See CORVUS, ORNITHOLOGY Index.

Pica Marina. See HEMATOPUS, and ALCA, ORNITHOLOGY Index.

in Medicine, a depravation of appetite, which makes the patient long for what is unfit for food, or incapable of nourishing; as chalk, ashes, coals, plasterlime, &c. See MEDICINE Index.

or Pyg, had formerly the same sense as ordinal, meaning a table or directory, pointing out the order in which the devotional services appointed for different occasions were to be performed. Accordingly we are told it is derived from πι, a contraction of στολή, a table; and by others from litera picta, a great black letter at the beginning of some new order in the prayer. The term was used in a similar sense by officers of civil courts, who called their kalendars or alphabetical catalogues directing to the names and things contained in the rolls and records of their courts the pyg.

or Picus John, prince of Mirandola and Concordia, was born in the year 1463, under the pontificate of Pius II. He was the youngest son of John Francis of Mirandola, and Julia, a lady of the noble family of Boiard. Some of the credulous historians of the time have related, that at his birth a globe of fire was seen to rest upon his mother's bed, portending, say they, by its shape the perfection of his genius, and by its element, the celestial turn of his mind. As soon as he was capable of receiving instruction, he was placed by his mother's care under the most able masters, and very early distinguished himself by the vigour of his application, and the strength of his memory; of which such prodigies are related as would be very difficult to credit, were we not assured by some modern instances, of the perfection to which that faculty may be carried. At the age of fourteen he was sent by his mother's direction, who was desirous that he should assume the clerical functions, to Bologna, at that time the principal resort of those who studied the pontifical law. After spending two years there, he became disgusted with this pursuit, although such was his industry, even at that early age, that he compiled an epitome of the pontifical epistles or decrets. His disposition, however, strongly led him to the pursuit of philosophy, with an eager curiosity to penetrate the secrets of nature and science; with this view he travelled over Italy and France, visited the most celebrated schools of each, and studied under the most famous teachers of both countries. After seven years spent in this course of instruction, and at the age of twenty-three, he went to Rome, and, after the fashion of the scholars of that time, brought himself into notice by publicly proposing literary questions for disputation. This sort of challenge was very common in that age, and, when printing was scarcely practised, and the name of a man of learning less rapidly extended than it is now, was almost the only method that a person of superior attainments had to make himself known. Mirandola proposed 900 questions, or as they were called conclusiones, in dialectics, mathematics, natural philosophy, and divinity, drawn not only from the stores of the Latin and Greek, but from the mysteries of the Hebrews and the arcana of the Chaldeans and Arabians. In addition to the endless topics of metaphysics, theology, and the ordinary subjects of disputation, into which he entered very profoundly, the conclusiones involved the ancient and obscure philosophy of Pythagoras, Trismegistus, and Orpheus; the doctrines of the Cabala, or mystic interpretation of the sacred writings, according to the Hebrews, taught by Origen and Hilarius; the extent, uses, and learning of natural magic, which was vindicated from the vulgar reproach of impiety and necromancy. Seventy-two new physical and metaphysical dogmata of the author's invention were likewise proposed and defended. These propositions, according to the ostentatious practice on these occasions, were fixed in the most public places in Rome, and the proposer engaged to defray the expenses of any one who should come from a distance for the purpose of disputing with him. This challenge did not bring forward any disputants, but exposed Mirandola to much envy and jealousy, particularly from the professors of science at Rome, who felt the reflection that would be cast upon their credit by their declining a competition which they durst not encounter. Unable to injure his fame as a scholar, they made a much more dangerous attack upon the soundness of his faith; thirteen questions were selected, which were charged with the terrible suspicion of heresy and contempt of the ordinances of the church; a suspicion very readily listened to by the church when directed against great learning, which the increasing influence of philosophy and letters began to make her watch with extreme jealousy. Mirandola repelled this attack by publishing his Apologia, or Defence of the accused Propositions; which if he did not effectually clear away the suspicions he had incurred, tended to confirm his enemies in their dread of his learning and powers; and it must be owned that, overlook- ing the misapplication of talents to such subjects, the Apologia exhibits a command of profound and well digested learning and keen argument, truly astonishing at the age of twenty-three. This work, and the discussions it contained of certain delicate points, added to some hints of the limit of pontifical control in matters of faith, were so disagreeable to Pope Innocent VIII. that he interdicted the reading both of the Apology and the disputed questions. The love of glory, however, was not Mirandola's only passion: his youth, splendid accomplishments, and the graces of his person, for which he is said to have been remarkable, attracted the admiration and caresses of many distinguished Roman ladies, who united the love of letters to that of pleasure, a taste very common amongst the Italian ladies of that age. The young philosopher yielded to the force of these allurements, or rather, according to the account of his nephew and biographer, Francisco de Mirandola, eagerly followed the bent of his disposition, naturally inclined to obey the attractions of beauty.

