DOCSLIB.ORG

Flying Like Earthly Mercuries: Renaissance Platonism in Raphael's Stanza Della Segnatura

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Flying Like Earthly Mercuries: Renaissance Platonism in Raphael's Stanza Della Segnatura FLYING LIKE EARTHLY MERCURIES: RENAISSANCE PLATONISM IN RAPHAEL’S STANZA DELLA SEGNATURA _____________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University Dominguez Hills ______________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Humanities _______________________ by Jeff Brinkman Summer 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE TABLE OF CONTENTS.....................................................................................................ii LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................iv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................1 2. PLATO’S PREDECESSORS: THE MYSTERY CULTS AND ORPHISM....................7 3. PLATO AND THE SOUL..............................................................................................17 4. PLATO’S ANTECEDENTS..........................................................................................31 The Chaldean Oracles ...........................................................................................32 The Corpus Hermeticum........................................................................................37 Iamblichus..............................................................................................................41 5. FICINO, MIRANDOLA, AND RENAISSANCE PLATONISM..................................47 6. PLATO IN PLASTER: THE STANZA DELLA SEGNATURA...................................60 The School of Athens..............................................................................................63 The Disputa............................................................................................................69 The Parnassus........................................................................................................77 Jurisprudence.........................................................................................................84 7. CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................90 WORKS CITED.................................................................................................................95 ii LIST OF FIGURES PAGE 1. School of Athens.............................................................................................................64 2. School of Athens (detail).................................................................................................65 3. Disputa...........................................................................................................................70 4. Parnassus.......................................................................................................................77 5. Jurisprudence.................................................................................................................85 iii ABSTRACT Raphael’s Stanza della Segnatura, painted between 1508 and 1511 CE, is considered one of the greatest works of Renaissance painting. The frescoes themselves ostensibly represent the disciplines of philosophy, theology, poetry, and the law, however, further inspection reveals a deeper synthesis. A different perspective from which to view the frescoes in the stanza considers the philosophic underpinning of the room, where the symbolism evoked points to a system of thought that developed in Renaissance Italy during the half century preceding Raphael’s masterpiece: Renaissance Platonism. Two key thinkers, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, created a humanistic Platonism that syncretized elements of Christianity, Neoplatonism, Orphism, Pythagoreanism, Ciceronian, and Hermetic thought into a philosophic theology steeped in initiation, mystery and symbolism. Through analysis of the Stanza della Segnatura, especially the relationships between the individual frescoes and the gestures used within each, the elements of Renaissance Platonism can be found. 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Above all the Sun is most able to signify to you God himself. The Sun offers you signs, and who would dare to call the Sun false? Marsilio Ficino In his famous The Lives of the Artists, Georgio Vasari (1511-1574 CE) describes the frescoes in Raphael’s Stanza della Segnatura as being so beautiful that they “cannot be described.” It is this beauty and originality that has determined the course of scholarship on the room for the last five hundred years. Raphael’s iconography was of such originality, his painted figures so lifelike, his use of color so dramatic and perspective so accurate that the majority of attention devoted to the work has been in studying the programmatic layout of the room’s four wall frescoes and ceiling, and especially in the identification of Raphael’s painted figures.1 There is a small subset of scholars who have attempted to look at the room as a whole, identifying relationships between the frescoes in a thematic way, but there is a surprising lack of scholarship concentrated on the relationship between the interconnected themes of the frescoes and how they relate to the larger ideas concerning philosophy and Christianity prevalent at the time. During the last half of the fifteenth century, the writings of Plato were translated into Latin and became the basis for a new metaphysics, one whose hermeneutical 1 See especially the introduction to Joost-Gaugier, Christiane L, Raphael’s Stanze della Segnatura, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. For a modern example of the emphasis on figural identification see Bell, Daniel Orth, “New Identifications in Raphael’s School of Athens”, The Art Bulletin, 77.4 (1995): 57-76. 2 approach focused on the spiritual aspects of Plato.2 The reasons for this new fascination with Plato are complex, but the influx of “lost” books of antiquity into the west coupled with the translations of these documents from Greek into Latin by Renaissance humanists, facilitated by the arrival of Greek speakers, is of paramount importance. The work of these humanists would pave the way for the introduction of Greek instruction in western Universities as well as the distribution of Greek texts virtually unknown in Europe.3 Within this humanist movement there arose a novel attempt to combine the wisdom of the ancient pagans with Christianity. The incorrect dating of the Corpus Hermeticum (second to third century CE) as a pre-Mosaic text and the misattribution of the Neoplatonic writings of Pseudo-Dionysius (ca. 500 CE) to the convert of the Apostle Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite, contributed to the notion that Platonic ideas could be compatible with Christianity.4 To the Renaissance Platonist, there existed a chronological passing of knowledge from Hermes Trismegistus through Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato, and through a careful melding of the various currents of thought, one could arrive at new vision of the Divine. 2 See Hankins, James, Plato in the Italian Renaissance, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991. Hankins observes “…Renaissance interpretations of Plato can to a great extent be read as the results of rational attempts to introduce or expel Plato from the contemporary Christian culture” (17). 3 See Kristeller, Paul Oskar, Renaissance Thought and its Sources, New York: Columbia University Press, 1979, 20-32. 4 For more on the dating of the Hermetic Texts, see Faivre, Antoine, The Eternal Hermes, Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1985. For the confusion surrounding Dionysius the Areopagite see Pelikan’s Introduction in Luibheid, Colm, Pseudo-Dionysus—The Complete Works, New York: Paulist Press, 1987. 3 Marsilio Ficino encouraged this wedding of ideas, advocating a new breed of philosopher priests when he exclaimed, “I therefore exhort and implore all philosophers to reach out and embrace religion firmly, and all priests to devote themselves to the study of legitimate wisdom.”5 What Ficino envisioned was a path to a higher level of revelation, one arrived at through a combination of right living and intellect. While the Christian God was the one true God, the road to him was complex, winding its way through arenas comprised of both Christian and pagan ideas. Ficino believed the Christian God was the ultimate goal, but the ascent to Heaven necessitated a path through the levels of the universe as initially proposed by Plato in the Timaeus.6 This is the manner in which Ficino sought to align Christianity with Platonic thought, a goal he made quite clear in his commentary on the Timaeus: “They call this other world the divine intellect, not the Good Itself, but the noblest child of the Good. If we understand this to be of one substance with the First, we shall unite Plato more closely with Christian theology” (All Things Natural 16). Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494 CE) was a younger contemporary and a close friend of Ficino. He espoused a similar goal of uniting Platonic thought with Christianity, even though he and Ficino differed on their approach to particular details.7 5 Quoted in Hankins 289 6 “Therefore let the truth, Christian and Mosaic, persist. But in the meantime, as most expositors agree, it was possibly the view of Plato or Pythagoras that the intelligible world is intermediate between the visible world and the Good Itself, an image of the Good and the model for the physical world.” Ficino, Marsilio, All Things Natural,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster
    The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster v. 12.11, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 29 June 2018 Page 1 of 25 THEOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHISTS SERIES THE CHALDEAN ORACLES OF ZOROASTER Contents A brief note about the Chaldeans. 3 Cause God, Father, Mind, Fire Monad, Duad, Triad. 4 Ideas Intelligibles, Intellectuals, Iynges, Synoches, Teletarchæ, Fountains, Principles, Hecate, and Dæmons. 8 Particular Souls Soul, Life, Man. 13 Matter Matter, the Word, and Nature. 16 Magical and Philosophical Precepts [For would-be disciples] 20 The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster v. 12.11, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 29 June 2018 Page 2 of 25 THEOSOPHY AND THEOSOPHISTS SERIES THE CHALDEAN ORACLES OF ZOROASTER A brief note about the Chaldeans. These “mysterious” Akkadians or Chaldeans, whose name both upon classical and biblical authority designates not only a nation but that peculiar priestly caste initiat- ed in and entirely devoted to the Sciences of astrology and magic. Held sacred in all ages, this peculiar learning was concentrated in Babylon and known in the remotest periods of history as a system of religious worship and Science which made the glory of the Chaldean.1 [The Chaldeans] assuredly got their primitive learning from the Brahmans, for H.C. Rawlinson shows an undeniably Vedic influence in the early mythology of Babylon; and Col. Vans Kennedy has long since justly declared that Babylonia was, from her origin, the seat of Sanskrit and Brahman learning.2 . [H]Ea, the God of Wisdom, [is] now identified with the Ōannēs of Berosus, the half-man, half-fish, who taught the Babylonians culture and the art of writing.3 It is maintained that INDIA (not in its present limits, but including its ancient bound- aries) is the only country in the world which still has among her sons adepts, who have the knowledge of all the seven sub-systems and the key to the entire system.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Chaldaean Oracles 565
