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In the late 1300s, some Italian thinkers began to talk about a rebirth or “renais-
sance.” They wrote disparagingly of the “Middle” or “Dark Ages,” depicting that
time as a period of barbarian ignorance from which they had just emerged. They
saw themselves as awakening to their classical past and continuing the civilizing
work of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Although few scholars today would accept this self-characterization, there was
something different about the late-medieval/early-modern period. Whereas the
medievals had access to some classical texts, the Renaissance thinkers had a
wide, and often contradictory, variety of ancient Greek and Roman works.
Whereas the philosophers of the Middle Ages tended to use ancient materials to
reinforce their Christian beliefs, the early-modern thinkers found new uses for
these ancient texts. But most important, whereas the Middle Ages tended to be
vertically oriented, focusing on God and God’s Kingdom, the early-modern
period became more and more horizontally oriented, examining the created world
and celebrating its most important inhabitants, human beings.
The person who most typifies this use of ancient texts to express the impor-
tance and “dignity of man” is Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Pico was
born in Mirandola, near Ferrara, northern Italy. The son of a minor Italian prince,
his education included a variety of subjects and a diversity of institutions. In
1477, he went to the University of Bologna to study canon (church) law. After two
years, he moved to study philosophy at the universities of Ferrara and Padua.
Finally in 1482, he concluded his studies by examining Hebrew and Arabic
thought while in Florence and Paris.
Pico believed it was possible to reconcile the seeming contradictions among
the various systems of thought he had studied. Drawing out what he considered
the best in each thinker and system he encountered, he developed a philosophyGIOVANNI PICO DELLA
MIRANDOLA
1463–1494