‎Frantz Funck-Brentano‎
‎LA RENAISSANCE.‎

‎Manuel d'archéologie française depuis les temps mérovingiens jusqu'à la Renaissance - Tome 1 : Architecture religieuse : Première partie : Périodes mérovingienne, carolingienne et romane - Seconde partie : Période française dite gothique, style flamboyante, Renaissance - Troisième partie : Table alphabétique et analytique des matières, par Rémy Delauney -‎

‎ Paris : Auguste Picard, 1919, 1920, 1924 - Deuxième édition revue et corrigée - trois volumes in-8 brochés sous couvertures imprimées et illustrées, 937 et 182 pages illustrées de 455 reproductions photographiques et gravures dans et hors texte en noir - ensemble complet en bon état ‎

‎Museum of Renaissance Music. A History in 100 Exhibits‎

‎, Brepols - Harvey Miller, 2023 Paperback Pages: 532 pages,Size:230 x 280 mm, Illustrations:250 col., 6 musical examples, Language(s):English. ISBN 9782503588568.‎

‎ history of Renaissance music told through 100 artefacts, revealing their witness to the priorities and activities of people in the past as they addressed their world through music. SUBJECT(S) Renaissance Music (c. 1400-1600) Material culture Renaissance art history REVIEW(S) "Like a veritable pop-up book, The Museum of Renaissance Music surprises its readers with the multidimensional quality of its content. Presenting a hundred diverse objects organized in different themed rooms, Borghetti and Shephard?s volume offers readers the experience of walking through an imaginary museum where objects ?speak out? their complex web of allusion connecting texts, images and sounds. A veritable tour de force, this book brings history, art history, and musicology together to highlight the pervasive nature of music in Renaissance culture, and does so in a direct and effective manner that can be enjoyed by experts and amateurs alike." Martina Bagnoli, Gallerie Estensi, Modena "With imaginative verve, The Museum of Renaissance Music contributes to a current explosion of material studies whose cacophony remakes our understanding of the Renaissance via ?history by collage,? in this case understanding Renaissance musicking through the spatial affordances of the gallery with its multitude of ?rooms? (travels, psalters, domestic objects, instruments, and much more), rather than through the traditional edited collection. The results are mesmerizing, indispensable." Martha Feldman, University of Chicago "This imaginary museum of Renaissance music, through a collection of one hundred exhibits, returns a proper share of sonority to objects, images, artworks and spaces. A fascinating reference book, offering a transformative vision of music in Renaissance culture, from domestic space to the global dimension." Diane Bodart, Columbia University, New York "The high-quality reproductions together with the knowledgeable commentaries are a treat for the eyes and mind of the reader. An entirely new type of music history book, this wonderful volume will appeal to scholars, music lovers, and students alike." Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt BIO Vincenzo Borghetti is Associate Professor of Music History at the University of Verona. He holds a doctorate in musicology from the University of Pavia-Cremona and in 2007?08 was a fellow of Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Renaissance Italian Studies in Florence. His research interests are centred on Renaissance polyphony and opera. His essays and articles have appeared in Early Music History, Acta musicologica, Journal of the Alamire Foundation, and Imago Musicae, among other journals, and in several edited collections. In 2019 he was elected to the Academia Europaea. Tim Shephard is Professor of Musicology at the University of Sheffield. He is the co-author of Music in the Art of Renaissance Italy (Harvey Miller, 2020), as well as numerous other books and essays on Italian musical culture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He currently leads the project ?Sounding the Bookshelf 1501: Musical Knowledge in a Year of Italian Printed Books?, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. SUMMARY This book collates 100 exhibits with accompanying essays as an imaginary museum dedicated to the musical cultures of Renaissance Europe, at home and in its global horizons. It is a history through artefacts?materials, tools, instruments, art objects, images, texts, and spaces?and their witness to the priorities and activities of people in the past as they addressed their world through music. The result is a history by collage, revealing overlapping musical practices and meanings?not only those of the elite, but reflecting the everyday cacophony of a diverse culture and its musics. Through the lens of its exhibits, this museum surveys music?s central role in culture and lived experience in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe, offering interest and insights well beyond the strictly musicological field. TABLE OF CONTENTS ? I. The Room of Devotions Introduction (Matthew Laube) 1 Silence (Barbara Baert) 2 Virgin and Child with Angels (M. Jennifer Bloxam) 3 Madonna of Humility (Beth Williamson) 4 Virgin Annunciate (Marina Nordera) 5 The Prato "Haggadah" (Eleazar Gutwirth) 6 The Musicians of the Holy Church, Exempt from Tax (Geoffrey Baker) 7 A Devotional Song from Iceland ( rni Heimir Ing lfsson) 8 Alabaster Altarpiece (James Cook, Andrew Kirkman, Zuleika Murat, and Philip Weller) 9 The Mass of St Gregory (Bernadette Nelson) Psalters 10 Bernardino de Sahag n?s "Psalmodia christiana" (Lorenzo Candelaria) 11 The "??????????" of Abgar Dpir Tokhatetsi (Ortensia Giovannini) 12 A Printed Hymnal by Jacobus Finno (Sanna Raninen) 13 "The Whole Booke of Psalmes" (Jonathan Willis) ? II. The Room of Domestic Objects Introduction (Paul Schleuse) 14 Commonplace Book (Kate van Orden) 15 Knife (Flora Dennis) 16 Playing Cards (Katelijne Schiltz) 17 Cabinet of Curiosities (Franz K rndle) 18 Table (Katie Bank) 19 Statue (Laura Moretti) 20 Valance (Katherine Butler) 21 Painting (Camilla Cavicchi) 22 Fan (Flora Dennis) 23 Tapestry (Carla Zecher) Sensualities 24 Venus (Tim Shephard) 25 Sirens (Eugenio Refini) 26 Death and the Maiden (Katherine Butler) 27 Erotokritos Sings a Love Song to Aretousa (Alexandros Maria Hatzikiriakos) ? III. The Room of Books Introduction (Elisabeth Giselbrecht) 28 Chansonnier of Margaret of Austria (Vincenzo Borghetti) 29 The Constance Gradual (Marianne C.E. Gillion) 30 The Bible of Borso d?Este (Serenella Sessini) 31 The Jistebnice Cantionale (Lenka Hl vkov ) 32 The Saxilby Fragment (Lisa Colton and James Cook) 33 "Le Jardin de Plaisance et Fleur de Rh torique" (Jane H. M. Taylor) 34 "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" (Massimo Privitera) 35 Embroidered Partbooks (Birgit Lodes) 36 "Grande Musicque" Typeface (Louisa Hunter-Bradley) 37 Coat of Arms of Matth us Lang von Wellenburg (Elisabeth Giselbrecht) 38 The Eton Choirbook (Magnus Williamson) 39 "Liber Quindecim Missarum" (Pawe? Gancarczyk) 40 "Les simulachres & histori es faces de la mort" (Katelijne Schiltz) Imagined Spaces 41 The Musical Staff (Jane Alden) 42 Deduit?s Garden (Sylvia Huot) 43 Arcadia (Giuseppe Gerbino) 44 Heaven (Laura ?tef?nescu) ? IV. The Room of Instruments Introduction (Emanuela Vai) 45 Lady Playing the Vihuela da Mano (David R. M. Irving) 46 Double Virginals (Moritz Kelber) 47 Horn from Allg u (Martin Kirnbauer) 48 Inventory after the Death of Madame Montcuyt (Emily Peppers) 49 Girl Playing the Virginals (Laura S. Ventura Nieto) 50 Vihuela (John Griffiths) 51 Bagpipes (John J. Thompson) 52 K s (Kate van Orden) ? V. The Room of Sacred Spaces Introduction (David Fiala) 53 The Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, Florence (Giovanni Zanovello) 54 Hauptkirche Beatae Mariae Virginis, Wolfenb ttel (Inga Mai Groote) 55 A Sow Playing the Organ (Mattias Lundberg) 56 Ceiling with the Muses and Apollo (Tim Shephard) 57 St Katherine?s Convent Church, Augsburg (Barbara Eichner) 58 Misericord (Fr d ric Billiet) 59 The Chapel of King Sigismund, Wawel Cathedral, Krakow (Pawe? Gancarczyk) 60 The Bell Founder?s Window, York Minster (Lisa Colton) 61 Organ Shutters from the Cathedral of Ferrara (Sophia D?Addio) 62 The Cathedral of St James, ?ibenik (Ennio Stip?evi?) 63 The Funeral Monument of the Princess of boli (Iain Fenlon) ? VI. The Room of the Public Sphere Introduction (Robert L. Kendrick) 64 Street Music from Barcelona (Tess Knighton) 65 African Musicians at the King?s Fountain in Lisbon (Nuno de Mendon a Raimundo) 66 Songs for Hanukkah and Purim from Venice (Diana Matut) 67 A Tragedy from Ferrara (Laurie Stras) 68 A Bosnian Gravestone (Zdravko Bla?ekovi?) 