Book Review: "The Grammar of Angels" by Edward Wilson-Lee

I have wanted to read this book ever since it was released and honestly, even though I couldn't afford it, my hand was always hovering over the 'buy' button. Sooner or later though, I gathered together enough money to afford this book without too much guilt. I was very excited. This book might be nonfiction but the author imbues it with all the atmosphere and literary genius of a fiction novel whilst also keeping the factual base. The Renaissance isn't only a great topic to write about, but it also lends itself to being a beautiful yet volatile place of learning, love, tragedy and philosophies. I actually feel bad for waiting so long to read this text.

This book is about a man named Giovanni Pico della Mirandola who was born in 1463 in Italy and became one of the most important figures of the Renaissance. I had only heard of this guy once or twice before and I think I'd read something either by him or about him. This was quite a few years ago and it wasn't that long so my mind is fuzzy. Well, apart from that, this is a man who ended up attending many of the elite universities across Europe, delving into studies from classical languages to medicine. He went on to study languages such as Latin and Greek, but not only those - he also studied Hebrew and Arabic (so we know just about how angry he would have made the staunch Catholics of the Renaissance day). His goal was to synthesise human knowledge into a philosophy that could answer our most base questions about existence.

At the age of 23, Pico published his 900 Theses as an attempt to bring these ideas together. He drew from all of the cultures he had studied to show that there is, in fact, a unity between these ideologies. He started to invite people to debate him and along the way, the church found out about it. They ultimately cancelled these events and Pico had to flee to Paris. This is a man who believed that language had an awesome power that was beyond just a method of communication. He started to explore the 'language of angels' which is a language in which we can communicate divine and ultimate truths. This is where it begins to tip into the Renaissance ideas associated with magic and mysticism.

In his Oration on the Dignity of Man Pico communicates this idea associated with language that humans, through this, are able to ascend to chain of being and thus, approach God through knowledge (we can probably predict how well that probably went down with the church). This level of communication with the divine means that humans are also able to shape their own destiny. I know it's a bit far-fetched but it's an interesting book on the concept. There is constantly this acknowledgement on the underlying power of learning as one of the base ideas in humanity. If we learn, then we can communicate and if we can communicate, we can be free. If we can be free, then apparently, we can build that bridge between the earthly and the divine.

Pico would die at the age of just 31 years' old under strange and myserious circumstances which some believe to be poisoning. By this age, he already had left his mark and yet, nobody seems to know exactly what happened to him. Could this be another episode of 'Why It's Shifty'? I don't know, I am going to have to do more research. But it's clear that at the time of his death, Pico had already changed things for the better. Edward Wilson-Lee creates a beautiful story of multiple sides of a complex character. I honestly, loved how readable it was. The author is not trying to sound overly intelligent, but he still draws us into this short, but incredible life.

All in all, I thought this book was fantastic. Again, I was waiting for this book for a long time and I was definitely not disappointed. I love reading about the Renaissance and even though I knew very little about this particular figure, I feel like I must go and read his writings now.