Pico's Heptaplus and Biblical Hermeneutics

Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-90-04-15315-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 116, 274 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 245 mm, Gewicht: 644 g

Reihe: Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions

This is the first full-length study of the Heptaplus, the commentary on the creation narrative of Genesis 1 by the celebrated Italian philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. It focuses on Pico’s theory of allegory. This theory was fundamentally dissimilar to mainstream medieval and Renaissance approaches to biblical interpretation. Rather than use the standard four senses of Scripture, Pico adopted an esoteric hermeneutic stance characteristic of Neoplatonic and kabbalistic exegesis, and developed an allegorical theory based on epistemology and the idea of intellectual ascent. The exploration of this theme makes it possible not only to interpret the Heptaplus in relation to Pico’s other works, but also to assess its role as a response to the contemporary philosophical controversy surrounding the intellect.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Black, Crofton

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften Bibelwissenschaften: Sachbuch, Erbauung, Didaktik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
Preface
Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Pico’s Life and Works
2. The Heptaplus in Outline
3. Exegetical Contexts
4. The First Proem: Traditions of Esotericism
5. The Second Proem: Pico’s Cosmic Model and Exegesis as Anagogy
6. Knowledge, Felicitas and Hermeneutics
7. The Beginning and the End: Bereshit and the Sabbath

Appendix to Chapter 7

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Crofton Black read English and Classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and completed his Ph.D. in 2004 at the Warburg Institute, London. He has also worked as a translator and cataloguer of Latin and Arabic manuscripts.