17th century portrait of Pico della Mirandola

The collection of the Riga Museum of World Freemasonry has a new very important exhibit. It is a 17th century portrait of the Italian humanist Pico della Mirandola, painted in oil on a wooden panel. The painting is attributed to a follower of the artist Cristofano di Papi dell'Altissimo.

The exhibit will be placed in the Prehistory of Freemasonry room of our museum. Since the figure of Pico della Mirandola significantly influenced the formation of Renaissance thought, early science and the development of mystical societies.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was born on 24 February 1463 in the town of Mirandola to a very noble and wealthy Italian family with Tuscan and Corsican roots. Pico's parents were aristocrats and humanists, closely associated with Renaissance artists and philosophers. Pico therefore began to learn Latin and Greek at a very early age.

At the age of 14, Pico began studying ecclesiastical law in Bologna, but soon turned his attention to philosophy and theology. His interest in philosophy led him to the universities of Padua, Florence, Paris and Ferrara, where he studied in depth ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew, which later became the foundation for his philosophy.

In Florence, Pico studied under the humanist Marsilio Ficino and befriended the poet Angelo Poliziano. Ficino was the first to translate all of Plato's works from Greek into Latin and was the head of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He had a strong influence on Pico's philosophical views, instilling in him a love of Neoplatonism and the Kabbalah. But whereas Ficino was a convinced Christian Neoplatonist, Mirandola went further, arguing that truth could be found not only in Plato and the Bible, but also in other traditions, including Judaism and Islam.

At the same time, his friendship with Angelo Poliziano enriched his understanding of ancient literature and ancient Greek poetry. Poliziano was renowned as a leading Renaissance poet who could produce Homeric style in his verse and translated the Iliad into Latin. It was Poliziano who taught Mirandola the basics of ancient Greek language and poetry.

Florence at that time was under the rule of Lorenzo de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent), patron of the arts and sciences. Lorenzo became Pico's friend and protector, allowing him to express his philosophical views freely without fear of political repression.

Mirandola's early views were also strongly influenced by the Byzantine thinker Geogius Gemistos Plethon. After holding high positions in Constantinople, Plethon travelled to Florence in the first half of the fifteenth century, where he became the teacher of the young Marsilio Ficino. Plethon taught Greek to Italian humanists and in his philosophical teachings criticised the philosophy of Aristotle, opposing it to that of Plato. In fact, Plethon was the first person in Italy to openly declare that truth could be found in Plato's teachings and insisted on studying his writings alongside the Bible and Hermetic texts.

Moreover, it was through Plethon that Mirandola became interested in Byzantine philosophy and was influenced by the writings of Greek Orthodox mystics. Whereas Catholicism during the Renaissance was strictly based on scholasticism and religious dogma, Eastern Christians were much more on the lines of Platonism. In the 14th century, church disputes even led to the Byzantine theologian Gregory Palamas publicly condemning Catholic teaching, and the Church Council of Constantinople approved Plato's teachings, as well as Hesychasm - a spiritual practice in which a person can come to know God through a meditative state.

In 1486, Pico published «Conclusiones philosophicae, cabalisticae et theologicae» (900 theses), which became the manifesto of his philosophy. These theses combined elements of various traditions: ancient (Plato, Aristotle), Christian (Augustine, Thomas Aquinas), Islamic (Averroes, Avicenna), Jewish Kabbalah and European Hermeticism. With this book, Mirandola proved that all philosophical and religious systems of the world strive for the same truth.

A special place in the book was occupied by the thesis of the possibility of reconciling all philosophical schools within a single system, which was a continuation of the thought of his teacher Marsilio Ficino. Mirandola believed that the truth is available through the synthesis of different traditions, because each of them carries a particle of divine revelation. This idea later became the foundation of Masonic philosophy, allowing the unification of completely different spiritual and philosophical systems.

However, his theses caused scandal and persecution by Lorenzo de' Medici's political enemies. The Roman Curia accused Mirandola of heresy, considering the 13 theses incompatible with Catholic teaching. Pico wrote a defence entitled «Apologia», but he was summoned to Rome anyway. Only the personal intervention of Lorenzo de' Medici prevented his condemnation.

Pico's worldview was also strongly influenced by Hermeticism. He believed that man was an intermediary between the earthly and heavenly worlds, possessing freedom of choice and capable of attaining the divine state through knowledge and virtue.

In his study of the Kabbalah, Pico argued that the Hebrew texts held the key to understanding Christian revelation. He was the first Christian thinker to attempt to unite the Kabbalistic tradition with Christian theology, laying the foundations of a «Christian Kabbalah». Mirandola believed that the «Sefirot» (the structure of divine attributes in the Kabbalistic tradition) could be fully compared to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

His views reflected the idea of the ‘greatness of man». In his famous «Oratio de hominis dignitate» (Speech on the Dignity of Man), Mirandola stated that man has the freedom to create his own destiny, either ascending to the angelic state or sinking into the animal state. The idea of freedom of choice became central to Renaissance philosophy.

Towards the end of his life, Pico's relations with other humanists and patrons became strained. His friendship with the Catholic politician Girolamo Savonarola, a strict reformist monk, brought him into conflict with the Florentine elite. Influenced by Savonarola, Pico criticised the moral decay of society and the church, making his figure even more controversial.

In 1494, at the age of 31, Pico died suddenly in Florence, as the victim of a political assassination. Later examinations of his remains in 2007 confirmed that he had been poisoned with arsenic. Suspicion fell on Piero de' Medici (Piero the Fool), son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Mirandola was Piero de' Medici's teacher and was probably poisoned by him because of Piero's desire to rid himself of his father's associates and consolidate his personal political power. Moreover, in parallel with Mirandola, his associate Angelo Poliziano was poisoned in the same year. The murders of Mirandola and Poliziano weakened the Florentine Republic, and it was later captured by the French, with Piero de' Medici himself killed while trying to flee Italy.

Despite the early death of the thinker, Mirandola's philosophy had a great influence on the development of humanism and laid the foundation for the Masonic worldview. Mirandola's writings are in line with the Masonic tradition in the area of religious universalism and ideas about human nature, which must be elevated by grasping the foundations of the world's different philosophical systems.