    Classical Quarterly 56.2 563–581 (2006) Printed in Great Britain 563 doi:10.1017/S0009838806000541 A NEGLECTED TESTIMONIUM ON THECHALDAEAN ORACLESG. BECHTLE A NEGLECTED TESTIMONIUM (FRAGMENT?) ON THE CHALDAEAN ORACLES* INTRODUCTION The Chaldaean Oracles, their Platonic context and their influence on later Platonism have recently received fresh scholarly attention (from, for example, Polymnia Athanassiadi, Carine van Liefferinge and Ruth Majercik).1 But although an important quotation from the Oracles—in indirect speech—can be found in the anonymous Turin Commentary on the Platonic Parmenides (9.1–8), this latter does not seem to have received a great deal of attention in the scholarly literature on the Oracles.2 Thus it seems that the Commentary’s importance with respect to the Oracles is either not fully realized or else undervalued. Probably because the piece of text is a non-literal, that is, non-metric, quotation, editors of the Chaldaean Oracles have rejected the notion that it constitutes an actual fragment, and have viewed it only as a testimonium or a text of reference.3 However, it will be argued that what we actually * I would like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for generously supporting my work on this article. I also owe a debt of gratitude to both the anonymous referee and Luc Brisson for their valuable comments. 1 P. Athanassiadi, ‘The Chaldaean Oracles: theology and theurgy’, in P. Athanassiadi and M. Frede (edd.), Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 1999), 149–83. C. van Liefferinge, La Théurgie. Des Oracles Chaldaïques àProclus, Kernos supplément 9 (Liège, 1999). R.
    [Show full text]
  • Iamblichus and Julian''s ''Third Demiurge'': a Proposition
    Iamblichus and Julian”s ”Third Demiurge”: A Proposition Adrien Lecerf To cite this version: Adrien Lecerf. Iamblichus and Julian”s ”Third Demiurge”: A Proposition . Eugene Afonasin; John M. Dillon; John F. Finamore. Iamblichus and the Foundations of Late Platonism, 13, BRILL, p. 177-201, 2012, Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Texts and Contexts. Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition, 10.1163/9789004230118_012. hal-02931399 HAL Id: hal-02931399 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02931399 Submitted on 6 Sep 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Iamblichus and Julian‟s “Third Demiurge”: A Proposition Adrien Lecerf Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France [email protected] ABSTRACT. In the Emperor Julian's Oration To the Mother of the Gods, a philosophical interpretation of the myth of Cybele and Attis, reference is made to an enigmatic "third Demiurge". Contrary to a common opinion identifying him to the visible Helios (the Sun), or to tempting identifications to Amelius' and Theodorus of Asine's three Demiurges, I suggest that a better idea would be to compare Julian's text to Proclus' system of Demiurges (as exposed and explained in a Jan Opsomer article, "La démiurgie des jeunes dieux selon Proclus", Les Etudes Classiques, 71, 2003, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Pythagorean Music in Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy
    32 RAMIFY 8.1 (2019) “How Pythagoras Cured by Music”: Pythagorean Music in Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy KIMBERLY D. HEIL Interpretive schemata for reading Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy are plentiful. Some of the more popular of those schema read the work along the divided line from Plato’s Republic, taking as programmatic the passage from Book Five in which Boethius discusses the ways in which man comes to know through sensation first, then imagination, then reason, and finally understanding.1 Others read the work as Mneppian Satire because of its prosimetron format. Some scholars study character development in the KIMBERLY D. HEIL is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas; she received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and an MA in Philosophy from the University of South Florida. She is currently a Wojtyła Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Dallas, where she teaches core curriculum philosophy classes. She is writing a dissertation on the relationship between philosophy and Christianity in Augustine of Hippo’s De Beata Vita. The title of this piece is taken from a section subtitle in the work The Life of Pythagoras by the second-century Neopythagorean Iamblichus. 1 See, for instance, McMahon, Understanding the Medieval Meditative Ascent, 215. He references two other similar but competing interpretations using the same methodology. “How Pythagoras Cured by Music” : HEIL 33 work as it echoes Platonic-style dialogues. Still others approach the work as composed of several books, each representing a distinct school of philosophy.2 Furthermore, seeing it as an eclectic mixture of propositions from various schools of philosophy re-purposed and molded to suit Boethius’s own needs, regardless of the literary form and patterns, is commonly agreed upon in the secondary literature.
