The Grammar of Angels: A Search for the Magical Powers of Language

(Hardback)

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Does there exist a form of speech so powerful as to allow the speaker to control the listener, taking over their thoughts and even their will
The Grammar of Angels tells the story of Renaissance prodigy and polymath Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the uncontested marvel of an age of true wonders. Pico dedicated his life to a quest to find the sublime; to reconcile all existing thought into a philosophy that would settle the most important questions about human existence. This philosophy would also provide tools by which man could transcend his mortal limitations and join the ranks of the angels. At the heart of Picos ideas were questions that he traced through the depth and breadth of human thought, from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to the medieval Arabs and Jews. He made use of everything at his disposal from Europes broadening horizons and asked primal questions of himself and the world. Why is it that we can be astonished by beauty That the hairs on the backs of our necks can be made to stand by intoxicating rhythms and harmonies That we can be provoked to ecstatic experiences by the simple means of an incantation In Catholic Italy, the implications of this line of thought were dangerous and provoked violent reactions, suggesting as they did that the notion of the individual might be just as much of an illusion as a flat earth or a geocentric universe. That there may well be notions of the divine other than the Christian God.

During a tempestuous life at the exquisite heart of the Italian Renaissance, Picos life is a testament to intellectual daring, to a human dignity founded in the willingness to think the unthinkable and to peer over the edge of the abyss in search of answers.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR A HISTORY OF WATER

A Times History Book of the Year 2022

A TLS Book of the Year 2022

[An] exhilarating book passionate employing prose as luscious as it is meticulous delightful

Guardian

Erudite and engrossingthe book combines literary flair with deep historical insight One of its many strengths is its vivid characterisation of people and places, not least those of Lisbon life high and low

The Times

This exhilarating and whip-smart bookpresents two competing visions of global history through the lives of two Portuguese travellersThis book is itself something of a wonder: beautifully written and utterly mesmerising. I loved every page

Sunday Times

A wonderful and wonder-full recreation of a crucial episode in European historythe book has a rare beauty: written with elegant restraint, its every page is rich in a numinous sense of vanishings and misunderstandings

Daily Telegraph

Fascinating, elegantly written

Spectator

Author Bio

Brought up in Kenya, the child of conservationist parents, Edward Wilson-Lee studied English at University College London and completed a doctorate at Oxford and Cambridge. He now lives in Cambridge with his wife and son, and teaches Shakespeare (among other things) at Sidney Sussex College. Over the past few years he has spent extended periods in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan.