The Oration on the Dignity of Man (De hominis dignitate in Latin) is a public discourse composed in 1486 by Pico della Mirandola, an Italian scholar and philosopher of the Renaissance.
He spent the following seven years variously in Ferrara, Padua, Florence and Paris, studying Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic at the chief universities of Italy and France.
"[citation needed] Pico intended to speak in front of an invited audience of scholars and clerics of the dignity of the liberal arts about the glory of angels.
[citation needed] The idea that men could ascend the chain of being through the exercise of their intellectual capacities was a profound endorsement of the dignity of human existence in this earthly life.
Coupled with his belief that all of creation constitutes a symbolic reflection of the divinity of God, Pico's philosophies had a profound influence on the arts, helping to elevate writers and painters from their medieval role as mere artisans to the Renaissance ideal of the artist as creative genius.
The Oration also served as an introduction to Pico's 900 theses,[6] which he believed would provide a complete and sufficient basis for the discovery of all knowledge, and hence a model for mankind's ascent of the chain of being.
Pico had "cosmic ambitions": in his letters and early texts, he hinted that debate of the 900 theses (the first printed book ever universally banned by the Church) might trigger Christ's Second Coming and the end of the world.
In a letter to Lorenzo dated August 27, 1489, Pico affirms among other things some of his theses refer purely to profane matters and were never intended for general reading, but instead for private debate among the learned.