Giovanni Pico della Mirandola & Girolamo Savonarola

An Unlikely Friendship

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To Hasan Renaissance Myth-Buster extraordinaire.

Introduction

The word friendship is not something that one would really associate with Florence’s ‘mad monk’, Girolamo  Savonarola. After all, the hook nose and black cowled Dominican is a man associated with ousting the Medici from power and the burning of some of the city’s most famous works of art. However to assume that the man who ended up practically ruling Florence through his sermons had no friends is to assume he was not human – Girolamo Savonarola certainly had the respect of the Florentine people, but he also developed a close friendship with a man who, surprisingly, was his polar opposite. This work is a brief study of the two men, their lives and how they came to cross paths.

An Unlikely Friendship

Girolamo Savonarola was born in Ferrara on 2 September, 1452 to Niccolo Savonarola and Elena Bonacossi. Girolamo was not an only child. In fact, he was the third of seven children born to the Savonarola family. The family moved from Padua to Ferrara in around 1440 when Niccolo’s father, Michele, was granted the title of Court Physician to Niccolo d’Este, the ruler of Ferrara. Michele himself was the most successful of the Savonarola family – whilst the majority of the Savonarola men were merchants or lawyers, Michele rose to be the personal physician of the ruler of his town. Previous to his work in Ferrara, Michele had studied and taught medicine at the University of Padua as well as completing a textbook, named the Practica de aegritudinibus de capite usque ad pedes,i which would end up being used across the world and quoted as late as 1628.ii Michele also wrote treatises on fevers, urine and pregnancy – one of his most oft given prescriptions to patients who wished to banish melancholy was to drink lots of wine! But Michele was much more than a physician – he was also an incredibly pious man who wrote on penitence and how

i. The Treatment of Diseases from Head to Toe.ii. Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope

(Sutton Publishing 2006), pp.4

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wayward the Clergy were becoming, a view that his grandson Girolamo would keep with him for the rest of his life. One cannot help but wonder just how much Girolamo Savonarola was influenced by his grandfather’s teachings; Michele had a heavy hand in Girolamo’s studies, personally teaching him his Latin grammar as well as introducing the young boy to the works of Thomas Aquinas.

Michele passed away when Girolamo was just fourteen years old. However, he had given his grandson a love of learning and had noticed early on just how much promise Girolamo had shown. It was Michele who paved the way for Girolamo to attend school, a school which was directed by Battista Guarino – a man who, in Michele’s words was “the first of all humanists…worthy of great respect”.iii Savonarola would certainly have studied the classics whilst at school and became proficient in Humanism, studying the works of Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas. Savonarola would later admit that he had a great respect for Aquinas saying, “I have always…revered him”iv Poetry was also something that he excelled in and throughout his life, he was known to put pen to paper and come up with verse. But it was medicine that was to be Girolamo Savonarola’s chosen subject and he studied for his degree in medicine at the University in Ferrara.

What was it that turned Savonarola away from the path of Medicine and straight into the arms of the church? It is entirely possible that facing disappointment in love played some part. He always admitted that although he found the idea of sex repugnant, he was a human made of flesh and blood and he had to fight daily against the temptation of the flesh. Girolamo’s first love was a young woman by the name of Laudomia Strozzi, the illegitimate daughter of the exiled Florentine Roberto di

iii. Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011), pp.8

iv. Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope (Sutton Publishing 2006), pp.12

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Nanni Strozzi. The houses of the two families were next door to one another, their upper windows so close that it was entirely possible to hold a conversation with your neighbour. Some say that as the two young people were talking from their windows, Girolamo would serenade Laudomia with his lute. One day during one of their conversations, Girolamo asked the Strozzi girl if she would marry him. The answer he received was one that turned his love to utter hatred – she said that no Strozzi would ever sink as low as the Savonarola family.v