But this life of pleasure, however suitable to his condition and inclinations, was of a short continuance. Irritated by the restless persecutions of his enemies, and obliged perpetually to defend himself against the imputation of heresy, the most formidable calamity which in that age any man could have to contend with, he detached himself from vicious pleasures, and regulated his manner of life by rigidly observing the laws of abstinence imposed by Christianity; for being a firm adherent to the Christian doctrines, the charge of infidelity and the vigilance of his enemies made him the more solicitous to guard against the appearance of disobeying them. Becoming from this time wholly devoted to learning, he soon acquired such celebrity that the most eminent scholars from all parts of Italy came to visit him for conversation or instruction. As a proof of the sincerity of his reformation, he committed to the flames five books of elegiac poetry which he had composed on the subject of his amours, together with numerous pieces in Tuscan verse, which had been addressed to his various mistresses. There is perhaps reason to lament that the zeal of a new convert would not be satisfied without this sacrifice. It must, however, be considered that the spirit of religion at that period exacted many sacrifices from the professors of Christianity, which the lenient temper of these times does not call for. An example of this severity is to be met with amongst the works that still remain of Mirandola; at the end of which, in the folio edition published by his nephew, we find a learned and entertaining comment, in the Italian language, upon a composition of his friend Girolamo Benivieni, entitled Una Consone de Amore secundo la mente et opiniione de Platonici, "A poetical treatise upon love, explaining the doctrines of the Platonists." The author, Girolamo, informs the reader, in a short preface, that he had determined to suppress this poem and comment out of regard to his friend's character and his own; deeming it unbecoming a professor of Christianity, in treating of celestial and divine love, "to treat of it as a Platonist and not as a Christian;" but that having lent it to some of his friends for their perusal, an imperfect and erroneous copy was printed, which obliged him, but not till after the death of Mirandola, to publish it correctly; and he takes care to allege, in excuse for himself, that he has apprized the reader of his plan by the title of the poem, and warned him in all places where Plato's opinions depart from those of Christ, that the doctrines of a gentile and a heathen are not entitled to the least weight compared with the reasonings of the Christian theologists, "and particularly the irrefragable arguments of the angelic doctor St Thomas of Aquino."

The first fruit of Mirandola's devotion to sacred literature was the Heptaplus, or Comment upon the Six Days of the first Chapter of Genesis, which was written in 1491. Two years afterwards he published a treatise in ten chapters, de Ente et Uno; the object of which was to reconcile the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, and to demonstrate that the disputes of their respective followers originated in a misconception of the opinions of these philosophers relative to the Ens and Unum, at that time a subject of mighty strife among the learned. This treatise was held in high esteem by both sides. It was the last work of consequence that the author lived to complete; but he had laid the plan of a vast and comprehensive work, which his early death prevented the execution of. This was no less than to confound the seven enemies of the Christian church, by examining and refuting all their errors. In the prosecution of this design, he had composed and perfected before his death twelve books against astrology, the most popular and the most pernicious superstition which then infested the world. Paulus Jovius, bishop of Nocera, has left a testimony to the merits of this work, which is above all other encomiums:—"In this excellent though unfinished work, Mirandola attacked the astrologers with such erudition and keenness, and so ably exposed the absurdity and vanity of the whole art of divination, that he seems to have deterred the professors of the occult sciences from writing."

