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Sir Thomas More's Life of Pico della Mirandola

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Stanford E. Lehmberg
Stanford E. Lehmberg*
Affiliation:
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
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Extract

Although the importance of Sir Thomas More's Life of John Picus, Earl of Mirandula in the development of the English biography has been noted, historians concerned with More's life and thought have singularly neglected the work. A study of it, however, reveals much of interest concerning More's psychological crisis of 1504, about his attitude towards the papacy, and about his desire to avoid public office.

More's Life of Pico, written in 1504, is not an original work. It is, rather, a translation of a biography written by Pico's nephew, Gianfrancesco Pico, as an introduction to Pico's collected works. More's translation is generally quite literal; he makes, however, a number of omissions and additions, and from these we can gain insight into certain of his own ideas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 3 , 1956 , pp. 61 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1956

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References

1 Stauffer, Donald A., English Biography before 1700 (Cambridge, Mass., 1930), pp. 35–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 More, Cresacre, The Life of Sir Thomas More (London, 1726), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

3 The Workes of Sir Thomas More … in the Englysh Tonge (London, 1557), a.iiiiv; The English Works of Sir Thomas More, ed. W. E. Campbell (London, 1931), I, 359.

4 Johannes Picus Mirandula, Omnia Opera, ed. Johannes Franciscus Picus Mirandula (Bologna, 1496), a viiiir. It has sometimes been assumed, upon grounds which seem to me insufficient, that More worked from the second edition of the Opera (Bologna, 1498). There are no differences between the two editions other than pagination and spelling. All references here will be to tie first edition.

5 English Works (1557), a.iiv; English Works (1931), i, 352.

6 Opera, a iiv.

7 Ibid., a iir–a iiv.

8 The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, ed. E. F. Rogers (Princeton, 1947), pp. 498–499. An account of More's conversation with Henry VIII is in Roper, William, The Life of Sir Thomas More, ed. Hitchcock, E. V. (EETS, OS 197, London, 1935), pp. 67–68.Google Scholar

9 Opera, a viiv-a viiir.

10 English Works (1557), a.iiiv-a.iiiir; English Works (1931), i, 357.

11 English Works (1557), a.iiiiv; English Works (1931), i, 359.

12 English Works (1557), a.vir; English Works (1931), i, 364-365; Pico, Opera, RR iiiv.

13 English Works (1557), a.viiv-a.viiir; English Works (1931), i, 370; Pico, Opera, TT vir-VV ir.

14 Allen, P. S., ed., Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami (Oxford, 1906-1947), iv, 15.Google Scholar Translation from Nichols, F. M., The Epistles of Erasmus (London, 1901-1918), iii, 390–391.Google Scholar

15 Quoted in Stapleton, Thomas, The Life … of Sir Thomas More, translated by Hallett, P. E. (London, 1928), p. 78.Google Scholar

16 Utopia, translated by G. C. Richards (Oxford, 1923), p. 7.

17 Pico, Opera, a ir.

18 English Works (1557), a.ir-a.iv; English Works (1931), i, 349.

19 Pico, Opera, a xir.

20 English Works (1557), a.vv; English Works (1931), i, 362.

21 It was not printed until 1510, when John Rastell published an authorized and Wynkyn de Worde a pirated edition. This fact has caused considerable confusion in dating More's actual work of translation.

22 Pico, Opera, a iir.

23 Ibid., a viiv.

24 Ibid., a xr.

25 Ibid., a iiir-a vir.

26 Ibid., a iiiiv.

27 Ibid., a vr. The references are, of course, to the physical theories of the ancient philosophers. Thales thought that water was the most important of the four elements; Heraclitus held that it was fire; Democritus had an atomic theory of sorts.

28 English Works (1557), a.iiv-a.iiir; English Works (1931), i, 353-354.

29 English Works (1557), a.iiiiv; English Works (1931), i, 359.

30 Pico, Opera, a viiir.

31 Ibid., a viiv.

32 Ibid., a xr.

33 English Works (1557), a.iiir; English Works (1931), I, 355.

34 Pico, Opera, a viir.

35 Ibid., second leaf (no signature).

36 Rogers, , Correspondence, p. 10.Google Scholar

37 Reed, A. W., introduction to English Works (1931), i, 19.Google Scholar