It is unknown at which point in his youth Savonarola made the decision to join the Church, however, he felt a certain amount of disdain at the way the Church was run. He disliked how corrupt the head of the Church – the Pope was – and disliked the ostentation of those high in the Church hierarchy. Pope Sixtus IV spent huge amounts of money on building the Sistine Chapel as well as creating a Papal tiara that cost at least one-third of his first year’s income.vi Savonarola was so dismayed that he wrote poems on the ruin of the church, including De ruina exxlesiae. During 1474, Savonarola heard a friar preach whilst in Faenza – the friar spoke the words “Go forth out of thy country and from thy kindred, and out of thy father’s house, and come into the land that I shall show thee.”vii Was it this that finally spurred Savonarola into leaving behind his career in medicine and joining the Church? Either way, on Saint Georges Day the following year, Savonarola slipped away from his home and family whilst they were enjoying the celebrations and made his way to the Dominican priory at Bologna. There he joined the Dominican order, much to the upset of his parents – they sent a letter to their son and

v. Ibid, pp.13; Paul Strathern, Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City (Jonathan Cape 2011), pp.43; Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011), pp.10

vi. Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope (Sutton Publishing 2006), pp.15

vii. Ibid; The passage quoted by the friar is from the Book of Genesis 12:1.

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he replied scathingly that he had become a doctor who would look after people’s souls.

In 1479, Girolamo Savonarola was sent back to Ferrara at the behest of his superiors. There, he became teaching master at the Priory of Santa Maria degli Angeli – it was a usual move in the world of those in Religious orders as a method of breaking up the tedium of the normal day to day study of the novitiate monk. But by 1482, Savonarola was no longer in Ferrara. Instead, he had been elected as Ferrara’s representative at the Chapter General of the Dominicans of Lombardy. It was here, following Savonarola’s scathing attack on the corruption of the Church, that Savonarola first came into contact with the young Philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola who had been hugely impressed with Savonarola’s words.viii It was the beginning of an incredibly unlikely friendship that would stay with both men until the end of their lives.

Nicknamed the ‘Phoenix of Genius”ix, Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was born to Gianfrancesco Pico and Giulia and had links to the Este family of Ferrara, the Sforza’s of Milan and the Gonzaga family – as such he was a nobleman of impeccable breeding. From an early age he was always described as being particularly good looking – his nephew, Giovanni Francesco Pico, describes him as being:

“He was of feature and shape feminine and beauteous, of stature goodly and high, of flesh tender and soft: his visage lovely and fair, his colour white intermingled with comely reds, his eyes grey and quick of look, his teeth white and even, his hair yellow and not to piked”x

viii. Paul Strathern, Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City (Jonathan Cape 2011), pp.51; Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011), pp.27

ix. Pasquale Villari, The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola (T. Fisher Unwin 1888) pp.74

x. Giovanni Francesco Pico, trans. Sir Thomas More, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: His life by his nephew Giovanni Francesco Pico, also three of his letters, his interpretations of Psalm XVI; his twelve rules of a Christian and his Deprecatory hymn to God, (Benediction Classics Oxford 2008), pp. 8.

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This young man, incredibly fashionable but without much care as to how his hair looked on a daily basis, was truly the opposite of Girolamo Savonarola with his hard gaze, hooked nose and plain black Dominican robes. Yet Mirandola was exceptionally intelligent and from a very early age his ability had attracted widespread attention – after all, it wasn’t often that someone came along who had mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. His interests, though, were mainly philosophical and he badly wanted to understand just where the religions that had brought Christianity into being had come from. This need to understand religion had Pico studying various religious texts as well as learning the ancient languages of Aramaic and ancient Babylonian. He would go on to be the only man in Europe who could understand those languages.xi Mirandola was so well versed in religion that it is likely this which attracted Girolamo Savonarola to the young man, despite their differences in character.