69 Morris Dancers from Germany (Anne Daye) 70 A Princely Wedding in D sseldorf (Klaus Pietschmann) Cities 71 Mexico City ? Tenochtitlan (Javier Mar n-L pez) 72 Dijon (Gretchen Peters) 73 Milan (Daniele V. Filippi) 74 Munich (Alexander J. Fisher) Travels 75 The Travels of Pierre Belon du Mans (Carla Zecher) 76 Aflatun Charms the Wild Animals with the Music of the Arghanun (Jonathan Katz) 77 Granada in Georg Braun?s "Civitates Orbis Terrarum" (Ascensi n Mazuela-Anguita) 78 News from the Island of Japan (Kathryn Bosi) ? VII. The Room of Experts Introduction (Jessie Ann Owens) 79 Will of John Dunstaple, Esquire (Lisa Colton) 80 Portrait Medal of Ludwig Senfl (Birgit Lodes) 81 Zampolo dalla Viola Petitions Duke Ercole I d?Este (Bonnie J. Blackburn) 82 A Diagram from the Mubarak Shah Commentary (Jeffrey Levenberg) 83 Cardinal Bessarion?s Manuscript of Ancient Greek Music Theory (Eleonora Rocconi) 84 The Analogy of the Nude (Antonio Cascelli) 85 The Music Book of Martin Crusius (Inga Mai Groote) 86 The World on a Crab?s Back (Katelijne Schiltz) 87 Juan del Encina?s "Gasaj monos de huz a" (Emilio Ros-F bregas) 88 Josquin de Prez?s "Missa Philippus Rex Castilie" (Vincenzo Borghetti) 89 The Elite Singing Voice (Richard Wistreich) ? VIII. The Room of Revivals Introduction (David Yearsley) 90 Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Martin Elste) 91 Dolmetsch?s Spinet (Jessica L. Wood) 92 Assassin?s Creed: Ezio Trilogy (Karen M. Cook) 93 "Christophorus Columbus: Para sos Perdidos" (Donald Greig) 94 A Palestrina Contrafactum ? Samantha Bassler 447 95 St Sepulchre Chapel, St Mary Magdalene, London (Ayla Lepine) 96 The Singing Fountain in Prague (Scott Lee Edwards) 97 Liebig Images of "Die Meistersinger von N rnberg" (Gundula Kreuzer) 98 Das Chorwerk (Pamela M. Potter) 99 "Ode to a Screw" (Vincenzo Borghetti) 100 Wax Figure of Anne Boleyn (Linda Phyllis Austern) Notes on Contributors 477 Bibliography 487‎

‎Antwerp in the Renaissance‎

‎, Brepols - Harvey Miller, 2020 Hardcover, 315 pages ., 19 b/w ill. + 49 colour ill., 4 b/w tables, 178 x 254 mm,. ISBN 9782503588339.‎

‎Antwerp in the Renaissance offers new research results and fresh perspectives on the economic, cultural, and social history of the Antwerp metropolis in the sixteenth century. This book engages with Antwerp in the Renaissance. Bringing together several specialists of sixteenth-century Antwerp, it offers new research results and fresh perspectives on the economic, cultural and social history of the metropolis in the sixteenth century. Recurrent themes are the creative ways in which the Italian renaissance was translated in the Antwerp context. Imperfect imitation often resulted from the specific social context in which the renaissance was translated: Antwerp was a metropolis marked by a strong commercial ideology, a high level affluence and social inequality, but also by the presence of large and strong middling layers, which contributed to the city?s ?bourgeois? character. The growth of the Antwerp market was remarkable: in no time the city gained metropolitan status. This book does a good job in showing how quite a few of the Antwerp ?achievements? did result from the absence of ?existing structures? and ?examples?. Moreover, the city and its culture were given shape by the many frictions, and uncertainties that came along with rapid urban growth and religious turmoil. Bruno Blond and Jeroen Puttevils are colleagues at the Centre for Urban History at the University of Antwerp. The research fields of Blond include the history of transportation, economic growth and social inequality, material culture, retail and consumption of the early modern Low Countries. Puttevils works on the late medieval Low Countries and