Thesis 9>18
Latin
Illius natura quae est orizon aeternitatis temporalis est mago proxima, sed super eum, et ei propria est cabala.
Copy-text Farmer 1998 (farmer1998:25362-25363), after the Rome print of 7 December 1486 (colophon farmer1998:28040-28042); Farmer's OCR 'temporalisest' is read 'temporalis est'. Farmer records no variant for this thesis (farmer1998:25385-25387). Wirszubski, quoting the Opera, prints 'ei proxima est Cabala' for 'ei propria est cabala' (wirszubski1989:9918-9921; wirszubski1989:9939). Mandosio proposes emending 'Illius natura' to 'Illa natura', as in 9>16 (mandosio2012:561-562); the edition keeps the printed reading and translates it.
English
The nature of what forms the horizon of temporal eternity stands nearest the magus, yet above him, and Kabbalah belongs properly to it. unverified draft
'orizon' (horizon): the boundary-line of an order of being; the three horizons of 9>16-18 are glossed together in Farmer's note (farmer1998:25393-25395). 'ei' is taken to refer to the nature, on the model of 'Illius naturae ... propria est magia' in 9>17 (farmer1998:25358); Copenhaver's 'Kabbalah belongs to him' (copenhaver2019:20307-20308) allows it to be read of the magus. With Mandosio's emendation (mandosio2012:562) the subject would be 'that nature which is the horizon'.
Doctrine
The thesis is the third of three on 'horizons': 9>16 places a nature next to the magus but below him, 9>17 makes magic proper to the nature of the horizon of time and eternity, and 9>18 places a nature next to the magus but above him and gives it Kabbalah (farmer1998:25354-25363). Wirszubski took the three phrases to denote one and the same thing, the dividing line between the dimension of time and the dimension of eternity (wirszubski1989:9923-9926). Farmer judges that this view 'is clearly mistaken' and reads the three horizons as references, in order, to the corporeal, rational and intellectual natures (farmer1998:25393-25396). On his reading magic belongs with the rational part of the soul, the nature proper to man, as in 9>14, and 'pure Cabala' with the intellectual part, as in 11>12 (farmer1998:25396-25398). Farmer also sets the series within the expansion of aevum, the intermediate duration between time and eternity, into a hierarchy of durational states (farmer1998:11569-11573). Aevum itself arose, he explains, from reconciling texts that gave eternity to God alone with texts that placed angels or demons in it, by distinguishing eternity per se from a participated eternity, the duration of immutable but created beings (farmer1998:3691-3695). Mandosio, who also rejects Wirszubski's reading, maps the horizons onto disciplines: eternal time is inferior to magic and corresponds to natural philosophy, the horizon of time and eternity corresponds to magic, and temporal eternity, superior to magic, corresponds to cabala (mandosio2012:505-509; mandosio2012:559-561). The magician, he concludes, has an intermediary status between the natural philosopher and the cabalist (mandosio2012:509-511).
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Context
Farmer cites 9>16-18 and 11>12 as the evidence that one kind of Cabala, for Pico, invoked intellectual or angelic powers, while the Apology discusses at length another part 'that concerns the powers of celestial bodies' (farmer1998:7015-7017; farmer1998:7041). He concludes that Pico recognised hierarchical distinctions of power within both natural magic and Cabala, as his syncretic system would lead one to expect (farmer1998:7109-7114). Copenhaver draws the same boundary in cosmic terms: nature's magical powers rise only to the horizon between time and eternity, and only Kabbalah can empower magic to cross it (copenhaver2019:17385-17389). A magic with supernatural ambitions, he adds, might address the Sefirot without ascending to them, which only Kabbalah could do (copenhaver2019:17389-17391).