One of the most well-known events in Mirandola’s life was his proposal to hold a huge philosophical debate in Rome, at the age of just twenty-three. In 1486, Mirandola produced a text of 900 theological theses that covered a whole range of theological ideas – he also announced that he would happily defend each and every one of these theses to anyone who would question him.xii Mirandola aimed to spend a year in Rome defending his work and, according to just one of the many Papal complaints made against him, had posted copies of his work in many public places about the city as well as having many more copies published in other parts of the world. It was Mirandola’s aim to gather as many experts around him for this debate as he could and so he sent copies of his work to all Universities in Italy and even offered to pay the travelling

xi. Paul Strathern, Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City (Jonathan Cape 2011), pp.52

xii. Pasquale Villari, The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola (T. Fisher Unwin 1888) pp.75

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expenses for any expert to come to Rome.xiii The aim was that this great debate would be held in front of Pope Innocent VIII – except the Pope took umbrage to Pico’s work as many of the theses he proposed touched on astrology as well as attempting to reconcile Paganism with Christianity. It was particularly the thesis suggesting that the Kabbalah and knowledge of the secrets of heavenly bodies that went too far. Innocent believed these to be heretical and so condemned seven of Pico’s theses. Although Mirandola hastily bent to the Pope’s whim, his Apologia that was published in May 1487 only ended up making things ten times worse – it was particularly Pico’s contempt for astrology that angered Innocent the most; according to Pico the planets had absolutely no say in affecting the lives of men and women upon earth. The Pope thus condemn all of the theses and threatened to excommunicate the young man unless he retracted everything he had written.xiv Rather than once more bend to the Pope’s will, Mirandola fled to France but whilst there was captured and held at Vincennes having been charged with heresy. Set free in March 1488, Lorenzo de’ Medici stepped in and convinced Pope Innocent to drop the case against Mirandola. Pico, grateful to Lorenzo for stepping in, decided that he would move to Florence where he became a part of Lorenzo’s inner circle along with Angelo Poliziano, who would become another very close friend.

Having moved to Florence and becoming integrated into Lorenzo de’ Medici’s circle of incredibly intelligent men, Mirandola once more came into contact with Girolamo Savonarola. The frate, as Savonarola came to be known, was already making waves in the city although it would still be some time until he gained notoriety as a prophet.

xiii. S. A. Farmer, Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses 1486 (Medieval & Renaissance Text & Studies 1998), pp.3

xiv. Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope (Sutton Publishing 2006), pp.28

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Florence was the domain of the Medici family and from 1469 it had Lorenzo the Magnificent who had held the reins of Government, despite holding no official government title. Many considered Lorenzo to be a tyrant, some even going so far as to plot the downfall of the entire family. The most well-known plot of them all came to be known as the Pazzi Conspiracy, a plan hatched by Francesco de’ Pazzi, Francesco Salviati and Girolamo Riario, which had it been successful would have seen the murder of both Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano. The plot even had the backing of Pope Sixtus who, although repeatedly telling the plotters (one of whom, Riario, was his nephew) that he would not condone killing made sure to tell them in the end, “Go and do what you will.”xv The conspirators ended up trying to commit the deed on 26 April, 1478, after a number of previously failed attempts. The final plan involved not only the original conspirators but also the Pazzi patriarch, Jacopo de’ Pazzi; he had been loath to take part having seen just how weak the plan was, however, he was talked into it and insisted that after the coup was complete, Francesco Salviati became the face of Florence. They planned now to murder the Medici brothers as Mass was celebrated within Florence’s Cathedral, the Santa Maria del Fiore but when he found out that the deed was to be committed on holy ground the man who had originally been brought in to murder the brothers, Montesecco, refused to take part saying he “could not bring himself to kill a man in a place where “God would see him’”xvi Upon Montesecco’s pulling out of the deed, two priests by the names of Antonio Maffei and Stefano da Bagnone stepped in. Evidently, they had no qualms about committing murder on consecrated ground.

Everything was in place as the Host was raised on 26 April 1478. Giuliano de’ Medici had been convinced to come along

xv. Miles J Unger, Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici (Simon & Schuster 2009), pp.302

xvi. Christopher Hibbert, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici (Penguin 1979), pp.136