This great design, as well as many others which Mirandola had formed, particularly that of a more complete essay towards reconciling the opinions of Plato and Aristotle, was frustrated by his death. From the time that he left Rome, which was soon after the publication of the Apologia, Mirandola generally resided either at Ferrara or at Florence. The friendship of the prince of Ferrara and its vicinity to his paternal seat attracted him to the former place; but Florence was the most agreeable to him, on account of the society of literary men which it afforded, and particularly of Politian and Lorenzo de Medici, with whom he entertained a close friendship. Besides these two illustrious men, his society was cultivated by other eminent scholars, among whom was the learned and unfortunate Hieronymus Savonarola, and Hermolaus Barbarus: Petrus Crinitus, the pupil of Politian, mentions him as excelling all his companions in the erudition and eloquence of his conversation. The same author has left us an account of Mirandola's laborious studies; for when Politian had expressed in his presence high admiration of his great genius and learning, Mirandola with singular modesty answered, that he deserved no praise but for his assiduous application—"Gratulandum petius, intelligite, assiduis vigiliis atque lubricationibus, quam nostro ingenuo plaudendum."

His library likewise is celebrated by the same writer, and is said by Francisco de Mirandola to have cost 7000 pieces of gold. His accomplishments were not confined to subjects of abstruse literature; in his youth he was much attached to music, in which he acquired such skill, that some of his melodies were publicly received, and held in great esteem. It might also be concluded, from an anecdote related by Petrus Crinitus, that he was not unacquainted with physic; for according to that author, when Hermolaus Barbarus was seized at Rome with a dangerous fever, Mirandola sent him from Florence a medicine prepared by himself. No man ever testified a more sincere devotion for learning and philosophy, to the contempt of all other qualifications, than the Prince of Mirandola. He possessed a very large estate, which he bestowed almost entirely upon works of charity, except what was spent in collecting books, and entertaining and providing for literary men. At length, however, about three years before his death, he made over to his nephew Francisco his principality and possessions in Mirandola, and obtained a confirmation of the grant from Maximilian, the Roman emperor, to whom that principality was subject. He reserved to himself only enough to purchase a small estate near Ferrara, where he spent the remainder of his life, except when he resided at Florence, in elegant and learned retirement. His mother, under whose care he received his education, had destined him for the church; and he was often urged by his friends to embrace the sacred profession, with the certainty of the highest honours and emoluments: but nothing could induce him to quit the life that he had chosen. He died of a fever at Florence, in the year 1494, in the 31st year of his age, on the same day that Charles IX. of France entered that city on his famous expedition into Italy. That monarch, hearing of Mirandola's illness, as he approached the city, sent two of his own physicians to his assistance; but in spite of their aid, the violence of his disorder put an end to his existence in 13 days.

With respect to the works of this author, something has already been said, and little more remains to be observed. The Conclusions afford a very complete specimen of the learning of the age, and of what were deemed the most valuable purposes to which learning could be applied. However useless and unprofitable these purposes may appear to us, it will not be denied by any one, who has the curiosity to look through the Conclusions, that the mass of learning, which must have been possessed by the proposer of them, is prodigious; when it is recollected that, at the time he proposed them, he was no more than 23 years of age. For there is not the least reason to suppose, that a person whose works prove him to have been a man of profound learning, and who, in an age and nation distinguished by some of the brightest scholars that ever appeared, was ranked by their own judgment amongst the first, should have challenged the discussion of any of the proposed subjects, without being well provided with the knowledge necessary for such a debate. The manner in which the questions were propounded leave little room to doubt that the author was deeply versed in the respective subjects of them; and the Apology for the accused propositions, particularly those de Salute Origenis et de Magia atque Cabala, discover familiarity with the writings of the Fathers, as well as with the Greek and Hebrew classics, and a facility of language and argument that could not be acquired at that age without extraordinary powers of mind. It would be worth while to transcribe the whole of this curious piece for the amusement of such of our readers as may not have access to the original, but our limits do not admit of it.