    [Show full text]
  • KINGS AGAINST CELTS Deliverance from Barbarians As a Theme In
    KINGS AGAINST CELTS Deliverance from barbarians as a theme in Hellenistic royal propaganda Rolf Strootman Ieder nadeel heb z’n eigen voordeel – Johan Cruijff 1 Introduction The Celts, Polybios says, know neither law nor order, nor do they have any culture. 2 Other Greek writers, from Aristotle to Pausanias, agreed with him: the savage Celts were closer to animals than to civilised human beings. Therefore, when the Celts invaded Greece in 280-279 BC and attacked Delphi, Greeks saw this as an attack on Hellenic civilisation. Though the crisis was soon over, the image remained of inhuman barbarians who came from the dark edge of the earth to strike without warning at the centre of civilisation. This image was then exploited in political propaganda: first by the Aitolian League in Central Greece, then by virtually all the Greek-Macedonian kingdoms of that time. The 1 Several variants of this utterance of the ‘Oracle of Amsterdam’ (detriment is advantageous) are current in the Dutch language; this is the original version. Cf. H. Davidse ed., ‘Je moet schieten, anders kun je niet scoren’. Citaten van Johan Cruijff (The Hague 1999) 93; for some interesting linguistic remarks on Cruijff’s oracular sayings see G. Middag and K. van der Zwan, ‘“Utopieën wie nooit gebeuren”. De taal van Johan Cruijff’, Onze Taal 65 (1996) 275-7. 2 Polyb. 18.37.9. Greek authors use Keltoi and Galatai without any marked difference to denote these peoples, who evidently shared some common culture (e.g. infra Pausanias, but esp. 1.4.1; the first mention of Keltoi in Greek literature is in Hdt.
    [Show full text]
  • Neoplatonism: the Last Ten Years
    The International Journal The International Journal of the of the Platonic Tradition 9 (2015) 205-220 Platonic Tradition brill.com/jpt Critical Notice ∵ Neoplatonism: The Last Ten Years The past decade or so has been an exciting time for scholarship on Neo­ platonism. I ought to know, because during my stint as the author of the “Book Notes” on Neoplatonism for the journal Phronesis, I read most of what was published in the field during this time. Having just handed the Book Notes over to George Boys­Stones, I thought it might be worthwhile to set down my overall impressions of the state of research into Neoplatonism. I cannot claim to have read all the books published on this topic in the last ten years, and I am here going to talk about certain themes and developments in the field rather than trying to list everything that has appeared. So if you are an admirer, or indeed author, of a book that goes unmentioned, please do not be affronted by this silence—it does not necessarily imply a negative judgment on my part. I hope that the survey will nonetheless be wide­ranging and comprehensive enough to be useful. I’ll start with an observation made by Richard Goulet,1 which I have been repeating to students ever since I read it. Goulet conducted a statistical analy­ sis of the philosophical literature preserved in the original Greek, and discov­ ered that almost three­quarters of it (71%) was written by Neoplatonists and commentators on Aristotle. In a sense this should come as no surprise.
    [Show full text]
  • Marie-Luise Lakmann, Platonici Minores: 1
    MARIE-LUISE LAKMANN, Platonici minores: 1. Jh.v.Chr. - 2. Jh.n.Chr. Prosopographie. Fragmente und Testimonien mit deutscher Überset- zung. Philosophia antiqua, 145, Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2017, xi+824 pp., $236.00, ISBN 978-90-04-31533-4. This is indeed a mighty work, an offshoot of a yet mightier one, the great project ‘Der Platonismus in der Antike’, initiated many years ago by Heinrich Dórrie, and continued, first by Matthias Baltes, and, most recently, by Christian Pietsch, who is currently bringing it at last to its conclusion with the eighth volume. What Professor Lakmann, who has been closely connected with this project, has set herself to do here is to make the fullest possible collection of minor figures involved in Platonist philosophizing over the period conventionally regarded as ‘Middle Platonic’, in order to give some attention to the persons behind the doctrines. To this end, she has assembled data on some 88 individuals, including four Anonymi, and some very obscure figures indeed. The work is divided into two main sections: ‘Prosopographie’, in which she sets out and discusses what is known about the lives and doctrines of the figures concerned, and ‘Texte und Ubersetzungen’, in which the relevant fragments and testimonia are presented and translated (the translations being undertaken by Erhard Pahnke and Henner Thoss). The only inadequacy I find with this arrangemnt is that there is no provision for discussing the contexts of the individual passages quoted, and the details of doctrine involved, as would sometimes be desirable – but one hesitates to suggest anything that would make a book of 835 pages even longer! She has, quite reasonably, chosen to exclude major figures, such as Antiochus of Ascalon, Eudorus, Plutarch, Atticus, Apuleius, Albinus, or Numenius, who either have major works surviving (as in the case of Plutarch, Apuleius or Albinus), or who have had their fragments adequately collected (though she does include here L.