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to Mass after originally saying he was too unwell to attend. At the moment the Host was raised the conspirators struck. Giuliano was standing by the northern side of the Choir with the two priests standing behind him. Lorenzo was stood away from his brother and as the bell rang out, Maffei placed a hand upon his shoulder to steady himself before striking the killing blow. It gave Lorenzo the time he needed to react, jumping away from his attacker and wrapping his cloak about his arm as a shield. With just a slight wound to his neck, he escaped into the safety of the sacristy. Giuliano wasn’t so lucky. His corpse was left upon the floor of the Cathedral covered in stab wounds.xvii Lorenzo immediately began to seek out those who had murdered his brother and attempted to end his own life. The conspirators were quickly caught – Francesco de’ Pazzi, who had wounded himself in his frenzied stabbing of Giuliano, was found hiding in the family home and dragged to the Palazzo della Signoria where he was stripped naked and hung from one of the windows. The same fate awaited Jacopo de’ Pazzi who had tried to escape as well as Salviati.xviii The populace supported Lorenzo de’ Medici throughout the whole affair, refusing to rise to the conspirators. To the majority of people, the Medici family were their leaders and they would do anything they could to support them. The people rising up in support of a few disgruntled noblemen was something that would never happen.

Lorenzo, then, was a popular man both to his friends and to the people he served. And he surrounded himself with the best. Art and festivities were the norms for him but he was also an incredibly learned man. His book collection along with his collection of antique sculptures was the envy of Italy. He was particularly learned in humanism and preferred to spend his

xvii. Paul Strathern, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (Vintage 2007), pp.163xviii. Eventually a myth grew up surrounding the murder that it was committed on

Easter Sunday. This was carried on by the Medici family who wanted to slur the Pazzi name as much as possible.

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time with other learned individuals who could understand the bible and discuss Aristotle along with other classic philosophy. Was it any wonder then that the young genius, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, was brought in to Lorenzo’s inner circle?

It was during the summer of 1489 that Girolamo Savonarola, having been preaching in Genoa following a tour of various Tuscan towns including San Gimignano, was recalled to Florence. Mirandola had asked Lorenzo de’ Medici to recall the frate and Lorenzo, wanting to keep his dear friend happy, acquiesced. Thus, the man who would end up running the Medici from their home was invited back to Florence – whether Lorenzo had any idea of what was to come is unclear but it seems he wished to keep his friend, who was feeling a spiritual unease following his run in with the Pope over his 900 theses, happy.xix

It wasn’t until 1491 that Girolamo Savonarola began preaching in Florence’s main Cathedral, the Santa Maria del Fiore. Up until that point, he had been preaching within the convent of San Marco, moving from the lecture hall out into the convent gardens when more and more people began to show up. Although the Florentine people were known for their avarice and vice, they still flocked to hear this strange Ferrarese monk preach on the apocalypse and the fire and brimstone that would rain down upon their city. Amongst the flock was Pico della Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano – they were both incredibly impressed with the friar’s fervour, with his attacks upon the vices of the city. His first sermon in Santa Maria del Fiore was during Lent in 1491 and in it he attacked the city for its vices, likening it to a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah and calling the Church the ‘whore of Babylon’xx Savonarola’s sermons attacked not only the vices of Florence – sodomy

xix. Pasquale Villari, The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola (T. Fisher Unwin 1888) pp.88

xx. Miles J Unger, Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici (Simon & Schuster 2009), pp.424

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being one of the most awful sins and something he came back to repeatedly – but also openly attacked the de facto ruler of the city, Lorenzo de’ Medici. To Savonarola, Lorenzo was nothing more than a Tyrant who was keeping the citizens of Florence from their rightful freedom. The man spent wantonly and in his youth had been well known for his indiscretions and his hedonism – although he had calmed down as he had aged, that didn’t seem to matter to Savonarola. He continued to harangue Lorenzo and his regime – to start with Lorenzo thought little of the attacks and rather found a lot to praise in the Ferrarese friars sermons. But despite the fact that, actually, the two men shared similar views in relation to the corrupt Catholic Church, Savonarola made sure that he openly scorned the leader of Florence. Petty moves like making sure he was away from his cell in San Marco when Lorenzo visited the convent became the order of the day. Eventually, Lorenzo decided to hit back at the errant monk by hiring an Augustinian Monk to preach against Savonarola’s apocalyptic visions. It failed, the populace continuing to flock to Savonarola’s call and leaving Lorenzo to fall into increasing ill health.

