Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola's Critique of Antiquity A Dissertation Submitted to th

404 Pages·2017·3.29 MB·English

by  Marco Piana, Mr

McGill University

Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity

A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate School
of McGill University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
by

Marco PIANA
260523980

Doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Matteo Soranzo
External Examiner: Denis Robichaud (University of Notre Dame)
Internal Examiner: Chriscinda Henry (McGill University)

15 December 2017
1 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One: Introduction ...........................................................................................................6
1. Seeing Demons .......................................................................................................................6
2. Gianfrancesco Pico: A Short Biography ..............................................................................16
3. Toward a Narrative of Complexity: Gianfrancesco Pico in the Early Historiography ........25
4. Competing narratives: Contemporary Approaches to Gianfrancesco Pico ..........................40
5. Thesis Objectives, and Main Topics ....................................................................................48
6. Thesis Structure ....................................................................................................................54
Chapter Two: Crosses from the Sky: Astrology, Prophecy, and Antiquity in Gianfrancesco
Pico’s Staurostichon .....................................................................................................................61
1. Raining Blood: The Kreuzwunder in the Imaginary of the 16th Century ............................61
2. Staurostichon: The Bibliographical Context ........................................................................73
3. Gianfrancesco Pico on Astrology and Prophecy: A Vision Between Giovanni Pico and
Savonarola ............................................................................................................................78
4. Against the Stars: Staurostichon and De Rerum Praenotione .............................................88
5. The Emperor and The Stars: Maximilian I and Astrology ...................................................92
6. For the Emperor, Against the Astrologers. ........................................................................102
7. The Sign of the Cross: Soteriology of the Arma Christi in the Staurostichon ...................112
8. Pico’s Blood Piety: Blood and Prophecy in Pico’s Staurostichon .....................................118
9. Conclusion: Drawn in Blood ..............................................................................................122
Chapter Three: The Demon’s Empire: Pico’s Metanarrative of Antiquity in the Hymni
Heroici Tres .................................................................................................................................125
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................125
2. Girolamo Savonarola and the Paradox of Savonarolan Poetry ..........................................126
3. Savonarolan Poets ..............................................................................................................137
4. Gianfrancesco Pico and Savonarolan Poetry .....................................................................142
5. Forms of Religious Hybridism in the Italian Hymnic Tradition of the 15th-16th Century:
Ficino’s Hymns ..................................................................................................................148
6. Renaissance Hymns and Platonic Theurgy ........................................................................154
7. The Hymni Heroici Tres (1507): Dissemination and Legacy of the Text ..........................164
8. Structure of the Collection .................................................................................................166
9. Antiquity and Spirituality ...................................................................................................171
2 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
10. A History of Demons .........................................................................................................173
11. Depicting an Age of Error ..................................................................................................190
12. Silencing the Pagan World .................................................................................................197
13. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................208
Chapter Four: Against Venus: The Quest for Beauty and Love in De Venere Et Cupidine
Expellendis ..................................................................................................................................210
1. Introduction: Burying Demons, Unearthing Gods .............................................................210
2. De Venere et Cupidine Expellendis: History and Legacy of the Hymn. ............................218
3. “Sunt idola antiquarorum:” The representations of Venus and Pagan Aesthetics in the
Italian Renaissance .............................................................................................................222
4. Exalting Beauty: The Revival of the Twofold Venus ........................................................243
5. Gianfrancesco Pico’s Attack on Ficino’s Twofold Venus .................................................254
6. Spurca Venus, or the Demonization of the Neoplatonic Gods ...........................................262
7. The Ladder of Suffering: Gianfrancesco Pico’s Remedia Amoris .....................................270
8. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................283
Conclusion: The Demons of Reason .........................................................................................286
Appendix I: Staurostichon .........................................................................................................292
Introductory Letter from Gianfrancesco to Emperor Maximilian I .........................................292
Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Heroicum carmen de mysteriis Dominicae crucis, nuper
in Germaniam delapsis, ad Maximilianum Augustum Romanorum regem, in Opera Omnia II.
Basilea: per Henricum Petri. 1557. 354-366. ...........................................................................296
Appendix II: De Venere et Cupidine expellendis......................................................................334
Accompanying Letter from Gianfrancesco to Lilio Gregorio Giraldi .....................................334
Introductory Letter from Gianfrancesco to Konrad Peutinger .................................................339
Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, De Venere et Cupidine expellendis carmen. Rome:
Iacobus Mazochius, 1513. ........................................................................................................344
Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................376