deals with topics such as mercantile and financial culture, the history of lotteries and how people thought about the future in the past. Table of Contents Antwerp in the Renaissance Bruno Blond and Jeroen Puttevils Sixteenth-Century Antwerp, a Hyper-Market for All? The Case of Low Countries Merchants Jeroen Puttevils Antwerp Commercial Law in the Sixteenth Century: A Product of the Renaissance? The Legal Facilitating, Appropriating and Improving of Mercantile Practices Dave De Ruysscher Brotherhood of Artisans. The Disappearance of Confraternal Friendship and the Ideal of Equality in the Long Sixteenth CenturyBruno Blond and Jeroen Puttevils Sixteenth-Century Antwerp, a Hyper-Market for All? The Case of Low Countries Merchants Jeroen Puttevils Antwerp Commercial Law in the Sixteenth Century: A Product of the Renaissance? The Legal Facilitating, Appropriating and Improving of Mercantile Practices Dave De Ruysscher Brotherhood of Artisans. The Disappearance of Confraternal Friendship and the Ideal of Equality in the Long Sixteenth Century Bert De Munck ?And Thus the Brethren Shall Meet All Together?. Active Participation in Antwerp Confraternities, c. 1375?1650 Hadewijch Masure A Renaissance Republic? Antwerp?s urban militia, ?the military Renaissance? and structural changes in warfare, c. 1566?c. 1621 Erik Swart A Counterfeit Community. Rederijkers, Festive Culture and Print in Renaissance Antwerp Anne-Laure Van Bruaene Literary Renaissance in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp? Herman Pleij Building the Metropolis Krista De Jonge, Piet Lombaerde, and Petra Maclot The City Portrayed. Patterns of Continuity and Change in the Antwerp Renaissance City View Jelle De Rock Trial and error. Antwerp Renaissance art Koenraad Jonckheere Silks and the ?Golden Age? of Antwerp ‎

‎Libri Paraphraseos. In Posteriora Aristotelis. In Physica. In libros de Anima. In commentarios de Memoria & Reminiscentia. De Somno & Vigilia. De Insomniis. De Diuinatione per Somnum. Interprete Hermolao Barbaro... - [A KEY PUBLICATION OF THE RENAISSANCE]‎

‎[On the final colophon:] Venice, Bartholomeus de de Zanis for Octavianus Scotus, 1499. [at the end of first leaf and of each section: Vale. Venetiis. 1480, except for the second last (de Insoniis, which says: Vale. Venetiis. 1478). Small folio. Nice, elegant late 18th century half calf. Binding with a few traces of wear. A very nice, clean, and fresh copy with just a bit of light dampstaining to upper margin of about 20 leaves. Numerous pretty, woodcut initials throughout. Woodcut printer's devise to colophon. Last leaves with tiny, barely noticeable wormhole. Contemporary handwritten inscription to title-page: ""Ex libris advocati Dunis = 1480"". (1), 115 ff. (pagination erroneous at end: 113, 116, 114). Without final blank.‎

‎The very rare second printing of Ermolao Barbaro's seminal Latin translation of Themistios' paraphrases of Aristotle's ""Posterior Analytics"", ""Physics"", ""De Anima"", ""On Memory"", and ""On Dreams"", a groundbreaking key text of the Renaissance, ""which opened a new period in the interpretation of the Greek philosopher [i.e. Aristotle]"" (Lohr, p. 25). The work was partly responsible for the development of Renaissance Aristotelianism and thus Renaissance thought in general. The combination of the fact that we here have the paraphrases by one of the greatest ancient Greek commentators of the key texts of the most significant philosopher of all times, rendered into Latin by perhaps the most significant translator of the period and printed at the most crucial time for the development of early modern thought, makes this one of the most significant philosophical publications of the Renaissance. There can be no doubt as to the influence that the present publication came to have on the development Renaissance philosophy. ""The publication of Barbaro's translation of Themistius inaugurated a new period in the study of Aristotelian philosophy. In his version of Themistius' ""Paraphrases"" we encounter not simply a translation occasioned by contemporary controversies, as was often the case in the Middle