The hiding Humanist — Ioannes, the good fellow

The letter of Marsilio Ficino was published under the title Dubitatio utrum opera philosophica regantur fato an providentia and summarised his tenets of Platonist-Humanist philosophy as it were. Based on his book of letters, this writing is part of a correspondence in which Ficino responds to Ioannes Pannonius of Buda, who, in his letter to Ficino — also published by the book of letters — criticised Ficino’s views. Literary criticism has been trying to identify the persona of Ioannes Pannonius for long. In the highly influential study of Florio Banfi, Joannes de Varadino (Giovanni Unghero, Giovanni Varadino), that is, John of Varad, Augustine monk is identified as the supposed person. Banfi’s views were reconsidered by Klara Pajorin in 1999, who reckoned that Ioannes Pannonius is John Vitez the Younger. The author of the present study wishes to enhance the idea of Valery Rees (1999) who thinks that Ioannes Pannonius was created as a fictitious character by Ficino, and thus, the author reckons that the let...