Nicholas of Cusa

Nicholas of Cusa was born in 1401 in what would become Germany, and became one of the first German voices of Renaissance humanism. He trained as a philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer - a polymath in an age that rewarded range. His mystical writings on "learned ignorance" explored the idea that recognizing the limits of human knowledge was itself a form of enlightenment. In 1446 he was dispatched as papal legate to Germany, navigating the power struggles between Rome and the German states. Pope Nicholas V made him cardinal in 1448 for his service, then Prince-Bishop of Brixen two years later. In 1459 he rose to vicar general in the Papal States. He died on 11 August 1464, but the intellectual and political currents he stirred kept moving: in 2001, six hundred years after his birth, scholars on four continents marked the anniversary with conferences and books.