Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola e il dibattito sull'immortalità dell'anima del primo Cinquecento

This paper aims to provide an analysis of Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s position in the context of the early 16th century debate on the immortality of the human soul. Questioning Charles B. Schmitt’s hypothesis regarding the period in which Pico’s Digressio de animae immortalitate would have been written, it will be shown that this work contains some remarks which can be traced back to an opposition of their author against Pietro Pomponazzi’s conclusion that, from a philosophical standpoint, the assertion of the mortality of the human soul is more plausible that its opposite. Furthermore, this paper examines the contents and the sources of Pico’s Digressio, in order to stress the evolution that Pico’s thought has gone through regarding this controversial problem, especially as for the role of the imaginative faculty of the soul in allowing the abstractive operation of the intellect.