Opera Novissima Accurate Revisa by Pic de la Mirandole - 15 niais 1504

First Strasbourg edition, very complete and revised, presenting the complete works of Pico della Mirandola, condemned by the Pope as a heretic in 1487.

Muller, II, no. 24; Adams, P-1130; Schmidt, Prüss, no. 43; BM STC German, 695; VD16: P2578; Einbanddatenbank: fers s024549 and s024550, workshop w003046.

It includes the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinicatrium which was not published until after his death.

In it Pico severely condemns the practices of the astrologers of his time and undermines the intellectual foundations of astrology itself.

Born near Modena in 1463, John Pico della Mirandola, a precocious child gifted with an amazing memory, studied Latin and Greek at a very young age and was destined by his mother to the Church. When his mother died suddenly in 1479, Pico began to study philosophy in Ferrara. In Florence he met Politian and Savonarola.

It was in Paris that Pico began writing his 900 Theses and conceived the idea of defending them in a public debate.

In 1486, back in Florence, he met Lorenzo de Medici and Marsilio Ficino, the same day that the latter finished his translation of Plato's works into Latin, under Lorenzo's enthusiastic patronage. Both were captivated by Pico's charm. Laurent, until the day of his death, will support and protect Pico.

He finishes his Discourse on the dignity of the man, which he proposes to annex to his 900 Theses, then he goes to Rome to follow up his project to defend them. He had them published in Rome in December 1486 under the title Conclusiones philosophicae, cabalasticae et theologicae and offered to pay the expenses of any scholar who would come to Rome to debate them publicly. In February 1487, Pope Innocent VIII forbade the proposed debate, and appointed a commission to verify the orthodoxy of the theses. Although Pico answered the accusations against them, thirteen of them were condemned. Pico committed himself in writing to withdraw them, but did not change his opinion as to their validity, and undertook, in order to defend them, to write an Apology (Apologia J. Pici Mirandolani, Concordiae comitis, published in 1489), which he dedicated to Lorenzo. Informed of the circulation of this manuscript, the Pope instituted a tribunal of Inquisition, forcing Pico to renounce the Apology as well, which he once again agreed to do.

Nevertheless, the Pope declared his theses unorthodox: "They are partly heretical, and partly smack of heresy".

Pico della Mirandola was one of the most significant figures of the 15th century, a time of upheaval and transition. Desiring to make a synthesis of Aristotle and Plato from the Christian faith or to reconcile liberal arts, moral philosophy and theology, founder of the philosophical cabal of the Renaissance, he was thus considered as heretic by the Pope Innocent VIII.

G. Peignot in his bibliography of the principal books condemned to fire (Paris 1806) analyzes the "Theses on all the objects of science", (Theses de omni re scibili) of Pico della Mirandola considered as heretical by the Pope Innocent VIII (p. 38).

"After having these theses examined by commissioners, the pope censored thirteen of the propositions. One of these commissioners, when asked what was meant by the word 'cabal' against which he railed so much, replied that it was a heretic who had written against Jesus Christ and that his followers had been called cabalists by him.

Precious copy, read pen in hand by a scholar of the time, in a rare and beautiful Germanic binding in half sow skin embossed on visible wood edges.

Copy of Heinrich Krebser, with handwritten bookplate and mention of purchase for 15 pounds of silver, including binding, at the top of the title: Est Henrici Krepsheri, emptus 15 a. lb. cum ligatura. It contains abundant marginal annotations in Latin, to which are added underlining, brackets and manicules pointing to important passages.

From the Robert Lenkiewicz occult library (2003, n° 253) sold 22 500 € 19 years ago, then 39 000 € on June 5, 2011, 11 years ago (Ref : Livres précieux, n° 8).