Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola
Encyclopedia
Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola (1470–1533) was an Italian
philosopher and nephew
of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
.
Like his uncle he devoted himself chiefly to philosophy, but made it subject to the Bible, though in his treatises, De studio divinæ et humanæ sapientiæ and particularly in the six books entitled Examen doctrinæ unitatis gentium, he depreciates the authority of the philosophers, above all of Aristotle
. He wrote a detailed biography of his uncle and another of Savonarola.
Having observed the dangers to which Italian society was exposed at the time, he sounded a warning on the occasion of the Lateran Council
: Joannis Francisci Pici oratio ad Leonem X et concilium Lateranense de reformandis Ecclesiæ Moribus (Hagenau, 1512, dedicated to Willibald Pirckheimer
).
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
philosopher and nephew
Nephew
Nephew is a son of one's sibling or sibling-in-law, and niece is a daughter of one's sibling or a sibling-in-law. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...
of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. 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 famous Oration on the Dignity of...
.
Like his uncle he devoted himself chiefly to philosophy, but made it subject to the Bible, though in his treatises, De studio divinæ et humanæ sapientiæ and particularly in the six books entitled Examen doctrinæ unitatis gentium, he depreciates the authority of the philosophers, above all of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
. He wrote a detailed biography of his uncle and another of Savonarola.
Having observed the dangers to which Italian society was exposed at the time, he sounded a warning on the occasion of the Lateran Council
Fifth Council of the Lateran
The Fifth Council of the Lateran was the last Ecumenical council of the Catholic Church before reformation.When elected pope in 1503, Pope Julius II , promised under oath that he would soon convoke a general council. However, as time passed the promise was not fulfilled...
: Joannis Francisci Pici oratio ad Leonem X et concilium Lateranense de reformandis Ecclesiæ Moribus (Hagenau, 1512, dedicated to Willibald Pirckheimer
Willibald Pirckheimer
Willibald Pirckheimer was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, and a member of the governing City Council for two periods...
).
Selected works
- De imaginatione (1501)
- De providentia Dei (1508)
- De rerum praenotione (1506-1507)
- De studio divinae et humanae philosophiae (1496)
- Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium, et ueritatis Christianae disciplinae (1520)
- Ioannis Pici Mirandulae Vita (1496)
- La Strega (Italian translation)
- Opera Omnia (1573); (reprints 1969, 1972)
- Quaestio de falsitate astrologiae (ca. 1510)
Further reading
- Burke, Peter. (1977). "Witchcraft and Magic in Renaissance Italy: Gianfrancesco Pico and His Strix," in Sydney Anglod, ed. The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft, pp. 32-48. London.
- Herzig, T. (2003). "The Demons' Reaction to Sodomy: Witchcraft and Homosexuality in Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola's Strix." The Sixteenth Century Journal, 34, 1, 53.
- Kors, Alan Charles and Edward Peters. (2001) Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (Excerpts from the Pico's Strix, pp. 239-44)
- Schmitt, C. B. (1967). Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (1469-1533) and his critique of Aristotle. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.