On the Dignity of Man

A short oration written in 1486 as the opening speech for a public disputation of 900 theses Pico intended to defend in Rome. Its argument is that human beings were given no fixed place in the chain of being — unlike the angels above and the animals below, they were created indeterminate and can shape themselves downward into brutes or upward toward the divine. That freedom to self-fashion is what Pico means by dignity, and the speech has been read ever since as the manifesto of Renaissance humanism.

Why it’s on the list: Assigned in UATX’s “Renaissance and Reformation” course, where it is paired with Bacon’s New Atlantis and Great Instauration — Pico supplies the new account of what a human being is, and Bacon the new account of what that human being should do with nature.

Where I saw it: The University of Austin’s Fall 2025 reading list, 65 Texts Our Students Are Reading, published November 13 2025 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 65-text curriculum is transcribed on UATX Fall Reading List.

Connections

• UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this is assigned in.
• Renaissance — the period this oration is usually taken to define.
• Humanism — the movement it is read as the manifesto of.
• The New Atlantis — assigned beside it in the same UATX course.