It is curious to observe how greatly the sudden growth of learning outstripped that of solid science. No age, perhaps, was ever so remarkable for the learning which it produced as the period from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th; yet, except the inestimable obligations we owe to the learned men of that time for their editions of the classics, later ages have been little benefited by their works, which are either lost or neglected, and even the sciences they treated of exploded and ridiculed. School-divinity and metaphysics, though the most attended to, were not the only studies in which the vast erudition of that age was wasted. The mysterious doctrines of the Cabala formed a favourite study of some of the most learned scholars. The proposition which laid Pica open to the indignation of the church, was that in which he asserted the orthodoxy of Origen; for Origen, notwithstanding his meritorious labours in the cause of Christianity, his daring zeal and self-martyrdom, and notwithstanding the defence of Eusebius, was consigned by the sentence of the church to inevitable damnation, on account of his errors in the mysteries of the faith. To question his perdition, therefore, was to deny that the church was the interpreter of the divine intentions. The defence of this part of the Conclusions is written with a boldness that could hardly be expected from an Italian of the 15th century. But the hardest of these propositions was that in which it is asserted, that faith is not in a man's own power. In defending this and the other propositions, which were taxed with heresy, Pica probably relied less on the spirit and ability of his justification, than on his own high rank and station, together with the countenance and protection of his powerful friends, particularly the Medici, whose liberality of sentiment in regard to religious points was so notorious, that even Leo X. had been directly charged, not only with heresy, but infidelity.*

By the Cabala, a term at this time generally misapprehended, was understood sometimes a species of divine Church, magic operating by the agency of good spirits, as magic commonly so called was supposed to do by that of evil beings; but the true definition of it, as received by the best of its professors, is given by Reuchlinus (A.), in his treatise addressed to Lorenzo de Medici, Divine Revelationis ad salutiferam Dei et formarum separatarum contemplationem traditae symbolica receptio,—a symbolic exception of the Mosaic history (for that is meant by divina revelationis) which produced a pure and perfect acquaintance with the nature of the divinity and of spirits; and according to the opinions of some, which seem to be revived by the modern Swedenborgians, this knowledge, when sublimed to the highest perfection it was capable of, and accompanied with perfect purity, was believed

(A) This treatise, which contains the whole learning upon a subject once held in the highest veneration by men of learning, is very curious, and is to be found in the folio edition of Mirandola's works, published at Basil in 1557. to raise the mind to an absolute familiarity with good angels, by whose assistance the possessors of the cabalistic secrets were enabled to do miraculous things. This art was derived from the rabbinical doctors, who were at first called Thalmudists; and, about the middle of the 15th century, according to Pica de Mirandola*, its professors were denominated Cabalici, Cabalici, or Cabalistas, according to their different degrees of perfection: they afterwards, however, departed from their masters the Thalmudists; the latter, according to Reuchlinus, being chiefly intent upon the law and the explanation of it, while the former, paying less regard to what concerned human affairs, aimed chiefly at elevation of mind and thought. The ideas and doctrines of the Cabalists seem to have been well known to Milton, and perhaps suggested some passages in Paradise Lost. In Reuchlinus's Exposition of their mysteries there is a curious passage describing the speech of the Deity to the heavenly spirits after the fall of Adam, with the future prospect of redemption by the incarnation of the Messiah, whom the Cabalists recognised in the character of a celestial Adam (n); and, among the books relating to these doctrines, which are said to be lost, mention is made of Liber Bellorum Domini. The mysteries of the Pythagorean philosophy, which, according to Philolaus apud Reuchlinum, sprung from the same source, were also studied and taught with great fervency during this period. Mirandola and Paulus Riccius were the first who explained the Cabalistic mysteries in Latin, and the former in his Apology, has employed much labour and learning in defending them, as well as the science of natural magic, from the vulgar idea that necromancy was at the bottom of them. His writings, however, upon that subject were few, and we do not know whether they still exist; but it may be collected from the following proposition in his Conclusiones, and some others of a similar nature, that he, like all the scholars of his time, had bestowed much attention upon this useless learning:

"Qui scierit quid sit denarius in Arithmetica formali, et cognoverit natura primi numeri sphericus, sciet secretum quinquaginta portarum intelligentiae; et magni jubelici, et millesimae generationis, et regnum omnium seculorum."

Those who are well acquainted with the tenets of the modern millenarians will be able to tell whether there be any connection between them and the allusions in the concluding part of this proposition.

Magic also entered deeply into the learning of this era. This comprises two distinct sciences, that of natural magic, and that of demonology: the first was concerned only in the properties of numbers and figures, and some of the more hidden properties of nature. This knowledge enabled its possessors to produce many effects from natural causes, which, when science was less diffused than at present, appeared to be the effect of something superior to the common limits of human power. Albertus, commonly called Magnus, the friend and tutor of Roger Bacon, was the most celebrated of those who excelled in this sort of knowledge. This science has been productive of many admirable discoveries in mathematics and chemistry. Magic, in its common signification, or necromancy, was also eagerly studied at this time, as appears from Cornelius Agrippa's strange work upon that subject; and we may judge of the estimation in which it was held, by the confession that writer makes in his book De vanitate omnium Scientiarum, that while he professed that science, he derived more credit and profit from it, than from any other use he ever could make of his learning. The first master in this way was said to be * Solomon, whose magic ring and p. glass are still famous in eastern demonology.

