THE LIFE OF GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA

...should be less feared: by those for whom either punishment is feared or the kingdom of God is desired. Likewise, he attempted to apply suitable aid according to the nature of the diseases. Specifically, he sought to cauterize foul diseases—which are by their very nature impure—with sharp and bitter medicines. But for those wounds which were corrupted by a lesser malice and desired to be covered by a scar, he sought to soothe them with gentle and placating remedies. For those who had already attained health but feared a relapse, he prepared the most wholesome potions and famous antidotes. He had begun many other works by which it could be hoped that the study of philosophy might flourish again throughout the world, with errors eliminated and "barbarism" In the Renaissance, "barbarism" often referred to the convoluted or unpolished Latin style used by medieval Scholastic philosophers. driven out. The Harmony of Plato and Aristotle Among these works, the Harmony of Plato and Aristotle was counted as the most significant; he would have completed this project, which he had already begun, in a short time if life had remained his companion for just a few more years. For he had nourished philosophy by suckling it from its infancy original: "incunabulis" and had brought it to adulthood in our own times. Thus, a philosopher of our age would have had nothing more to desire in Greek, Latin, or "barbaric" Referring to Arabic or Hebrew philosophical texts. books. He would have summoned the "moist" Thales, the "fiery" Heraclitus, and Democritus "surrounded by his atoms." Orpheus, too, and Pythagoras, and other ancients would have gathered in the Academy through his effort and favor. Finally, the princes of philosophy—namely Plato, veiled in myths and wrapped in mathematical coverings, and Aristotle, fortified by his theories of motion—would have pledged their future friendship with a handshake. Between Averroes and Avicenna, and between Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, who had long been in conflict, he would have obtained, if not a total peace, then at least a truce in many matters. For in many of their controversies, if someone were to examine their differing words more attentively, weigh them more exactly, and—investigating more scrupulously—leave the surface behind to penetrate with the mind into the deepest retreats and profound inner sanctums, he would discover without ambiguity a union of meaning beneath their inseparable and clashing words. The crowd of "modern" thinkers The "Neoterici," referring to the later medieval or contemporary Scholastic logicians. would have been both honored for their merits and corrected for their faults. Thus, entirely dedicated to God, he defended the Church with whatever weapons he could. He drew Truth out from "the well of Democritus" A common ancient proverb suggesting that truth is hidden at the bottom of a deep well. (as they say), and he utterly broke off and cut down the invincible grass of ignorance by which the minds of many are choked, along with the budding, pernicious weeds.

But approaching death rendered the labor of so many great vigils and the offspring of his refined nightly studies almost void. This was the primary reason why he left behind many commentaries that were largely roughed out and smoothed but remained unfinished—for he wrote them for himself alone, and not for us. For just as he possessed a swift genius in composing, he also had a fast hand in writing. While he used to draw very beautiful letter characters, it happened that from the habit of excessive speed in composing, he was scarcely able to read what he himself had written. He was accustomed to writing here and there, sometimes obliterating old notes with new ones that came upon them. For that reason, I found some things that were worn out and erased, others written only in snatches and fragments—everything, in short, so confused and disordered that they might be thought of as a wild "forest" or a "hodgepodge." From his seven-fold book, which he had titled Against the Enemies of the Church, that part which especially pursues the "divining astrologers" and the "casters of birth-charts" genethliacos; those who cast horoscopes based on a person's birth was brought "from the anvil to the file" A Latin idiom meaning a work has been polished and perfected. (as the saying goes). We rescued this work from a draft full of erasures and nearly torn apart, though not without great labor and no small amount of care. In this work, he demonstrates himself to be a supreme philosopher, a supreme theologian, a supreme orator, and a most sharp defender of the Church of Christ, endowed with the incomparable genius that is seen in all his compositions.

I have also found in my possession certain minor things not yet polished: an interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer, and about fifty brief rules for living well...