This volume provides a comprehensive presentation of the philosophical work of the fifteenth-century Renaissance thinker Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. In essays specially commissioned for this book, a distinguished group of scholars presents the central tropics and texts of Pico s literary output. Best known as the author of the celebrated Oration on the Dignity of Man, a magnificent speech originally intended to introduce a debate of 900 theses to be held in Rome before the Pope, the College of Cardinals, and an international group of scholars, Pico also wrote several other prominent works."