And the Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at King's College London and the

LMU in Munich online at history of philosophy.net. Today's episode, Bonfire of the Vanities,

Savonarola.

As the people who have the dubious pleasure of living or working with me can attest, my favorite

philosopher is usually whichever one I'm currently reading and writing about for this

podcast. Over the last months I have seized on the smallest excuse to wax

enthusiastic about Ficino and Pico or before that the contributions of women to Italian humanism.

But I have to admit that I'm having trouble warming to the protagonist of this episode, Gereolamo

Savonarola.

Remember from a few episodes back the various measures taken to persecute Jews in Renaissance Italy?

Savonarola was a devout anti-Semite and would certainly have supported such measures

except insofar as he found them to lenient. have

certainly been so far as he found them too lenient. He would surely have disapproved of those women humanists.

His remarks about women are typically in the mode of patronizing spiritual guidance

offered to the weaker sex, and he was scornful of women who reported having the sort of prophetic visions he claimed for himself.

Though it must be conceded that a good number of women rallied to his cause and stuck by it even after his death.

Ironically, they included a number of mystical thinkers.

Saffin Arolla reserved special ire for homosexuality, demanding that it be punished with violent death.

I'd like to see you build a nice fire of these sodomites in the piazza, two or three, male and female,

because there are also women who practice that damnable vice.

I say offer them as a sacrifice to God.

When Florence was faced by a famine, he told the people they deserved it because they were so sinful.

...