Oration on the Dignity of Man

A Latin speech written in 1486 by the young Italian nobleman and scholar Pico della Mirandola to open a public debate in Rome on his 900 theses, drawn from almost every philosophical and religious tradition he knew. The debate never took place: Pope Innocent VIII suspended it and some theses were judged heretical. The oration was printed after Pico's death, and its familiar title was added by later editors. Its opening is the famous part. God, having filled every rank of creation, makes the human being without a fixed place or nature and tells Adam that he may shape himself as he chooses, sinking to the level of beasts or rising to the angels. Pico then describes the ascent of the soul through moral philosophy, dialectic, natural philosophy and theology, and defends his plan to show the agreement of Plato and Aristotle and of ancient wisdom, including Hebrew Kabbalah, Zoroaster and the Hermetic writings, with Christian truth.

Its picture of human beings as free to make themselves became a symbol of Renaissance humanism, and it is a short way into the period's hopes for a single wisdom behind all traditions.