3 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
ABSTRACT
This dissertation focuses on the metanarrative of antiquity found in the poetic production of
Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (1469-1533), a Renaissance philosopher and territorial ruler
whose religious orientation is ascribable to Girolamo Savonarola and his followers. In four
chapters focusing on specific phases in the author's literary career, this dissertation sets out to
explore the multiple connections between Pico’s poetry and the rest of his oeuvre, and more
specifically with the author's peculiar approach to Greco-Roman antiquity expressed in De
Imaginatione, De Rerum Prenotione and De Amore Divino. Starting with an analysis of Pico’s
Staurostichon (1503-1506) and concluding with his 1513 De Venere et Cupidine expellendis
through a thorough examination of Hymni Heroici Tres (1507), the goal of this dissertation is to
examine and reconstruct Gianfrancesco Pico’s dystopian, demon-infested view of antiquity and
to indicate some of its polemical targets including Renaissance astrology, Platonic philosophy
and paganizing artistic and literary aesthetics.
The first section of this dissertation provides a detailed list of objectives, a defined thesis
structure, a short biography of the author, and a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the
figure of Gianfrancesco Pico in past and contemporary historiography. The second section
focuses on Pico’s first published poem, Staurostichon (1506-1507), and its relationship with
astrology, prophecy, and blood devotion. The third chapter of the dissertation focuses on the
1507 collection of hymns known as Hymni heroici tres, their metanarrative of antiquity and their
influence in the genre of Renaissance hymnography. Finally, the fourth section explores Pico’s
1513 poem De Venere et Cupidine expellendis in light of his criticism of Neoplatonism and
pagan aesthetics.

Keywords: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Antiquity, Neoplatonism, Astrology, Prophecy,
Savonarolism, Christianity.
4 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
RÉSUMÉ
Cette dissertation se concentre sur le métarécit de l'Antiquité trouvé dans la production poétique
de Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (1469-1533), philosophe et souverain territorial de la
Renaissance dont l'orientation religieuse est imputable à Girolamo Savonarola et ses disciples.
En quatre chapitres centrés sur des phases spécifiques de la carrière littéraire de l'auteur, cette
thèse explore les multiples liens entre la poésie de Pico et le reste de son œuvre, et plus
particulièrement l'approche distinctive de l'auteur envers l'Antiquité gréco-romaine formulée
dans ses traités philosophiques connus sous le nom de De imaginatione, De rerum prenotione et
De amore divino. En commençant par une analyse de son poème Staurostichon (1503-1506) et
en concluant avec son De Venere Cupidine expellendis (1513), en passant par un examen
approfondi de Hymni heroici tres (1507), le but de cette thèse est d'examiner et de reconstruire la
vision dystopique et démoniaque de l'antiquité contenue dans les œuvres de Gianfrancesco Pico,
et d'explorer certaines de ses cibles polémiques, y compris l'astrologie, la philosophie
platonicienne et l'esthétique artistique et littéraire paganisante de la Renaissance.
La première section de cette dissertation fournit une liste détaillée des objectifs, une structure
définie de thèse, une concise biographie de l'auteur, et une analyse complète de l'évolution de la
figure de Gianfrancesco Pico dans l'historiographie passée et contemporaine. La deuxième
section se concentre sur le premier poème publié par Pico, Staurostichon (1506-1507), et sa
relation avec l'astrologie, la prophétie et la dévotion au sang. Le troisième chapitre de la thèse
porte sur la collection d'hymnes de 1507 connue sous le nom de Hymni heroici tres, leur
métanarration de l'antiquité et leur influence dans l'hymnographie de la Renaissance. Enfin, la
quatrième section explore le poème De Venere et Cupidine expellendis à la lumière de sa critique
du néoplatonisme et de l'esthétique philo-païenne de son temps.

