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Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Abstract

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (c.1463–1494) has long been the subject of study for scholars of the Renaissance and philosophy more generally because of his syncretic philosophy that placed an emphasis on inner contemplation and magical practice. Recently, more focus has been placed on his astrological views and their development. Early in his career, Pico was working in the Neoplatonic framework that was popular in Florence at the time and seemed to accept astrology along with other magical practices it was linked with. Before his death, however, he seemed to reject astrology wholesale with the writing of the Disputations against Astrological Divination. Scholars such as David Barrado Navascués sometimes attribute this rejection to the humanities’ natural tendency to phase out “superstitious beliefs”1; however, similar, though less expansive, views on astrology can be seen in Pico’s earliest work, and it is only after being declared a heretic following the controversy of the Roman debate of the 900 Theses and the beginning of his close companionship with Girolamo Savonarola (c.1452–1498) that we see this supposed shift in belief. This analysis will examine how Pico’s views on astrology remained much the same throughout his career, despite his own intellectual framework shifting rapidly because of religious shock following the Roman debate and the influence of Savonarola.

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