• The Pico Project at the University of Bologna and Brown University is a project to make accessible a complete resource for the reading and interpretation of the Dignity of Man.
• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man, translated by A. Robert Caponigri (Chicago: Regnery Publishing, 1956).
• Pico in English: A Bibliography, the works of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), with a List of Studies and Commentaries.
• Pico della Mirandola by Richard Hooker, 6 June 1999.