Mots clés: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Antiquité, Néoplatonisme, Astrologie, Prophétie,
Savonarolisme, Christianisme.

5 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
“Eadem igitur obscuritate contagionis adspiratio daemonum et angelorum mentis quoque
corruptelas agit furoribus”1
Tertullian, Apologeticus XII, 6-8.
Chapter One: Introduction

1. Seeing Demons
The beginning of Donato Bramante’s (1444 – 1514) architectural works on the Cortile
del Belvedere in 1505 bears a deep, symbolic meaning that goes beyond the renovation of the
Vatican from the late Medieval age of the 15th century to the Renaissance that characterized the
16th century.2 Started under the orders of Pope Julius II (1443 – 1513), this enclosed garden was
a key element of the pontiff’s grand project to renovate the Holy See, and a symbolic

1 “Then by the same obscure contagion the breath of demons and angels achieves the corruption of the mind in foul
bursts of fury and insanity.”
2 I would like to take advantage of this first attempt of periodization to discuss my personal approach to it. As
Hamish Scott states: “All periodization necessarily involves the privileging of a particular viewpoint. The
established framework sees the early modern era extending from—very broadly—1500 to 1800; the start date was at
times moved back into the second half of the fifteenth century, to 1480, when the economy and demographic
expansion of the long sixteenth century was firmly underway, or even to the 1450s: the Ottoman conquest of
Constantinople appeared an important date in political history, while the crucial technologies of printing and
gunpowder were beginning to be influential by mid-century.” I personally abide by this trend. That said, however, I
ascribe to those experts who think that the 1450/1500–1800 periodization is too limited chronologically for the
Italian context, as I believe that the whole Italian Renaissance occupies a solid place as the beginning of modernity
in the West. As many other historians, I thus include the Italian Renaissance (especially the High Renaissance, in
which this study is situated) in the early modern period. That said, I am fully aware that many dominant themes of
post-1500 Europe have their origins and even their counterparts during the era conventionally styled the ‘Later
Middle Ages’: whether in topics as diverse as state-formation, high culture, or voyages of exploration. On this
subject, I do not believe in strict boundaries when it comes to periodization. I highly respect the vision of those who,
developing a more “modern” view of the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, have suggested an extension of the
early modern era backwards. I am equally open to the idea of a long Middle Ages elaborated by Jacques Le Goff
(1924–2014) during his last thirty years of life. On the subject, see Hamish M. Scott, "Introduction: ‘Early Modern’
Europe and the Idea of Early Modernity," in The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750,
ed. Hamish M. Scott (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199597253.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199597253-e-
29. See also Jacques Le Goff, Faut-Il Vraiment DéCouper L'histoire En Tranches? (Paris: Éditions Points, 2014).
137–186.
6 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
representation of his take on religion, philosophy and politics.3 As a matter of fact, the main
purpose of Bramante’s work – together with all the projects that were part of Julius II renovatio
urbis – was to create a clear link between this papacy and the grandeur of ancient classical
civilization, weaving together complex symbolic themes that incorporated references from the
Apostolic Succession, Roman imperialism, Etrusco-Roman heritage and the Biblical tradition.4
In practical terms, Bramante’s Cortile was designed to facilitate access between the
Vatican Palace on the south side, and the Villa Belvedere on the north side – i.e. between two
spaces dedicated to the complementary pursuits of active life (concerning papal and courtly
matters), and of contemplative life (concerning philosophical and theological reflection). Beyond
this practical purpose, however, Bramante’s Cortile also brought a whole new architectural
concept into the development of the Vatican, conveying a new monumental tradition, bringing an
innovative concept of space in garden architecture into existence.5 Built as a semi-walled garden
leading towards another of Bramante’s architectural masterpieces – the Stanza della Segnatura,
home of the well-known fresco “The School of Athens” – this architectural arrangement needed
to provide a suitable outdoor space in which the pope and his court could deliberate on

