The Complete Works of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

original: "Vicecomiti Anglo." This was a traditional epithet used by the Visconti and Sforza families, based on a legendary claim of descent from a companion of Aeneas named Anglus.

Most illustrious Prince, among those who have handed down the lives of famous men in writing for the reading of posterity, some have done so to ensure that the names of those to whom they were bound by blood or debt of learning would not wither away through devouring antiquity. Rather, they sought to rescue them entirely from the injustice of oblivion—the kind of piety Pliny the Younger showed his uncle Pliny, and Porphyry showed his teacher Plotinus. Others, however, achieved this same end even more auspiciously: they looked not so much to the eternal memory of the deceased as to the guidance of the lives of the living. Thus, we find they committed to paper the tireless studies, the most exact morals, and the most outstanding works of Hilarion, Jerome, Athanasius, Anthony, Martin, Severus, Paulinus, and Ambrose. From these writings, the glory of God spread throughout the world, and men are still today stirred to live well and blessedly by both their teaching and their character.

Enticed by these examples, I thought I would perform a worthwhile service if I were to pursue the life of Giovanni Pico with my pen. I do this partly to fulfill a debt of duty to my uncle and likewise my teacher, by whose spiritual benefits I have been enriched and overwhelmed, and partly to set before our own and future centuries a man worthy of admiration. By his example, mortals can be trained in frugality and warned of impending death; moreover, they can be abundantly enriched by his learning, since among all the men of letters of our time (to say nothing of antiquity), he held the first place beyond all doubt.

This is perhaps a word that invites envy, but it is undoubtedly true. This is well-known to those who have examined him "inside and under the skin," as the saying goes, original: "intus & in cute." A common Latin idiom for knowing someone thoroughly or intimately. nor will it seem discordant to those who may one day learn that he mastered five languages, was proficient in both human and divine philosophy, and drank deeply from all the disciplines used by mortals—even unearthing some from the darkness and inventing others—before he had even completed his thirty-third year.

Ample proof of this will be found in those commentaries, never sufficiently celebrated for their merits, which are now coming out in public: the Heptaplus, the Apology, the treatise On Being and the One, and several others. All are so illustrious by their own nature and commended by the judgments of so many wise men that anyone who condemns them, or approves them less than fully, or does not exalt them with the highest praise, immediately brings a sentence against himself—either of ignorance of literature or the suspicion of a malevolent mind. Many may envy him, but all must admire him; very few can imitate him, and none can justly find fault.

His remaining writings will be published in the following order: most importantly, the refutations of the "astrological plague," Referring to Pico's massive work against judicial astrology, which he viewed as a superstitious corruption of true science. worked out with much labor, and awaited and demanded with many sighs by men of well-ordered minds. These works have been reduced by us into a single volume from many smeared and scattered manuscripts, and they will soon be brought to light. My hope is that as quickly as possible, they may illuminate dim eyes infected by the corrosive vapor of superstitions with their life-giving splendor.

If you, Prince, should occasionally taste of these books when you are at leisure from handling the affairs of the state, you will be made certain beyond all controversy that the dogmas of the astrologers are the purest nonsense and like the dreams of madmen. Their deceptions are laid open in these monuments; once read and understood, the professors of that vanity—who, like our native frogs, have croaked for a long time—will, unless they have fallen into an incurable madness, become silent in the manner of the Macedonians?. I remember that I once seemed to discuss this matter with you in part; meanwhile,? you will receive these works with a willing spirit. I judged that they should be dedicated to no one more than to you, so that my loyalty and respect for you—which you found well-tested while I earned your wages—might be recognized not as consigned to oblivion?, but as persevering and increasing daily.

I also thought I would be doing something not ungrateful to you, because the dignity of these books is such that the greatest kings have always judged it honorable and glorious to have them inscribed to themselves. It remains for me to exhort you, with the love I bear you, to fulfill the duties of twofold justice, and to invite you to continually remember (which is always the duty of a most prudent prince) that rule is not so much an honor as a burden. Thus, by observing the obstacles that surround both a man and a prince, you may overcome them with the most moderate passions and deserve eternal happiness for yourself. Farewell, most famous Prince. At Mirandola, on the Kalends of March, 1496.