A Philosopher at the Crossroads: Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola’s Encounter with Scholastic Philosophy (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 338)

Book info: A Philosopher at the Crossroads: Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola’s Encounter with Scholastic Philosophy (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 338) (Hardcover, 578 pages) – Brill, 2022. Language: English.

This study explains how one of the most remarkable thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), broke new ground by engaging with the scholastic tradition while maintaining his ‘humanist’ sensibilities. A central claim of the monograph is that Pico was a 'philosopher at the crossroads,' whose sophisticated reading of numerous scholastic thinkers enabled him to advance a different conception of philosophy. The scholastic background to Pico’s work has been neglected by historians of the period. This omission has served to create not only an unreliable picture of Pico’s thought, but also a more general ignorance of the dynamism of scholastic thought in late fifteenth-century Italy. The author argues that these deficiencies of modern scholarship stand in need of correction. Editorial Reviews Review "a treasure of Renaissance studies" - Paul Richard Blum, Loyola University Maryland / Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, in: Speculum Vol. 99, No. 1 (2024)
"Edelheit's monograph undoubtedly represents a significant advance in the study of Pico's thought. In this context, it must also be said that it is based on a precise analysis of sources (many of them newly discovered). There is no doubt that it will transform the hitherto constructed portrait of Pico as a Renaissance humanist, philosopher, and mystic. Therefore, it can be useful for all scholars who are interested in the field of medieval and Renaissance culture and philosophy." - Jan Herufek, University of Ostrava, in: About the Author Amos Edelheit, Ph.D. (2007) is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. His main book publications are Ficino, Pico and Savonarola: The Evolution of Humanist Theology 1461/2–1498 (2008), Scholastic Florence: Moral Psychology in the ‘Quattrocento’ (2014), and Humanism, Theology, and Spiritual Crisis in Renaissance Florence: Giovanni Caroli’s ‘Liber dierum lucensium’ (2018).