PICO, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO, lord of MIRANDOLA. - Nephew of Giovanni, born ca. 1469 and assassinated, owing to family disputes, in 1533. An admirer of his great-uncle, he wrote his life and defended his De ente et uno.
A man of vast culture, he was unable to master it; instead of seeking agreement between philosophy and faith, he defended the primacy of the latter, relying on Sextus Empiricus’s Hypotyposeis Pyrrhonianae (v.), which he seems to have been the first to use in the Renaissance. His most important works are: the De rerum praenotione, in defence of true prophecy against false; the De studio divinae et humanae philosophiae and the Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium et veritatis disciplinae christianae, which, together with other writings, constitute vol. II of the Opera omnia in the Basel edition of 1573 and in subsequent editions. He also wrote a Vita SAVONAROLA, GIROLAMO (v.). A literary curiosity is the little book La strega, inspired by the bizarre literature that flourished around trials of witches, in whom he believed.