Meet Pico, The 23-Year-Old Wunderkind Who Kicked Off the Renaissance

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2018

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Pico for short), was the wunderkind of the Renaissance. In 1486, at the age of 23 he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the “Manifesto of the Renaissance.”

Today we are going to talk to Professor Matthew Gaetano about this remarkable figure. Pico was called a great genius, even in his own time. He defend 900 contested theses drawn from the Greeks, Scripture, rabbis, from Persians, and from Islamic scholars into a syncretic drawing together of learning and culture from all across the then-known world.

There were also odd aspects of Pico's thought system— he defended magic and mysticism. But his complex life is an inspiration for us moderns today.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,
0:09.4	Canada, and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:13.9	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time, focusing on the compelling,
0:20.7	wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders,
0:27.1	environment, and geography.
0:29.5	I invite you to come along for the ride!
0:59.5	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, the unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes,
1:14.6	Mythbust's historical lies, and rediscover the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:21.3	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:29.1	What were you doing when you were 23 years old?
1:31.8	Maybe you were just finishing college and starting your career at an insurance company.
1:36.5	Maybe you didn't go to college, that was for your smarter older brother, and you were
1:39.6	sitting at home unemployed, eating a tub of red vines that you got from Costco, and watching
1:44.2	a movie marathon of Ernesto's at camp all the way up to Ernesto's to jail.
1:47.9	Well, whatever your life path was, I'm not going to judge you.
1:50.7	But whatever it was you were doing, you probably weren't as ambitious as Giovanni Pico
1:55.5	della Miranda La.
1:57.3	Who is he?
1:58.4	He was a figure of the Italian Renaissance, who wrote the ovation of the dignity of man,
2:03.3	which has been called the Manifesto of the Renaissance.
2:06.6	The thing is, he composed this when he was only 23 years old, and he proposed to defend
2:12.2	900 Theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic.
	...

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