Lorenzo’s death came at his country villa of Careggi on 8 April, 1492. He had long suffered from gout, a condition that had affected his father and grandfather before him and by the time of his passing was in near constant pain. As he lay dying, the man who was King of Florence in all but name was surrounded by his friends including Angelo Poliziano and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. But for his last moments, Lorenzo called Fra’ Girolamo Savonarola to his bedside. Legend states that the frate made three demands of Lorenzo saying he must agree before absolution was given – first that he must have complete faith in God and second that he must agree to give back what he had stolen.xxi Lorenzo readily agreed to these

xxi. This refers to Lorenzo’s taking of public funds meant for the dowries of young women in the city, as well as taking money belonging to younger members of the Medici family.

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demands but when the third was given, that Lorenzo restore Florence to liberty, Lorenzo fell silent and refused to answer. It is unknown what was actually spoken between the two men and this legend seems to have come from Fra Silvestro Mafuffi much later.xxii

With Lorenzo the Magnificent now dead, Pico della Mirandola had lost his protector. This was a young man who had gotten on the wrong side of the Pope thanks to his 900 theses and only been saved from being condemned as a heretic by Lorenzo de’ Medici. Now, he turned to Girolamo Savonarola. The frate had made sure that San Marco flourished as a place of learning as well as religious fervour – as Prior of San Marco, the man embodied everything that a Dominican friar should be. He wore coarse clothing, made sure that he owned nothing. And he had started a reform that excited not only him but others. Girolamo Savonarola tried to have his dear friend, Pico della Mirandola, join the Dominican Order during this time having noticed how his friend was growing more pious. It was only when Mirandola lay on his deathbed that he asked to join the Order.

As Mirandola grew more pious, he disposed of much of his property and began to live less like the peacock he had been in his youth. Instead, he devoted his time to study. A papal bull was even granted by Pope Alexander VI, forgiving Pico for his indiscretions against the previous Pontiff.xxiii

But the sword that Girolamo Savonarola had predicted would fall upon Florence was about to come true, the New Cyrus that Savonarola had predicted was about to waltz into the City and prove, to many at least, that Savonarola was the

xxii. Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope (Sutton Publishing 2006), pp.61; Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011), pp.89

xxiii. Giovanni Francesco Pico, trans. Sir Thomas More, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: His life by his nephew Giovanni Francesco Pico, also three of his letters, his interpretations of Psalm XVI; his twelve rules of a Christian and his Deprecatory hymn to God, (Benediction Classics Oxford 2008), pp. 11.

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prophet he so claimed to be. In 1494, Charles VIII of France made the decision to invade Italy – their aim was Naples, but as they made their way south they caused chaos. Killing and raping were not the Italian way during war, rather their battles were well choreographed in which no blood was spilt. Tuscan towns fell to the French as they passed and Piero de’ Medici, as ineffective a ruler as his father had been a great one, rode to the French camp to offer anything the French King wanted in return for Florence remaining safe from the French forces. It was not a popular move, especially when Charles demanded 200,000 florins as well as use of the Medici palace during his visit. The Signoria had not been informed of this move and they were furious – when Piero returned to the City he was greeted with hostility and forced to flee the city with his wife and children.xxiv Savonarola, however, had been on his own excursion to meet the French King and he, unlike Piero, was much more successful.

Savonarola’s excursion took him to Pisa where he was warmly welcomed by the French King. The frate spoke to the King of Church reform and of calling a Council to depose Alexander VI – but he also gained firm assurance from the King that, whilst the French would advance into the City in a triumphal procession, the army was not hostile to Florence of her people. The visit to Pisa had been a success and Girolamo Savonarola returned to Florence in better spirits than the unfortunate Piero de’ Medici had done.