Ages. Rather, Barbaro's version brings together a corpus of the commentaries of Themistius on Aristotelian philosophy: the ""Posterior Analytis"", ""Physics"", ""De anima"" and ""Parva naturalia"". (Lohr, p. 26).The first printing of the work appeared in 1480 (the same year stated at the end of each section in the present edition), and in 1499 this second printing appeared. Both printings are of the utmost scarcity and almost impossible to find. After these two incunable-editions, at least 9 new printings appeared before 1560, bearing witness to the great impact of the text, and in 1570 Hieronymus Scotos printed a new edition. ""With reference to those works of Aristotle which were and remained the center of instruction in logic and natural philosophy [i.e. The Posterior Analytics, Physics, etc.], the most important changes derived from the fact that the works of the ancient Greek commentators became completely available in Latin between the late fifteenth and the end of the sixteenth centuries and were more and more used to balance the interpretations of the medieval Arabic and Latin commentators. The Middle ages had known their works only in a very limited selection or through quotations in Averroes. Ermolao Barbaro's complete translation of Themistius and Girolamo Donato's version of Alexander's ""De Anima"" were among the most important ones in a long line of others. When modern historians speak of Alexandrism as a current within Renaissance Aristotelianism that was opposed to Averroism, they are justified in part by the fact that the Greek commentators, that is, Alexander and also Themistius, Simplicius, and many others, were increasingly drawn upon for the exposition of Aristotle."" (Kristeller, p. 45).""Equally important [as the recovery of Aristotle's ""Mechanics"" and ""Poetics""] for the continued growth of the Peripatetic synthesis was the recovery and diffusion of the Greek commentaries on Aristotle... The most important of the two dozen commentators were Alexander of Aphrodisias, Ammonius, Simplicius, Themistius, and John Philoponus. Of these five, only Alexander and Themistius were Aristotelians..."" (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p.68).Already in the Middle Ages, scholars had been aware of and used commentaries on and paraphrases of the key texts of Aristotle, but their knowledge of this was primarily based on some Latin translations and allusions, fragments, and summaries in the writings of the Muslim philosophers, e.g. Averroes. But with the emergence and translations into Latin of the ancient Greek commentators [Alexander and Themistios being the primary ones] and their paraphrases of Aristotle's texts, the Renaissance came to discover an Aristotle that would influence almost all thought of the period. The ancient Greek commentators not only had a much more thorough knowledge of classical Greek thought than would have been possible for a medieval writer, but they also had access to works that were later lost and through these ancient commentators rediscovered in the Renaissance. By the middle of the 16th century, almost all of these texts had been printed in both Greek and Latin, and these publications were of the utmost importance to the development of almost all Renaissance thought. ""Their recovery, publication, and translation took some time, but almost all circulated in Greek and Latin by the 1530'ies. They do not cover all of Aristotle, but several treat such key texts as the ""Organon"", the ""Physics"", and ""De anima"", thus making them useful ammunition in such controversies as the immortality dispute provoked by Pietro Pomponazzi and his colleagues."" (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p. 69).Among the most important texts in this tradition that influenced all thought of the era, were Themistios' paraphrases of Aristotle's seminal texts, in particular ""De Anima"", ""Posterior Analytics"", and Book Lambda (XII) of the ""Metaphysics"". ""We possess part of his [Themistios'] early work, his ""Paraphrases of Aristotle"", the portion still extant being a somewhat prolix exposition of the ""Later Analytics"", the ""Physics"", the ""De Anima"", and some minor treatises."" His paraphrase of the ""Metaphysics"", Book ""lambda"" [i.e. XII], was translated into Arabic (in century IX), and hence into Hebrew (1255), and Latin (1576)."" (Sandys, I:352).There can be no doubt about the groundbreaking character of Hermolao Barbaro's translation into Latin of almost all of Themistios' paraphrases of Aristotelian texts. Not only was Themistios considered one of the most important renderers of Aristotle's text, but Barbaro was perhaps the most influential translator of the time. His translation of Themistios' paraphrases came to dominate, directly or indirectly, almost all Aristotelian thought of the high Renaissance (from late 15th century) and he was responsible for many of the most important and influential positions on the seminal question of the immortality of the soul that dominated philosophical thought at the time. ""Through the first two-thirds of the fifteenth century, Pomponazzi's predecessors at Padua seem not to have used the ancient commentators, but philosophers of the next generation - most notably Nicoletto Vernia and Agosto Nifo - began to consult them in new translations by Ermolao Barbaro and others. Barbaro's charge that Averroes had lifted his doctrines of the soul from the commentators surely helped excite interest in them."" (Copenhaver & Schmitt p. 69). See: Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and its Sources, 1979" Copenhaver & Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy, 1992" Charles C. Lohr, ""Latin Translations of the Greek Commentaries on Aristotle"", in: Humanism and Early Modern Philosophy, Edt. byKraye and Stone, 2000.Graesse VII:112 (erroneously stating 1491 in stead of 1499)" Brunet V:778 Hain-Copinger: 15464.‎

‎De Rerum Praenotatione libri novem. Pro veritate religionis/ contra superstittiosas vanitates editi. [Opera aurea & bracteata / Liber imaginatinis]. + Hymni Heroici tres. Ad sanctissimam trinitatem, ad Christum, et ad Virginem Mariam, una cum commenta... - [A MONUMENT OF RENAISSANCE SCEPTICISM]‎

‎Strassburg, Knobloch, 1506-7 + 1511 4to. Bound in one very nice full mottled calf binding from ab. 1800, with five raised bands to richly gilt spine. A bit of wear to extremities. Occasional browning, but all in all very nice and clean. 289 ff (without the white blanks) + (4), xcvi, (7), (4, -index & errata).‎

‎Scarce first edition of Giovanni Francesco Pico's seminal ""Opera"", issued by Pico himself, in which some of his most important works appear for the first time, e.g. ""De Rerum Praenotatione"", ""De fide ordine"" and the ""Staurostichon"" as well as his translation of Justin the Martyr's ""Admonitio"", here bound with the highly important second edition of the ""Hymni heroici tres"". The present publication occupies a central place in the development of Renaissance thought. Through the ""Opera"" of Pico, skepticism came to play a dominant role in the development of early modern thought. ""Telesio, Bruno, Galileo, and others also employed the same arguments which Pico had brought to the consciousness of Renaissance Europe. Gianfrancesco Pico's skeptical techniques did not die with him, but lived on to produce a tangible, recognizable influence on the intellectual ambience of early modern Europe."" (Schmitt, p. 7). This seminal ""Opera"", published 13 years before the publication of Pico's magnum opus (""Examen Vanitatis"") and 26 years before his death, is of the utmost importance to the development of Pico's thought and to the development of Renaissance thought in general - ""a study on the philosophy of Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola would furnish an important addition to our knowledge of the philosophy of the Italian Renaissance"" (Schmitt, p. (VII)). The many important works in the present publication are known under the joint title ""Opera aurea & bracteata"" or ""Liber imaginationis"". The publication is made up of 9 parts, all of which were also intended for separate sale (and which all have separate paginations). The works included are: ""De rerum praenotatione etc."", ""De fide et ordine