Harvard University Press 900 Conclusions

"Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was a philosopher and a poet and an orator as well. His first printed work, published by Eucharius Silber on December 7, 1486, was a strange little book, more a pamphlet really, that comprised nine hundred theses, averagingeighteen words each, many of which he attached to names of the authoritative dead--including ancient, medieval, pagan, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish--on matters such as philosophy, theology, and magic. Readers would have found no backing for these "conclusions," as Pico called them - just hundreds of unsupported statements, which he expected would be debated in Rome by philosophers and theologian from the farthest parts of Italy. Instead of this debate, however, the book drew down the wrath of God through his Vicar on earth, Pope Innocent VIII, and planning for a disputational spectacle stopped. This new English version reflects the infrastructure of Pico's Latin in Greek, Hebrew, and other languages; also his handling of technical terminology in theological argument; and structural features of his prose, like the numerological placement of a conclusion or the repetition of a distinctive phrase to carry a theme"-- A groundbreaking edition of controversial theses proposed by the most famous philosopher of the Italian Renaissance.Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), the most famous philosopher of the Italian Renaissance, had ambitions in line with his talents, especially in philosophical theology. His boldest venture urged Christians to save their souls with Jewish mysticism—Kabbalah—while also offering to debate anyone in Italy about his project. In 1486, he announced plans for a disputation in Rome on 900 theses, but Pope Innocent VIII quashed the event with an indictment for crimes against Christian orthodoxy.Pico’s theses cited well-known scholastic authorities: Muslims like Ibn Rushd, Jews like Maimonides, and Christians like John Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas. But as Brian Copenhaver demonstrates in Nine Hundred Conclusions, many of Pico’s scholastic sources were filtered through a less renowned Thomist theologian named Jean Cabrol (Capreolus). Pico also sought to enrich Christian theology with newly available authorities from the Platonic and Pythagorean traditions as well as theosophical texts associated with ancient Orphism and Hermetism. Supreme among his authorities were theses taken from medieval Jewish Kabbalah, which Pico regarded as an angelic revelation and tried to appropriate for Christianity. The present volume is a ground-breaking contribution, containing a new critical edition of the Latin text along with a new translation into contemporary English, a detailed introduction, and a commentary discussing each of the 900 theses individually. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the most famous philosopher of the Italian Renaissance, urged Christians to save their souls with Jewish mysticism—Kabbalah—offering to debate anyone in Italy. Nine Hundred Conclusions offers a definitive new critical edition and translation of the Latin and commentary on Pico’s theses that were denounced by the Pope. Autorid: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Brian P. Copenhaver