Giovanni Pico was born in his family’s castle in Mirandola. Heir to the Counts of Mirandola and Concordia, Pico was in a privileged situation to pursue academic interests free from financial concerns. In his early years, he pursued a wide-ranging education at many major centers of learning. Among the many subjects of his interest, he studied canon law in Bologna, classics in Ferrara, Aristotelian and Averroistic philosophy in Padua, and medieval scholasticism in Pavia and Paris. He learned to read and write Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew, in addition to possessing a powerful command of the humanist Latin of his day. Our knowledge of the elements of Pico’s short life is aided by the Vita or Life penned by his nephew, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, who was a philosopher in his own right and served as the literary executor of Giovanni’s Works, posthumously publishing his uncle’s Opera omnia in 1496.
Pico’s significant literary contacts for the transmission of Arabic and Hebrew ideas included the Averroist philosopher Elijah del Medigo; the unsavory Flavius Mithri-dates, who at Pico’s request translated a large body of Hebraic writings into Latin, which largely served as Pico’s introduction to Kabbalah; and Yohanan Alemmano, a friend of Pico’s who served as an important conduit for Jewish philosophical ideas.
The year 1486 was a significant one for Pico. It marked a period of intense literary productivity and included unusual public events that required the interventions of Lorenzo de’ Medici. On the way to Rome to dispute his 900 theses, Pico abducted the wife of a tax official of the Medici family. It is possible that she was complicit in this plan. Nevertheless, Pico was imprisoned and only released by the influence of Lorenzo de’ Medici. When Pico’s Roman plans for a disputation failed and he had to flee church authorities, again Lorenzo stepped in, and his offer to the pope to keep Pico under his watchful eye extricated the young philosopher from a difficult position. It should be noted that Pico played a minor role in shaping the Florentine political scene; Pico was responsible for persuading Lorenzo to bring Savonarola to Florence.
From 1488 onward, Pico spent most of his time in Florence under the protection of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Pico’s interests during his later period appear theological, since he worked on biblical commentaries and short spiritual works, of which two letters to Gianfrancesco stand out as exemplary. In 1494, Pico was rehabilitated when Pope Alexander VI rescinded all condemnations of Pico’s works. Clothed in the Dominican habit, Pico died in Florence in November 1494. At his side was Savonarola, who later gave Pico’s funeral oration. There are hints that Pico may have been poisoned, but the evidence is at present inconclusive. Pico was buried in the Dominican church of San Marco in Florence. In 2007, his remains were examined forensically for evidence of the cause of his death.
After Gianfrancesco’s publication of Giovanni’s Opera omnia, English-speaking readers were first introduced to Pico by the translations by Sir Thomas More of some of Pico’s letters, religious opuscula, and Gianfrancesco’s Vita in the early sixteenth century.
World History