    [Show full text]
  • A Correspondent of Iamblichus TD Barnes
    A Correspondent of Iamblichus Barnes, T D Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Jan 1, 1978; 19, 1; ProQuest pg. 99 A Correspondent of Iamblichus T. D. Barnes HE CORRESPONDENCE of the emperor Julian, as transmitted in T various manuscripts, includes six letters addressed to the philosopher Iamblichus (Epp. 181, 183-187 Bidez-Cumont).l Since Iamblichus died before Julian was born, it is impossible that the emperor could ever have written to the philosopher. On the other hand, the letters do not read like the productions of a deliberate forger, nor do they simulate an emperor's authorship. On internal criteria, one would naturally interpret them as letters from an absent pupil to his former teacher. Accordingly, Franz Cumont argued that these six letters, together with another two (Epp. 180, 182) and possibly another ten (Epp. 188-197), are genuine letters, which were mistakenly attributed to the emperor Julian because their real author was Julianus of Caesarea, otherwise known as a sophist active in Athens in the early fourth century.2 Joseph Bidez subsequently amplified Cumont's arguments into a study of Iamblichus and his circle which remains, after more than fifty years, the standard account of the philosopher's life. 3 The central thesis of Cumont and Bidez seems as secure as the nature of the case admits, but their deductions from it need some important modifications. First, as Bidez and Cumont later realised, a sophist from Caesarea in Cappadocia (Suda I 435) cannot be supposed to have written these letters,4 for one of the letters to Iamblichus states that writer and recipient share the same fatherland (Ep.
    [Show full text]
  • Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 1998
    Kernos Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique 14 | 2001 Varia Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 1998 Angelos Chaniotis and Joannis Mylonopoulos Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/779 DOI: 10.4000/kernos.779 ISSN: 2034-7871 Publisher Centre international d'étude de la religion grecque antique Printed version Date of publication: 1 January 2001 Number of pages: 147-231 ISSN: 0776-3824 Electronic reference Angelos Chaniotis and Joannis Mylonopoulos, « Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 1998 », Kernos [Online], 14 | 2001, Online since 14 April 2011, connection on 16 September 2020. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/kernos/779 Kernos Kernos, 14 (2001), p. 147-231. Epigraphie Bulletin for Greek Religion 1998 (EBGR 1998) In this issue we have covered a large part of the publications of 1998, making several additions to previous issues; we still have a long list of articles we should like to present (e.g., from the journal Horos), but this would have delayed the journal's publication substantially. A generous grant from the GISELA UND REINHOLD HXCKER STIFTUNG for our editorial work in 2001 will enable us in EBGR 1999 to close most of the gaps left in this and in earlier issues. In EBGR 1998 we have focused on new epigraphic finds, new interpretations of inscriptions, and epigraphic corpora, but we have also summarized a few archaeological studies which make extensive use of the epigraphic material; for the significant contribu­ tion of archaeology to the study of Greek religion the reader should consuIt the Chronique archéologique in Kernos. As in earlier issues we have not limited ourselves to epigraphy but have included a few references to important papyro­ logical sources (nOS 29, 134, 168, 181, 280, 300) and to the evidence provided by the documents in Linear B (nO 50).
