Thesis 11>35
Latin
Si deus in se ut infinitum, ut unum, et secundum se intelligatur, ut sic nihil intelligimus ab eo procedere, sed separationem a rebus, et omnimodam sui in seipso clausionem, et extremam in remotissimo suae diuinitatis recessu profundam ac solitariam retractionem, de eo intelligimus ipso penitissime in abysso suarum tenebrarum se contegente, et nullo modo in dilatatione ac profusione suarum bonitatum ac fontani splendoris se manifestante.
Farmer's OCR prints the thesis number as '11235' (farmer1998:27129). Wirszubski reads 'retractationem' for 'retractionem' and 'nulo' for 'nullo' (wirszubski1989:11959); Busi and Ebgi print 'fontali splendoris' for 'fontani splendoris' (busi2014:1768).
English
If God is understood in himself, as infinite, as one, and according to what he is in his own right, then we understand nothing as proceeding from him; what we understand is his separateness from things, his complete enclosure of himself within himself, and his withdrawal, deep and solitary, to the utmost in the most remote recess of his divinity. We understand him as hiding himself in the innermost abyss of his own darkness, and in no way showing himself in the spreading forth and outpouring of his good gifts and of the splendour of his source. unverified draft
'intelligatur' and 'intelligimus' are kept as 'understand' throughout. 'secundum se' ('in his own right') is distinguished from 'in se' ('in himself'). 'bonitatum' is plural. Busi and Ebgi render 'fontani splendoris' as 'splendore sorgivo' (busi2014:1746).
Doctrine
The thesis states what follows when God is understood in himself, as infinite and one: nothing is understood to proceed from him, and he is known only as separated from things, closed within himself and withdrawn into the darkness of his own abyss (farmer1998:27129). Farmer reads 11>35 and 11>36 together as distinguishing God's transcendent nature, the Ein-Sof, from his manifested nature, the sefirot (farmer1998:27200). Ein-Sof is an artificial noun created by the Kabbalists themselves for the hidden God (wirszubski1989:11854). The sefirot are the ten emanated powers of God, called numerationes in Pico's Latin sources: Crown (Keter), Wisdom, Intelligence, Piety, Judgment, Glory (Tiferet), Eternity, Splendour, Foundation and Kingdom (wirszubski1989:7451; wirszubski1989:7066). In 11>4 Pico had said that Ein-Sof is not to be counted with the numerations, being their abstract and uncommunicated unity (wirszubski1989:11832). Howlett reads 11>35 as describing Ein-Sof as one but not one mathematically, and distinguishes it from Keter, the first sefirah, which 11>62 calls the inaccessible abyss of divinity (howlett2021:5433; howlett2021:5444). Farmer likewise takes the abyss of 11>62 to be Keter rather than Ein-Sof (farmer1998:27768), and Busi and Ebgi follow his note (busi2014:15616).
unverified draft
Context
Busi and Ebgi trace the thesis, in all probability, to a page of Nachmanides' commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, known to Pico in Mithridates' Latin, where the divine contracts and gathers into itself so as to form a dark and empty space for the light of wisdom (busi2014:15647). Wirszubski had shown that Pico read Nachmanides' authentic commentary on the Sefer Yesirah before 10 November 1486, and reckons it a potential source of the theses on Ein-Sof (wirszubski1989:11892). He aligns Pico's Ein-Sof with the Geronese school and with Azriel of Gerona, who stated the relation of Ein-Sof to the sefirot as the Platonic problem of the One and the Many (wirszubski1989:11843; wirszubski1989:11930). He says that Pico takes up the same relation again in 11>35 and 11>36 in different terms (wirszubski1989:11950). Busi and Ebgi pair the thesis with the passage of the Oration in which man, withdrawn into the centre of his unity, stands in the solitary darkness of the Father (busi2014:1738; busi2014:1761).
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Reception
The thesis is not among those the commission censured: Blum observes that the Cabalistic theses according to Pico's own opinion went unchallenged (dougherty2008:2808). Wirszubski finds an occasional similarity of language between Reuchlin's definition of Ensoph and this thesis, and concludes that the thesis was in Reuchlin's mind, though the likeness does not prove that Pico read Azriel's treatise On Faith and Heresy (wirszubski1989:12021).
unverified draft
Historiography
Busi and Ebgi find in the image the mystical elitism of Plotinus, the solitary fleeing to the Solitary, with little of the Gospel in it despite Pico's professed Christianity (busi2014:1751; busi2014:1754). Wirszubski instead places the thesis in a Jewish lineage and stresses the Geronese pedigree of Pico's Ensoph, through which the Neoplatonic doctrine that opposites coincide in God could have reached him (wirszubski1989:12001). The German study of Pico's epistemology and Christian Kabbalah (key kabbalah_paradigma; author not confirmed in the corpus copy) cites 11>35 and 11>36 for Pico's placing of God's last reality, beyond the intelligences, under the name En-soph, and refers to Wirszubski for the evidence from Azriel and Nachmanides (kabbalah_paradigma:1478; kabbalah_paradigma:1505). Howlett asks whether Pico thereby posits two Ones, an apophatic nought beyond creation and a kataphatic one within it (howlett2021:5450). The editor notes that this thesis, set among conclusions confirming Christianity, confirms nothing specifically Christian: its work is done in 11>36, where the God withdrawn into darkness is said to clothe himself in ten garments to create the world (farmer1998:27137; wirszubski1989:11969).
unverified draft
Pico's sources
- Moses ben Nahman (Nachmanides), commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah in Mithridates' Latin: the divine contracts and gathers itself into itself, forming a dark and empty space for the light of wisdom: named by Busi and Ebgi as the probable prompt of the thesis (busi2014:15647)
- Azriel of Gerona, Quaestiones super decem numerationibus (Vatican Hebrew manuscript 190): Ein-Sof as the unity in which the ten sefirot are one: Wirszubski's Geronese source for 11>4, which he says 11>35-36 take up again in different terms (wirszubski1989:11930)
Quotations cited
- “The relationship between 'Eyn-Sof and the ten sefirot is considered by Pico again in his thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth Kabbalistic theses” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:11950)
- “lo spunto per la stesura di questa tesi” — Giulio Busi and Raphael Ebgi, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Mito, magia, Qabbalah (busi2014:15647)
Not established
- Which text Pico reworked: Busi and Ebgi name Nachmanides (busi2014:15647), Wirszubski the Geronese discussions including Azriel (wirszubski1989:11930); no passage verbally matching the thesis is printed in the sources consulted.
- How Pico reconciled the abyss of God in himself in this thesis with the abyss he assigns to the first numeration in 11>62 (farmer1998:27768).
Discussed in
- Giulio Busi and Raphael Ebgi, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Mito, magia, Qabbalah (2014)
- Sophia Howlett, Re-evaluating Pico: Aristotelianism, Kabbalism, and Platonism in the Philosophy of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (2021)
- (author to be confirmed from front matter), Erkenntnistheorie und christliche Kabbalah: Das Paradigma des Pico della Mirandola (n.d.)
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)
Farmer's cross-references
- 11>36 Ex praecedenti conclusione intelligi potest cur dicatur apud cabalistas quod deus induit se decem uestimentis quando creauit saeculum.
- 28.35 Nulla res spiritualis descendens inferius operatur sine indumento.