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