The life of pico della mirandola
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Thomas More
- Bibliographic Note
- PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA By Walter Pater
| THE LIFE OF PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA By his Nephew Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola
Translated by Thomas More Edited with introduction and notes by J. M. Rigg
With an introductory essay by Walter Pater
Published by the Ex-classics Project, 2011 http://www.exclassics.com Public Domain
PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA -2-
CONTENTS
Bibliographic Note .................................................................................................... 3 Pico Della Mirandola By Walter Pater....................................................................... 4 Title Page Of 1890 Edition .......................................................................................12 Introduction. By J. M. Rigg ......................................................................................13 The Life Of Pico Della Mirandola ............................................................................31 Dedication................................................................................................................32 The Life Of Giovanni Pico, Earl Of Mirandola. ........................................................33 Three Letters Written By Pico Della Mirandola........................................................45 The Interpretation Of Giovanni Pico Upon This Psalm Conserva Me Domine. .........54 Pico's Twelve Rules .................................................................................................59 Pico's Twelve Weapons Of Spiritual Battle...............................................................64 Pico's Twelve Properties Or Conditions Of A Lover.................................................68 A Prayer Of Pico Mirandola Unto God. ....................................................................74 Notes........................................................................................................................77
THOMAS MORE et al.
-3- Bibliographic Note
The Life of Pico Della Mirandola was originally written in Latin by his nephew Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and translated into English by Thomas More in 1504. This Ex-Classics version is taken from an edition edited with introduction and notes by J. M. Rigg, published by David Nutt in 1890. The spelling has been modernised.
The essay by Walter Pater is from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (1873).
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By Walter Pater
No account of the Renaissance can be complete without some notice of the attempt made by certain Italian scholars of the fifteenth century to reconcile Christianity with the religion of ancient Greece. To reconcile forms of sentiment which at first sight seem incompatible, to adjust the various products of the human mind to each other in one many-sided type of intellectual culture, to give humanity, for heart and imagination to feed upon, as much as it could possibly receive, belonged to the generous instincts of that age. An earlier and simpler generation had seen in the gods of Greece so many malignant spirits, the defeated but still living centres of the religion of darkness, struggling, not always in vain, against the kingdom of light. Little by little, as the natural charm of pagan story reasserted itself over minds emerging out of barbarism, the religious significance which had once belonged to it was lost sight of, and it came to be regarded as the subject of a purely artistic or poetical treatment. But it was inevitable that from time to time minds should arise, deeply enough impressed by its beauty and power to ask themselves whether the religion of Greece was indeed a rival of the religion of Christ; for the older gods had rehabilitated themselves, and men's allegiance was divided. And the fifteenth century was an impassioned age, so ardent and serious in its pursuit of art that it consecrated everything with which art had to do as a religious object. The restored Greek literature had made it familiar, at least in Plato, with a style of expression concerning the earlier gods, which had about it much of the warmth and unction of a Christian hymn. It was too familiar with such language to regard mythology as a mere story; and it was too serious to play with a religion.
"Let me briefly remind the reader"--says Heine, in the Gods in Exile, an essay full of that strange blending of sentiment which is characteristic of the traditions of the middle age concerning the pagan religions--"how the gods of the older world, at the time of the definite triumph of Christianity, that is, in the third century, fell into painful embarrassments, which greatly resembled certain tragical situations of their earlier life. They now found themselves beset by the same troublesome necessities to which they had once before been exposed during the primitive ages, in that revolutionary epoch when the Titans broke out of the custody of Orcus, and, piling Pelion on Ossa, scaled Olympus. Unfortunate Gods! They had then to take flight ignominiously, and hide themselves among us here on earth, under all sorts of disguises. The larger number betook themselves to Egypt, where for greater security they assumed the forms of animals, as is generally known. Just in the same way, they had to take flight again, and seek entertainment in remote hiding-places, when those iconoclastic zealots, the black brood of monks, broke down all the temples, and pursued the gods with fire and curses. Many of these unfortunate emigrants, now entirely deprived of shelter and ambrosia, must needs take to vulgar handicrafts, as a means of earning their bread. Under these circumstances, many whose sacred groves had been confiscated, let themselves out for hire as wood-cutters in Germany, and were forced to drink beer instead of nectar. Apollo seems to have been content to take Yüklə 0,59 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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