Epicure aux Enfers: Hérésie, athéisme et hédonisme au Moyen Âge. Aurélien Robert. Fayard Histoire. Paris: Fayard, 2021. 368 pp. €24.

Abstract

be put forward by Gianfrancesco and Savonarola in their treatises. Finally, he looks (in chapter 6) at how Pico interprets the influence of the sun and the moon over the earth and argues that this is a development of the concerns already expressed before in the Heptaplus and the Expositiones, which seek resolution within the framework of natural philosophy. The book’s last section is devoted to the pro and contra reception of the Disputationes among Pico’s contemporaries. A study of the works of Savonarola (chapter 7) and Gianfrancesco Pico (chapter 8) allows Akopyan to establish that they have substantive differences with Pico’s position and that there is also evidence that they were influenced by theDisputationes, not vice versa. On the other hand, an analysis of the works of Lucio Bellanti, Giovani Pontano, and Francesco Zorzi (chapters 10, 11, and 12) serves to contrast Pico’s ideas and to broaden our view of the debate over astrology at the time, but also to identify in detail the context in which the arguments that question the authorship of the Disputationes arise. Debating the Stars undoubtedly opens a new horizon to understanding Pico’s Disputationes as a part of his greater intellectual enterprise. It opens further questions on how his ideas evolved and his philosophical relation to Savonarola and Gianfrancesco. As Akopyan suggests, Pico was a leading philosopher, not a mere follower of Savonarola’s ideas.