credenda"", ""De morte Christi & propria cogitanda libri tres"", ""De studio divinae & humanae philosophiae, libri duo"", ""De imaginatione"", ""Vita Io. Pici patrui. Eiusdem de uno & ente/ defensio & alia quaepiam"", ""Epistolarum libri quattuor "", the translation of Justini's "" Admonitio "" - together with ""Saurostichon/de mysterijs Germaniae Heroico carmine"" and ""Expositio tex. decreti de con. dis.ii. Hilarii"", and then follows "" Ad lectorum "" - 6 of the works here are FIRST PRINTINGS. The second edition of the ""Hymni heroici"" is of the utmost scarcity. It originally appeared in 1507, but only the second edition also contains Pico's famous poem ""Staurosticon"".This magnificent collection of works by ""the first modern sceptic"" and ""the only serious student of Sextus before the middle of the sixteenth century"" (Copenhaver & Schmitt) constitutes a milestone in Renaissance thought. The seminal work ""De rerum praenotatione"", which appears here for the first time, is among the most important that Pico wrote. It constitutes a fierce attack upon superstition, and a defense of the true religious truths - theories that underpin ALL of his later thought and are of fundamental importance to his later works, including the ""Examen"". ""This is a lengthy work (second in length only to the ""Examen Vanitatis"" among Pico's works) against pretended modes of prophesy. It is of the same genre as Giovanni Pico's work against astrology and is dedicated to the author's cousin and protector, Alberto Pio. It was first printed in the ""opera"" of 1506-07… There is no substantial portion of the work extant in manuscript."" (Schmitt, p. 192). The ""de fide et ordine"", which also appears here for the first time, is likewise one of Pico's significant works, although not as philosophical as the previous work. ""This is a work of medium length, principally theological, but of some philosophical importance. It was dedicated to Pope Julius II in the first printed edition of 1506-07"" (Schmitt, pp. 193-94).The ""Staurostichon"" is Pico's most famous poem, dedicated to Emperor Maximilian. In spite of the few pages it takes up, it has been the subject of much debate and interpretation throughout the centuries. Apparently ""[t]he extant manuscript seems to have been made after the first printed edition [i.e. the present]."" (Schmitt, p. 196).Pico's translation of the ""Admonitio"" (which is no longer attributed to Justin the Martyr) is of great importance. ""The first printing of the translation, which is dedicated to Zanobi Acciaiuoli, was in the ""opera"" of 1506-07. It was often reprinted, remaining a standard translation for most of the sixteenth century."" (Schmitt, p. 200). The four books of Pico's letters are also printed here for the first time. ""In the three editions of the ""Opera"" are printed four books of letters. These were prepared for the edition of 1506-07 and were reprinted with few additions in the later editions. Consequently, it seems that the bulk of Pico's personal letters written after 1505 have not come down to us."" (Schmitt, p. 200). Giovanni Francesco [Gianfranceso] Pico della Mirandola (1470-1533), not to be confused with his uncle Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) was a highly important Renaissance thinker and philosopher, who was strongly influenced by the Neoplatonic tradition, but even more so by the preaching of Girolamo Savonarola, whose thought he defended throughout his life. Just like his uncle, Gianfrancesco Pico devoted his life to philosophy, but being a follower of Savonarola and having a Christian mission, he made it subject to the Bible. He even depreciated the authority of the philosophers, above all of Aristotle. ""At the very beginning of the 16th century, Gian Francesco Pico, the nephew of Pico della Mirandola, had predicted the final failure of all attempts at reconciliation of the different philosophical movements. Gian Francesco Pico was a thinker of very considerable stature and a follower of Savonarola. There was a touch of tragedy about his personality. For his life was suspended, as it were, between the scaffold of Savonarola and incessant family feuds - in the course of one of which he was finally killed. No wonder that he borrowed from the scepticism of Sextus Empiricus in order to destroy philosophy to make more room for religion."" (Garin, p. 133). Gianfr. Pico, a learned scholar and apt reader of classical texts, was the first Renaissance thinker that we know to have seriously studied and used the works of Sextus Empiricus, which were not printed until the 1560'ies, causing a revolution in Renaissance thinking. ""The printing of Sextus in the 1560s opened a new era in the history of scepticism, which had begun in the late fourth century BCE with the teachings of Pyrrho of Elis. [...] Before the Estienne and Hervet editions, Sextus seems to have had only two serious students, Gianfrancesco Pico at the turn of the century and Francesco Robortello about fifty years later."" (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 240-41). ""No significant use of Pyrrhonian ideas prior to the printing of Sextus' ""Hypotyposes"" has turned up, except for that of Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola [...] His writings may seem isolated from the main development of modern skepticism that began with the publication of the Latin translations and modernized formulation of ancient scepticism offered by Michel de Montaigne. However, they represent a most curious use of skepticism that reappears in the early seventeenth century with Joseph Mede and John Dury and the followers of Jacob Boehme and in the early eighteenth century in the writings of the Chevalier Ramsay, the first patron of David Hume, to fortify or justify prophetic knowledge."" (Popkin, p. 20). Gianfr. Pico develops his sceptical arguments to their fullest extent in his ""Examen"" (1520), which is considered his main work. However, the foundation of all these ideas are laid in his earlier works, all the significant of which are present here, in his seminal ""Opera""-collection. Together, they constitute the earliest printed testimonies to the use of scepticism and a premonition of the role that scepticism came to play in Renaissance thought, primarily after the first printings of Sextus in the 1560'ies. ""The revival of ancient philosophy was particularly dramatic in the case of scepticism. This critical and anti-dogmatic way of thinking was quite important in Antiquity, but in the Middle Ages its influence faded [...] when the works of Sextus and Diogenes were recovered and read alongside texts as familiar as Cicero's ""Academia"", a new energy stirred in philosophy"" by Montaigne's time, scepticism was powerful enough to become a major force in the Renaissance heritage prepared for Descartes and his successors."" (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 17-18).""Throughout the early modern period, from Ficino and Pico to Newton and Leibniz, such convictions supported a pattern of historiography that could never have emerged without the humanists, even though it did not preserve their fame for modern times. Other myths of classicism and Christianity outlived the fable of ancient theology because they conflicted less flagrantly with the findings of historyThe purpose of the ancient theology was to sanctify learning by connecting it with a still more ancient source of gentile wisdom that reinforces sacred revelation. Rather than baptize the heathens as Ficino or the older Pico wished, some early modern critics damned them, and one of the most aggressive thinkers of this school was the younger Pico. He saw an impassable gulf between Christian and pagan belief where his uncle had tried to build bridges."" (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p. 337). Schmitt Appendix Section I: nrs. 4, 13, 14, 26, 50"51 Section II: nr.11See:Charles B. Schmitt: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (1469-1533) and his critique of Aristotle. 1967.Copenhaver & Schmitt: Renaissance Philosophy. 1992.Eugenio Garin: Italian Humanism. Philosophy and Civic Life in the Renaissance. Translated by Peter Munz. 1965.Richard H. Popkin: The History of Scepticism. From Savonarola to Bayle. 2003.‎