PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, Giovanni, j6-varinE pek6 della me-rail's:R:1-1i, Count of Mirandola, surnamed the Italian humanist : b. Mirandola, 24 Feb. 1463; d. Flor ence, 17 Nov. 1494. He undertook the course in canon law at Bologna, but repugnance to the study and an inclination to philosophical and scientific subjects led him to visit the different parts of Italy and France for the purpose of observation and to attend the lectures of the most distinguished professors. In 1484 he went to Florence, where he became a member of the Platonist group known as the In 1486 he proposed 900 theses on all subjects, which he declared himself ready to defend, ac cording to the custom of the times, in public. No one ventured to appear against him, and the envious endeavored to implicate him in a charge of heresy. Innocent VIII forbade the reading of the propositions, and Pico withdrew to France. He was absolved, however, from any suspicion of heresy by Alexander VI. Having
next applied himself to the study of Biblical literature he published the fruits in 'Heptaplus,' a mystical or cabalistic explanation of the his tory of the creation, in which he derives Plato's doctrines from Moses. Two years after he publishes a treatise— We Ente et Uno'— in which he aimed to unite the opinions of Plato and Aristotle. He was wealthy and gave away most of his property with the intention of becoming an itinerant preacher, but died be fore carrying out the plan. A collection of his works, almost all in Latin, was published at Venice in 1498. He is introduced as one of the characters in Alfred Austin's drama, 'Savon arola.' Consult Dreydroff, Was System des Johannes Pico von Mirandola and Concordia' (1858) ; Pater, 'Studies in the History of the Renaissance' (1873).