But the most dangerous, the most popular, and the most pernicious delusion which the darkness of the preceding ages had entailed upon mankind, was astrology, which will perhaps never be utterly exterminated from the minds of the vulgar, but which then possessed all ranks. When these considerations are taken into the account, it must be looked upon as no despicable application of learning and talents, to have exposed the fallacy and absurdity of this delusion; and when we recollect the great learning and credit of some of its upholders, among whom our countryman Roger Bacon was the most esteemed; the almost universal belief entertained of it, and the few lights which mankind then possessed, as to the real and constant laws obeyed by the celestial bodies; it cannot be denied that the twelve books written by Mirandola against astrology, the effect of which, in opening men's eyes upon that subject is testified by a respectable contemporary author, were the work of a very superior and enlightened mind. When we congratulate ourselves upon our freedom from these superstitions, we ought not to forget, that we owe something to those who gave the first blow to them. Proud of the lights of the age we live in, when astrology and such like cheats are no longer in vogue, we are too apt to overlook the merit of those exertions which first exposed and refuted them; and to persuade ourselves, that in these days of genius and philosophy, such exertions would have been unnecessary; not recollecting that if we enjoy many superiorities of this kind, we are less indebted for them to our own genius than to the labours of those who first paved the way for the detection of superstitious errors; our merit is, that we do not shut our eyes to the light of science; but while we enjoy its blaze, we ought to be grateful to those who struck the first sparks.

John Pica of Mirandola has been represented by writers, whose ideas are taken from the encomiums of his contemporaries, as a mighty prodigy of learning and genius. The distaste which the present times entertain towards those subjects upon which he wrote, renders it very difficult, upon a review of his works, to think those encomiums justified. But making allowance for this change of opinion, and weighing the impartial testimony of his equals, and the early age at which he obtained their admiration, it may be fairly concluded, he was in reality, a man of very extraordinary powers. These memoirs are principally collected from his letters, and the account given of him by his nephew Francisco, himself

(c) Conjicimus sane, alterum esse Adam celestem angelis in coelo demonstratum, unum ex Deo, quem verbo fecerat et alterum esse Adam terrenum, repulsum à Deo, quem ex luto manibus suis finxerat. Reuchlinus, p. 750. self an eminent scholar. Such a biographer might naturally be suspected of partiality; but the evidence of other writers fully confirms his account. Paulus Jovius, in his *Elogia Doctorum Virorum*, gives the following character of him: "John Pica of Mirandola, has been justly styled the phoenix; for in him, the immortal gods, besides the splendour of his family, assembled all the rarest gifts of body and mind."

Petrus Riccius, commonly called Petrus Crinitus, who was the pupil of Politian and the companion of Mirandola, laments the death of him and Politian, which happened in the same year, as a public misfortune, more severely felt at that particular time, when learning, obstructed by the incursion of the French into Italy, wanted the support and assistance of such men. To these may be added the testimony of Hieronymus Savanarola, who, though afterwards put to death by Pope Alexander for a heretic, was a man of great consideration on account of his learning and talents. In a dispute which took place between him and Mirandola, concerning the philosophy of the ancients; the former, yielding to the superiority of his opponent, rose up and embracing him said, "Unus tu es, Pice, estate nostra qui omnium veterum philosophiam ac religionem Christianam praecipita et leges percalceas." The following epitaph, written by Hercules Strozzi, is preserved by Paulus Jovius:

*Joannes jacet hic Mirandola; cetera norunt Et Tagus et Ganges, forsitan et Antipodes.*

Dr Johnson in his Essay on Epitaphs, has taken notice of this pompous distich, as a warning to epitaph writers. "Thus," says he, "have their expectations been disappointed, who honoured Picus of Mirandola with this pompous epitaph. His name, then celebrated in the remotest corners of the earth, is now almost forgotten; and his works, then studied, admired, and applauded, are now mouldering in obscurity." *Monthly Mag.*