life of john picus earl of mirandola - The Center for Thomas More ...

All cunning and
knowledge in learning
abounded in J. Picus.
J. Picus his own
master
[63]
Wit, memory,
substance, study,
worldly contempt
14 Thomas More’s Life of John Picus
cognition of philosophy; some man hath read the inventions of the
old philosophers, but he hath not been exercised in° the new schools 1 ;
some man hath sought cunning, as well philosophy as divinity, for
praise and vainglory and not for any profit or increase of Christ’s
Church ∆2 . But Picus all these things with equal study hath so received
that they might seem by heaps as a plenteous stream to have flowed
into him. For he was not of the condition of some folk (which to be
excellent in one thing set all other aside) ∆3 but he in all sciences profited
so excellently that which of them soever ye had considered in him,
ye would have thought that he had taken that one for his only study.
And all these things were in him so much the more marvelous in that
he came thereto by himself with the strength of his own wit, ⌐ for the
love of God and profit of His Church, ¬4 without masters; so that we
may say of him that Epicurus the philosopher said of himself, that he
was his own master. 5
⌐ Five Causes that in so Short Time brought him to so Marvellous Cunning.
¬ To the bringing forth of so wonderful effects in so small time,
I consider five causes to have come together: first, an incredible wit;
secondly, a marvellous fast° memory; thirdly, great substance, by the
which, to the buying of his books as well Latin as Greek and other
tongues,¦ he was especially helped. Seven thousand ducats he had laid
out in the gathering together of volumes of all manner of worldly
literature. The fourth cause was his busy and indefatigable study. The
fifth was the contempt or despising 6 of all earthly things.¦
2 exercised in acquainted with / 19 fast gripping, tenacious
¦ 21 More naturally omits Gianfrancesco’s rettulisse mihi memoria repeto…usque ad diem illam , “for I
remember he once told me that up to that day…” (CW 1:320, 321). / 24 More omits two lines
of Latin: Hunc igitur si prisca illa aetas Laconum tempore protulisset, si Aristoteli credimus, divinum illum
virum appellavisset , “If such a man as this had lived in the time of the ancient Spartans, they would
have called him, if we may believe Aristotle, a god-man” (CW 1:320, 321). / 25 More omits ut
arbitror , “I think” (CW 1:320, 321).
1. new schools: Latin nova dogmata , “modern doctrines” (CW 1:318, 319).
∆2. some man hath sought cunning…Christ’s Church: More significantly alters the Latin original—
Scientiae ab altero hominum tantum & humanae gloriae causa, non christianae rei publicae emolumento, &
divinae & humanae, quaesitae sunt, “Another has pursued learning, both human and divine, merely
to gain the favor of men and for the sake of human glory, not in order to benefit the Christian
community” (CW 1:318, 319).
∆3. which…aside: More alters the Latin—qui non aliquo uno excellentes omnium participes sunt, “who
excel in no one branch of learning but know something of all of them” (CW 1:318, 319).
4. for the love…His Church: More substitutes this addition for the Latin & veritatis amore, “and the
love of truth” (CW 1:320–21).
5. As Rigg points out (83), Diogenes Laertius attributes this claim to Epicurus (341–270 BC) in
his Vitae philosophorum (10.13).
6. Both the 1510 and 1525 editions have “contempt dispising”; 1557 reads “contempt or dispising.”
For possible reasons for the difference, see CW 1:218 (s.v. 63/10 dispising).
5
10
15
20
25