TABLE OF CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- Chapter One PICO'S LIFE AND WORKS -- 1. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Biographical Sketch -- 2. Pico's Hebrew Studies -- Chapter Two THE HEPTAPLUS IN OUTLINE -- 1. First Exposition: De mundo elementari -- 2. Second Exposition: De mundo caelesti -- 3. Third Exposition: De mundo angelico et invisibili -- 4. Fourth Exposition: De mundo humano idest de hominis natura -- 5. Fifth Exposition: De omnibus mundis divisim ordine consequenti -- 6. Sixth Exposition: De mundorum inter se rerum omnium cognatione -- 7. Seventh Exposition: De felicitate, quae est vita aeterna -- 8. "Expositio primae dictionis, idest in principio" -- 9. Conclusion -- Chapter Three EXEGETICAL CONTEXTS -- 1. Biblical Interpretation in the Fifteenth Century -- 2. The Authorities Pico Rejected -- 3. Pico's Other Commentaries -- 4. Conclusion -- Chapter Four THE FIRST PROEM: TRADITIONS OF ESOTERICISM -- 1. Moses and the Philosophers -- 2. Three Redactions of an Argument for Esotericism: Commento, Apologia, Heptaplus -- 3. In Favour of Esotericism: Early Christian Hermeneutics -- 4. The Christian Reaction against Esotericism: Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages -- 5. Esotericism Maintained: Later Neoplatonism, Pseudo-Dionysius, Kabbalah -- 6. Conclusion: Pico and the Traditions of Esotericism -- Chapter Five THE SECOND PROEM: PICO'S COSMIC MODEL AND EXEGESIS AS ANAGOGY -- 1. Cosmic Structure -- 2. Allegorical Theory -- 3. Conclusion -- Chapter Six KNOWLEDGE, FELICITAS AND HERMENEUTICS -- 1. Felicitas and the Intellect in Medieval Philosophy -- 2. The Ascent to Perfection in Pico's Works -- 3. Felicitas, Knowledge and Biblical Exegesis: The Example of Gersonides -- 4. Genesis and Knowledge -- Chapter Seven THE BEGINNING AND THE END: BERESHIT AND THE SABBATH.

1. Bereshit: "Expositio primae dictionis, idest in principio" -- 2. Structural Role of the Sabbath -- 3. Sabbath, Jubilee and the Gates of Understanding -- APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 7 -- CONCLUSION -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.