Never afraid to think for himself, Pico judged Petrarch’s poetry as “something to entice in the first instance, but does not satisfy further.” Yet, he did not stop there. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was a man who rattled his contemporary Great Chain of Beiing. A man withiut limits. Brilliant, a prodigious memory able to recite Dante;s Commedia backwards. A master of languages, with Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew in his wheelhouse. With his 900 Theses he openly questioned Catholic theology and saw value in other world religions. He shared literary letters with Lorenzo de’ Medici. One of the products of which were his 45 sonnets—original, penetrating and engaging.