Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Giovanni Pico dei conti della Mirandola e della Concordia, known as Pico della Mirandola, was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation". He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key tenet of early modern Western esotericism. The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church. Pico is sometimes seen as a proto-Protestant, because his 900 theses anticipated many Protestant views.

24 February 1463

Born on the same birth day (24 February): Bonnie Somerville • Dominic Chianese • Ettie Rout • Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford • Ibn Battuta • Ivica Račan • Jeff Garcia • Joe Lieberman • Johan Friis • Kent Haruf • Mark Moses • Nicky Hopkins • Steven Hill • Weldon Kees • Winslow Homer