Pico della Mirandola, one of the most remarkable thinkers of the Renaissance, has become known as a founder of humanism and a supporter of secular rationality. Brian Copenhaver upends this understanding of Pico, unearthing the magic and mysticism in the most famous work attributed to him, The Oration on the Dignity of Man.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part One: Dignity
  • 1. Vile Bodies and Naked Dignity
    • 1. The Honored Dead
    • 2. Missing Persons
    • 3. Kant’s Dignity and Pico’s Dignitas
    • 4. Manetti’s Dignitas 1
    • 5. Cicero’s Dignitas
    • 6. Christian Dignitas
    • 7. Manetti’s Dignitas 2
    • 8. Manetti’s Dignitas 3
    • 9. Beyond Freedom and Dignity?
• Part Two: Stories about Pico
  • 2. Pico Dignified
    • 1. Swiss Facts about Italy
    • 2. Exalted Premonitions
  • 3. Pico Resurgent
    • 1. Yorick, Papini, and Pico
    • 2. Oreglia and the Blood Libel
    • 3. Festivities in Mirandola
    • 4. Gentile’s Pico
    • 5. Garin’s Pico
    • 6. Gentile’s Pico Again
    • 7. Anagnine’s Pico
    • 8. Papini’s Kingdom
  • 4. Pico Existentialist or Actualist?
    • 1. Gentile Dead or Alive?
    • 2. Actualism and Autoctisis
    • 3. Existentialism and Modernism
    • 4. Against ‘Humanism'
  • 5. Pico Sainted
    • 1. Practicing Death
    • 2. Two Epistolaries and a Hagiography
    • 3. Reading for a Nun
    • 4. Ficino’s Letters
    • 5. Savonarola
    • 6. First Letters from Pico
    • 7. More Letters from Pico
    • 8. Last Letters from Pico
    • 9. Pico Boxes
  • 6. Pico Raving
    • 1. Scholars and Syncretists
    • 2. Judaizers and Stargazers
    • 3. Schwärmer and Wound-Worms
  • 7. Liberty, Enthusiasms, and Grace
    • 1. Se vuol ballare Signor Contino . . .
    • 2. Philosophy Dying
    • 3. The Soul Has Wings
  • 8. Pico Reviled and Redeemed
    • 1. Pico with Dignity?
    • 2. Pico for Philosophers and Theologians
  • 9. Pippa Passes Pico
    • 1. English Enthusiasms
    • 2. The Italy of Savonarola Brown
    • 3. Pictures of Pico
  • 10. Pico across the Seas and Back
    • 1. Pico Our Paladin
    • 2. A Textbook Case
    • 3. A Hermetic Pico
    • 4. Festivities Again in Mirandola
• Part Three: Pico’s Oration
  • 11. Pico Orates
    • 1. Secrets and Codes
    • 2. Abulafia’s Ladder
    • 3. Counting on Flavius
    • 4. Oration I, 1–10
    • 5. Oration II, 11–15
  • 12. Pico Consults and Disputes
    • 1. Oration III, 16–19
    • 2. Oration III, 20–25
    • 3. Oration III, 26–32
    • 4. Oration III, 33–35
    • 5. Oration IV, 36–45
    • 6. Oration IV, 46–55
  • 13. Pico Defends Magic and Kabbalah
    • 1. Oration V, 56–62
    • 2. Oration VI, 63–68
    • 3. Oration VII, 69–72
• Conclusion: Real Picos and Why They Matter
• Appendix A: Pico’s Oration
• Appendix B: Contents of Pico’s 900 Conclusions
• Appendix C: Selections from Pico’s 900 Conclusions
• Appendix D: Glossary
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Illustration Credits
• Index