The Grammar of Angels - The Life of a Renaissance Prodigy and His Search for a Philosophy of Everything

The wonderous story of a Renaissance prodigy and polymath who strove to unlock the magical powers of language.

The Grammar of Angels is a riveting narrative that reveals the quest undertaken by the singular Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Pico dedicated his life to a quest to find the sublime; to reconcile all existing thought into a philosophy that would settle the most important questions about human existence. This philosophy would also provide tools by which man could transcend his mortal limitations and join the ranks of the angels.

At the heart of Pico's ideas were questions that he traced through the depth and breadth of human thought, from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to the medieval Arabs and Jews. He made use of everything at his disposal from Europe's broadening horizons and asked primal questions of himself and the world. Why is it that we can be astonished by beauty? That the hairs on the backs of our necks can be made to stand by intoxicating rhythms and harmonies? That we can be provoked to ecstatic experiences by the simple means of an incantation? In Catholic Italy, the implications of this line of thought were dangerous and provoked violent reactions, suggesting as they did that the notion of the individual might be just as much of an illusion as a flat earth or a geocentric universe. That there may well be notions of the divine other than the Christian God.

During a tempestuous life at the exquisite heart of the Italian Renaissance, Pico's life is a testament to intellectual daring, to a human dignity founded in the willingness to think the unthinkable. The Grammar of Angels invites us to peer over the edge of the abyss in search of the same answers as we immerse ourselves in an age of true wonders.