3“The choice of Donato Bramante as the sole director of [Julius II’s] architectural program was near to being a creative
act in itself. […] the personalities of the Pope and the architect as we know from their other activities suggest a
community of spirit based on the sharing of just that characteristic of dynamic imagination noted above [x]. Their
association in the creation of the new Vatican may be described only as a partnership. The project itself so eloquently
expressed the conception from which it emerged that we have no means of distinguishing the contribution of the patron
from that of the artist.” James S. Ackerman, The Cortile Del Belvedere, Studi E Documenti Per La Storia Del Palazzo
Apostolico Vaticano, V. 3. (Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca aspostolica vaticana, 1954). 13-14. On this subject, it is
important to note that there have been discordant voices on the real engagement of Julius II in the iconographic choices
of the artists and architects working under his patronage. See Christine Shaw, “The Motivation for the Patronage of
Julius II,” in Gosman, Martin, Alasdair MacDonald, and Arjo Vanderjagt. 2005. Princes and Princely Culture 1450-
1650, Volume Two. Leiden: Brill. 43 – 61.
4 Nicholas Temple, Renovatio Urbis. Architecture, Urbanism and Ceremony in the Rome of Julius Ii (New York:
Routledge, 2011). 2.
5 Ackerman, The Cortile Del Belvedere. 12, 19.
7 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
philosophical and theological matters, possibly in emulation of Plato's academy.6 The four
terrace-courts of the garden, more precisely, were designed to serve three functions. The lowest
was conceived as a theatre stage, while the two higher terraces were formal gardens decorated
with sumptuous fountains. A fourth court, the “cortile delle statue,” was also created at the
entrance of the pope Innocent VII’s (1339 – 1406) villa to serve as the seat of the “antiquario
delle cose antiche,” an indoor/outdoor museum that Julius II founded for reasons that exceeded a
simple antiquarian intent. In fact, as a whole, the Cortile was not merely conceived as an
infrastructure meant for leisure, but as the core of an ambitious project. What Julius II really
wanted, when imagining his Cortile del Belvedere, was the creation of the first architectural
garden, the first permanent theater, and the first museum building since antiquity.7
In order to better emphasize the link between his own dominion and the legacy of
classical civilization, the Pope ordered the retrieval of ancient statues that were found in the
ancient Roman ruins around the city and their transfer to his garden; each one was to be put in its
own loggia, not unlike the shrines used for that purpose in ancient times.8 The written testimony
of an anonymous Venetian merchant, who was sent to Rome in 1513 as envoy to Pope Hadrian
VI, gives a genuine picture of the Giardino that conveys its true beauty and the impact it had on
its visitors:

One enters the garden, of which half is filled with growing grass and laurels, mulberries,
and cypresses, while the other half is paved in squares of tiles, laid on end, and in every
square a beautiful orange tree grows out of the pavement, of which there are a great
many, arranged in perfect order. In the center of the garden there are two enormous men

6 Temple, Renovatio Urbis. Architecture, Urbanism and Ceremony in the Rome of Julius Ii. 135. For a discussion on
the Cortile del Belvedere as a classical villa see James S. Ackerman, Distance Points: Essays in Theory and
Renaissance Art and Architecture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991). 112-19.
7 The Cortile Del Belvedere. 18.
8 Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Illustrissimi Ac Doctissimi Principis Jo. Francisci Pici Mirandulae... De Venere
& Cupidine Expellendis Carmen; Item Eiusdem Laurentius & Geminianus Hymni (Rome: Iacobus Mazochius, 1513).
Fol. 8R.
8 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
in marble; one opposite to the other, twice life size, who lie in a sleeping position. One is
the Tiber, the other the Nile; very ancient figures, and two fountains issue from them. At
the main entrance to this garden on the left there is a sort of chapel built into the wall
where, on a marble base, stands the Apollo, world famous, a very beautiful and worthy
figure, life size, of the finest marble. Somewhat farther on, also in the same façade, which
runs along this side, and in a similar place with a similar base, as high off the ground as
an altar, opposite a most perfect well, is the Laocoon, celebrated throughout the world
[…] Not far from this, and mounted in a similar fashion, there is a lovely Venus of life
size, nude, with a bit of drapery over her shoulder which partly covers her genitals: as
beautiful a piece as is possible to imagine. […] On one side of this garden is a most
beautiful loggia at one end of which is a lovely fountain that irrigates the orange trees and
the rest of the garden by a little canal in the center of the loggia. At the other end, through
a small door, one passes out onto two even more beautiful loggie [sic], as high off the
ground as half the campanile of S. Marco (because they stand on the peak of a hill).
There is a marvelous view from there, as charming as one could desire. At the entrance to
the loggias on the left is a beautiful and devout chapel, perfectly ornamented […] then a
string of large and small rooms, gracious both for their decoration and their view: and this
is the Pope’s quarters.9

The act of building something like the Cortile del Belvedere, a garden that aimed to incorporate
ancient art and architecture in the holy place of the Vatican, is not to be underestimated. As Marc
David Baer states, any process of religious acculturation, adhesion and hybridity, syncretism, and
transformation of converts is accompanied by a spatial dimension of religious change. “If the
ruler of a society converts, whether to piety or to a different religion altogether, he (rulers are
usually male) converts holy spaces of other religions to his own, including the most grand and
significant structures located in the capital and major cities of his state, or he constructs new
edifices celebrating and announcing his personal decision [...]”10 Following this logic, the official
incursion of pagan antiquity aesthetics and thought within the Holy See during Julius II’s
dominion was one of his highest proclamations of his theological take on Christianity. In the
Pope’s view of the Cortile del Belvedere – and of his renovatio urbis as a whole, one might say –

9 Quoted in Ackerman, The Cortile Del Belvedere. 34.
10 Marc David Baer, “History and Religious Conversion,” ed. Lewis R. Rambo, The Oxford handbook of religious
conversion (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). 7.
9 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.
the pagan idols of antiquity were allowed to share the sacred space of the Vatican with the holy
symbols of Christianity, exactly as the pagan philosophers were permitted to face the Church
fathers in the frescoes of the Pope’s private library: the Stanza della Segnatura.11
As Timothy Verdon states in his study entitled “Pagans in the Church: The School of
Athens in Religious Context” (1997), the structure and the subjects portrayed in the frescoes
illuminating the Stanza demanded a “syncretic vision of intellectual history,” in which pagan
philosophers, divinely inspired in their quest for Wisdom, approached, imitated, or even
understood the Christian God, though unclearly.12 Following this intuition, Verdon interpreted
the architecture of the scenes of the “School of Athens” to the “Disputation of the Holy
Sacrament” as a single portrayal of a unified space, notably in the way the pagan philosophers
were gathered on one side, standing in what would be the nave of a great church, while the
Christian theologians, Saints, and God, were arranged around the sacrament in the apse of that
same structure.13 The respective positioning of the philosophers and the theologians is of the
greatest significance to Verdon’s interpretation of meaning in the series of frescoes. In his
reading of the room, its space, decoration, and meaning, pagans had “a place in the church,” both
literally and figuratively.
Thus Julius II wanted to characterize his new Rome, and thus the artists and architects
complied, following his grand design. Such a “syncretic” approach14 toward pre-Christian

11 John K. J. Shearman reviewed the documentary evidence and concluded that the Stanza della Segnatura was the
most plausible location of Julius’s library, though he acknowledged on page 383 of his study that the possibility
remained that the Pope’s collection could have been housed in the Torre Borgia. See John Shearman, “The Vatican
Stanze: Functions and Decoration,” Proceedings of the British Academy 57 (1971), John K. G. Shearman, The Vatican
Stanze: Functions and Decorations (London: Oxford University Press, 1972). 369-424.
12 Timothy Verdon, “Pagans in the Church: The School of Athens in Religious Context,” in Raphael's “School of
Athens”, ed. Marcia B. Hall (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997). 122-5.
13 Ibid. 119-22.
14 The term syncretic is kept between quotation marks for a very precise reason, as much debate has been going on
over the misuse of the category of syncretism in the past. If we consider Verdon’s point above, the term – I argue – is
well placed here. However, if we take into account Marc David Baer’s definitions of the four categories of religious
10 Marco Piana. Fallax Antiquitas: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Critique of Antiquity.