    [Show full text]
  • Proclus and the Chaldean Oracles
    Proclus and the Chaldean Oracles This volume examines the discussion of the Chaldean Oracles in the work of Proclus, as well as offering a translation and commentary of Proclus’ Treatise On Chaldean Philosophy . Spanu assesses whether Proclus’ exegesis of the Chaldean Oracles can be used by modern research to better clarify the content of Chaldean doctrine or must instead be abandoned because it represents a substantial misinterpretation of originary Chaldean teachings.The volume is augmented by Proclus’ Greek text, with English translation and commentary. Proclus and the Chaldean Oracles will be of interest to researchers working on Neoplatonism, Proclus and theurgy in the ancient world. Nicola Spanu wrote a PhD thesis on Plotinus and his Gnostic disciples and took part in a postdoctoral project on Byzantine cosmology and its relation to Neoplatonism. He has worked as an independent researcher on his second academic publication, which has focused on Proclus and the Chaldean Oracles. Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies Titles include : Un-Roman Sex Gender, Sexuality, and Lovemaking in the Roman Provinces and Frontiers Edited by Tatiana Ivleva and Rob Collins Robert E. Sherwood and the Classical Tradition The Muses in America Robert J. Rabel Text and Intertext in Greek Epic and Drama Essays in Honor of Margalit Finkelberg Edited by Jonathan Price and Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz Animals in Ancient Greek Religion Edited by Julia Kindt Classicising Crisis The Modern Age of Revolutions and the Greco-Roman Repertoire Edited by Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson Epigraphic Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean in Antiquity Edited by Krzysztof Nawotka Proclus and the Chaldean Oracles A Study on Proclean Exegesis , with a Translation and Commentary of Proclus’ Treatise On Chaldean Philosophy Nicola Spanu Greek and Roman Military Manuals Genre and History Edited by James T.
    [Show full text]
  • Pico, Plato, and Albert the Great: the Testimony and Evaluation of Agostino Nifo EDWARD P
    Pico, Plato, and Albert the Great: The Testimony and Evaluation of Agostino Nifo EDWARD P. MAHONEY Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) is without doubt one of the most intriguing figures of the Italian Renaissance. It is thus no surprise that he has attracted the attention of many modern scholars. By reason of the varied interests that are reflected in his writings, contrasting interpretations of Pico have been proposed.1 Our purpose here is not to present a new and different picture of Pico but, rather, to offer a contribution to one fruitful area of research pursued by some recent historians of philosophy, namely, Pico's debt to, and 1. For general presentations of Pico's life and thought, see the classic study of Eugenio Garin, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Vita e dottirina (Florence: F. Le Monnier, 1937); Garin's magisterial Storia della filosofia italiana, 2d ed. (Turin: G. Einaudi 1966), 1:458-495. Among more recent general accounts are Pierre-Marie Cordier, Jean Pic de la Mirandole (Paris: Debresse, 1958); Engelbert Monnerjahn, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1960); Paul Oskar Kristeller, Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), pp. 54-71; Giovanni di Napoli, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola e laproblemaύca dottrinale del suo tempo (Rome: Desclee, 1965); Charles Trinkaus, In Our Image and Likeness (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 2:505-526; and Henri de Lubac, Pic de la Mirandole: Etudes et discussions (Paris: Aubier Montaigne, 1974). 165 166 EDWARD P. MAHONEY use of, medieval philosophy in his overall philosophical enterprise.2 Of particular concern will be the influence of Albert the Great on Pico, which can be established by a connection that has apparently not been noticed by Pico's historians.
    [Show full text]
  • Gical, and Ethical Doctrines Given in Chapters Two, T
    CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION Even the bare outlines of Speusippus' metaphysical, epistemolo­ gical, and ethical doctrines given in chapters two, three, and four of this work show that he was a philosopher of considerable original­ ity.473 In view of this and of the likelihood that Plato himself chose him to be his successor as head of the Academy,474 it is surely unwarranted and arbitrary to contend, as some scholars do, 476 that he was a poor philosopher. It is clear that Plato was the main influence upon Speusippus' thought. For his most important metaphysical and epistemological doctrines show not only that he adopted some of the basic tenets of Platonism but also that these doctrines are answers to the same problems Plato tried to solve. Thus, take for example Speusippus' doctrine that numbers and magnitudes are separate, eternal, and immutable objects of knowledge; that mathematical numbers are directly apprehended by the mind; that the propositions of mathematics cannot be true of the sensibles; that by the direct knowledge of number together with the data provided by an infallible faculty of perception which participates in reason the mind is able to derive all other knowledge; and that there is a relation of non-symmetrical similarity between the several kinds of substances which ultimately depends upon the separately existing numbers. All these interrelated doctrines are not only similar to some of Plato's own but are really answers to the same kinds of problems which Plato's philosophy tries to solve. For Plato's own main doctrines-the theory of ideas, the conception of the soul as a perpetual entity to which the apprehen­ sion of the ideas is so to say "innate," knowledge as recollection, etc.-were meant as an answer to the question whether there is such a thing as knowledge which is fundamentally different from perception and correct opinion.
    [Show full text]