Despite the wonderful work he had done in Pisa, Savonarola’s return to Florence was marred by bad news. On 17 November 1494, the day the French Army triumphantly entered Florence, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola passed away at the age of just 32. The two men had been collaborating on a piece of worked aim to fight the influence of astrology – the work

xxiv. Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope (Sutton Publishing 2006), pp.61; Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011), pp.80

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became Savonarola’s ‘Treatise against Astrology”. Towards the end of his life, before his sickness and sudden death, Mirandola had often spoken to his nephew and said that he would walk barefoot into the world to preach the Gospel. He also sold his property and gave generously to San Marco. As he lay on his deathbed, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was inducted into the Dominican Order despite previously resisting Savonarola’s attempts to have him join. The young man, thought of as a genius from an early age and celebrated across Italy for his intelligence, was buried in the Church of San Marco dressed in a Dominican robe.xxv Savonarola mentioned his friend at the end of a sermon just a week later:

“I want to reveal a secret to you which I haven’t wanted to tell until now because I wasn’t as certain of it as I have been for the last ten hours. I believe all of you knew Count Giovanni of Mirandola who died a few days ago. I want to tell you that on account of the prayers of the friars and some of the good works he did, as well as other prayers, his soul is in purgatory. Pray for him. He came to religion later in life than had been hoped, and therefore he is in purgatory”xxvi

Purgatory then, for a man who had come to religion later in life than Savonarola had hoped. Was this Savonarola wishing that his friend, whose youth had been spent keeping mistresses and making the Pope believe he was a heretic, had managed to avoid the flames of Hell? Mirandola had kept a mistress up until the end of his life, a fact that Savonarola would have been aware of – was Savonarola admitting then that Pico, like almost

xxv. Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope (Sutton Publishing 2006), pp.85; Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011), pp.143; Giovanni Francesco Pico, trans. Sir Thomas More, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: His life by his nephew Giovanni Francesco Pico, also three of his letters, his interpretations of Psalm XVI; his twelve rules of a Christian and his Deprecatory hymn to God, (Benediction Classics Oxford 2008), pp. 23

xxvi. Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011), pp.143; Girolamo Savonarola, Prediche sopra aggeo 104 (November 23 1494)

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every other person on the planet, was a sinner and would end up in purgatory? If a dear friend of the prophet could not bypass purgatory then neither could anyone else. The meaning of this was certainly ambiguous – many meanings could be deciphered within these words but perhaps the greatest meaning is that of grief, and a relief that Giovanni Pico della Mirandola would not suffer the torments of Hell.

Mirandola’s body was recently exhumed from its resting place in San Marco and studied in an effort to find out what it was that ended his life. The scientists conducting the study found a high concentration of arsenic in Mirandola’s bones and concluded that he, along with Angelo Poliziano whose body was also exhumed, was poisoned with arsenic.

It is almost ironic that Girolamo Savonarola went to his death condemned as a heretic, he who had been such good friends with a young philosopher also accused of heresy. On 23 May 1498, Girolamo Savonarola was publically executed in the Piazza della Signoria alongside two of his fellow friars, Fra’ Domenico and Fra’ Silvestro. Hung first, the bodies were burned and their ashes dumped into the Arno River in an effort to stop the populace from getting their hands on anything that could be used as a relic. Savonarola who had overseen the downfall of the Medici tyrants had, in his own way, become a tyrant himself. And he had burned for it.

It seems strange that a young man who, in his youth, dressed ostentatiously and studied humanism could become such good friends with a friar who lived so simply. Yet become friends they did. Mirandola, despite his rich upbringing was ready to learn from the Church – he studied Christianity intensely along with other religions, his natural curiosity allowing him to take in religious information like a sponge soaking up water. Savonarola on the other hand was deeply religious, almost zealot like. But he too was gifted with incredible intelligence. Despite their outward differences, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Girolamo Savonarola were perhaps

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more similar than many have previously thought. Indeed, they developed a long lasting friendship that transcended the bounds of difference and, perhaps in some way, showed the man who would become both Prophet and Florence’s greatest heretic to be nothing more than human.

Bibliography

Christopher Hibbert, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici (Penguin 1979)

Desmond Seward, The Burning of the Vanities: Savonarola and the Borgia Pope (Sutton Publishing, 2006)

Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (Yale 2011)

Giovanni Francesco Pico trans. Sir Thomas More, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: His life by his nephew Giovanni Francesco Pico, also three of his letters, his interpretations of Psalm XVI; his twelve rules of a Christian and his Deprecatory hymn to God, (Benediction Classics Oxford 2008)

Girolamo Savonarola, Prediche sopra aggeo 104 (November 23 1494)

Miles J Unger, Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici (Simon & Schuster, 2008)

Pasquale Villari, The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola (T. Fisher Unwin 1888)

Paul Strathern, Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City (Jonathan Cape 2011)

Paul Strathern, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (Vintage 2007)

S. A. Farmer, Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses 1486 (Medieval & Renaissance Text & Studies 1998)

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In A History of the English Monarchy, historian Gareth Russell traces the story of the English monarchy and the interactions between popular belief, religious faith and brutal political reality that helped shape the extraordinary journey of one of history’s most important institutions.

From the birth of the nation to the dazzling court, this book charts the fascinating path of the English monarchy from the uprising of ‘Warrior Queen’ Boadicea in AD60 through each king and queen up to the ‘Golden Age’ of Elizabeth I.

“Sir, Your Grace’s Displeasure and my Imprisonment are Things so strange unto me, as what to Write, or what to Excuse, I am altogether ignorant.”

Thus opens a burned fragment of a letter dated 6 May 1536 and signed “Anne Boleyn”, a letter in which the imprisoned queen fervently proclaims her innocence to her husband, King Henry VIII.

This letter “from the Lady in the Tower” has divided historians in recent years, with some dismissing it as a fake. There has been no definitive study of the letter or its mysterious provenance... until now. In Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower, Sandra Vasoli provides an in-depth investigation of the individuals who may well have kept the letter safe for nearly 500 years, from author to its present home in the British Library.

In the Tudor period, 1485–1603, a host of fascinating women sat on the English throne. The Turbulent Crown begins with the story of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor Queen. From there, the reader is taken through the parade of Henry VIII’s six wives - two of whom, would lose their heads. The Turbulent Crown continues with the tragedy of Lady Jane Grey, the teenager who ruled for nine days until overthrown by her cousin Mary Tudor. But Mary’s reign, which began in triumph, ended in disaster, leading to the emergence of her sister, Elizabeth I, as the greatest of her family and of England’s monarchs.

The fourteenth- and fifteenth-centuries were frequently characterised by dynastic uncertainty and political tensions. Scholars have recognised that the kings who ruled during this time were confronted with challenges to their kingship, as new questions emerged about what it meant to be a successful king in late medieval England. Queenship in England examines the challenges faced by the queens who ruled at this time. It investigates the relationship between gender and power at the English court, while exploring how queenship responded to, and was informed by, the tensions at the heart of governance.

MMadeGlobal Publishing

History in a Nutshell SeriesCesare Borgia - Samantha Morris

1066 & The Battle of Hastings - Charlie FentonSweating Sickness - Claire RidgwayThomas Cranmer - Beth von StaatsHenry VIII’s Health - Kyra KramerCatherine Carey - Adrienne Dillard

The Pyramids - Charlotte BoothThe Mary Rose - Philip Roberts

Whitehall Palace - Philip RobertsEdward VI - Kyra Kramer

Historical Non-FictionThe Turbulent Crown - Roland Hui

Queenship in England - Conor ByrneKatherine Howard - Conor Byrne

Jasper Tudor - Debra BayaniTudor Places of Great Britain - Claire Ridgway

Illustrated Kings and Queens of England - Claire RidgwayA History of the English Monarchy - Gareth Russell

The Fall of Anne Boleyn - Claire RidgwayGeorge Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier & Diplomat - Ridgway & Cherry

The Anne Boleyn Collection - Claire RidgwayThe Anne Boleyn Collection II - Claire Ridgway

Two Gentleman Poets at the Court of Henry VIII - Edmond BapstA Mountain Road - Douglas Weddell Thompson

Children’s HistoryAll about Richard III - Amy LicenceAll about Henry VII - Amy LicenceAll about Henry VIII - Amy Licence

Tudor Tales William at Hampton Court - Alan Wybrow

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