25 pages 50 minutes read

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Oration on the Dignity of Man

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1496

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Key FiguresCharacter Analysis

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Pico is the author of the Oration on the Dignity of Man. He writes from a Christian perspective, while also referring to sources from different backgrounds. He was a Renaissance philosopher and Italian. In the late 15th century, he spent years studying philosophy and theology. He prepared the Oration to present 900 theses. However, Pope Innocent VIII instead had a commission to find heresy in the theses. Pico was only in his early twenties when he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man. He covers a wide range of topics, referring to Christian, Hebrew, Greek, and other sources.