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Reception
Mandosio finds an echo of Pico's horizons in the twenty-third theorem of John Dee's Monas hieroglyphica, whose diagram sets a 'horizon of time' at the limit of the celestial and supercelestial worlds and a 'horizon of eternity' at the upper limit of the supercelestial (mandosio2012:520-529). He attributes the first observation of the echo to Clulee (mandosio2012:570). Howlett quotes the thesis to argue that Pico's Kabbalism is not the magic of the theurgic magus found in Ficino but a different, higher form of magic than the gnostic and Platonic one, 'more connected to the Pythagorean use of math' (howlett2021:5502-5511).
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Historiography
Three keys to the series have been proposed: Wirszubski's single boundary between time and eternity (wirszubski1989:9923-9926), Farmer's ladder of corporeal, rational and intellectual natures (farmer1998:25393-25396), and Mandosio's ladder of natural philosophy, magic and cabala (mandosio2012:505-509). Wirszubski counts this thesis among three magical conclusions that each assert the superiority of Kabbalah over magic (wirszubski1989:9908-9911). Ebgi quotes it as the consequence of a prior ranking, the superiority of numbers over figures, to which a superiority of Kabbalah over magic corresponds (busi2014:10163-10186; busi2014:10199). His note concedes that the relation of magic and Kabbalah in Pico is complex and little studied, since for Pico Kabbalah is said in many ways, one of which seems to coincide with natural magic (busi2014:10207-10210). Howlett suggests that the horizon of temporal eternity could be the intellectual world, giving Pico a direct route into it, and cites Farmer's note (howlett2021:5507-5509; howlett2021:6205). The thesis ranks Kabbalah above magic by the height of the nature it belongs to, not by a list of operations, which is why each reader's account of the three horizons settles what Kabbalah is here (editorial inference from farmer1998:25362-25363 and farmer1998:25393-25396).
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Pico's sources
- Thesis 9>16: 'Illa natura quae est orizon temporis aeternalis est proxima mago, sed infra eum': the lowest term of the series (farmer1998:25354)
- Thesis 9>17: 'Illius naturae quae est orizon temporis et aeternitatis propria est magia': the middle term, the nature to which magic is proper (farmer1998:25358)
- Thesis 11>12: 'Non potest operari per puram Cabalam, qui non est rationaliter intellectualis': Farmer's key to the intellectual nature proper to pure Cabala (farmer1998:26604)
Quotations cited
- “is clearly mistaken” — Stephen A. Farmer, Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486) (farmer1998:25396)
- “the dividing line between the dimension of time and the dimension of eternity” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:9925)
- “The sefirotic space of Kabbalah is above the magus” — Brian P. Copenhaver, Magic and the Dignity of Man: Pico della Mirandola and His Oration in Modern Memory (copenhaver2019:17385)
- “more connected to the Pythagorean use of math” — Sophia Howlett, Re-evaluating Pico: Aristotelianism, Kabbalism, and Platonism in the Philosophy of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (howlett2021:5511)
Not established
- Which reading of the three horizons Pico intended: not established by the sources consulted, which disagree (wirszubski1989:9923-9926; farmer1998:25393-25396; mandosio2012:505-509).
- Whether 'propria' (Farmer) or 'proxima' (Wirszubski's Opera text) is the reading of the 1486 print: Farmer's apparatus records no variant (farmer1998:25385-25387), but the witnesses were not collated for this entry.
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)
- Jean-Marc Mandosio, Beyond Pico della Mirandola: John Dee's formal numbers and real cabala (2012)
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)
Farmer's cross-references
- 11>12 Non potest operari per puram Cabalam, qui non est rationaliter intellectualis.
- 9>14 Siqua est natura immediata nobis quae sit uel simpliciter_uel saltem ut multum rationaliter rationalis, magicam habet in summo, et eius part
- 9>16 Illa natura quae est orizon temporis aeternalis_est proxima mago, sed infra eum.
- 9>19 Ideo uoces et uerba in magico opere efficaciam habent, quia illud in quo primum magicam exercet natura, uox est dei.
- 9>20 Quaelibet uox uirtutem habet in magia, inquantum dei uoce formatur.
- 9>21 Non significatiuae uoces plus possunt in magia quam significatiue; et rationem conclusionis intelligere potest qui est profundus ex praecede