GIOVANNI FRANCESCO PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA TO GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA OF FERRARA, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, A MOST DEVOTED SERVANT, SENDS GREETINGS.

A decorative woodcut initial 'P' features a stylized face at the top and elaborate scrolling foliage motifs filling the body of the letter.

I have been hesitant, most religious father, lest by fleeing the name of ingratitude, I incur the charge of that same failing. For since my uncle, Giovanni Pico, has passed from this life—a man who bestowed many benefits upon me—I have struggled to render thanks for the divine gift that reached us through his own work, all while remaining silent about him. For the past two years, since his death, I have spent my entire time recovering and publishing his literary monuments, sparing no effort in praising him, and defending some of his metaphysical doctrines in his biography. I remained silent, yet I did not forget this divine gift.

Giovanni Pico

Leo

vermar?

institution of his life

Considering the opinion of Leo likely referring to Pope Leo the Great, who teaches that one should not be silent regarding divine benefits, for it is the mark of an ungrateful and timid mind; and furthermore, considering that if it is a crime to hide from others what pertains to the salvation and healing of bodies, it is to be judged even more severely against one who hides the antidote for the soul: it came to my mind that whatever profit I have gained from this, I could make public and derive it for the benefit of others, and thus partially satisfy the debt of the gift bestowed from above. Indeed, through the consideration of the death of Christ and of my own life, which I undertook with the aspiration of God, the best and greatest, and through the intercession of my uncle's warnings—both those spoken in my presence and those repeated in his letters—it came to pass that, having put aside the pursuit of honors, the favors of kings, popular acclaim, and other things of that sort which either weaken or entirely soften a Christian life, I have enclosed my vows within a brief circle, content with the desires of nature. Having dedicated this work, I have pursued both deaths referring to the death of Christ and the death of the self, redeeming a long silence. And I did so especially with the intention that, if I had contracted the stain of an ungrateful mind, I might cleanse it to the best of my ability, and invite my readers, through this twofold remembrance, to either begin or more earnestly continue on the path of living well. And when I decided to publish this, I chose you above all as the one in whose name it should appear. Not because it seemed worthy to me