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The Medieval Church · 1486
Oration on the Dignity of Man
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola · 1463–1494
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What it is
God tells Adam he has no fixed place or nature, and may sink to the brutes or rise to the divine as he chooses — an opening speech for a debate never held.
Why it lasted
Called the manifesto of the Renaissance. Thirteen of the theses it introduced were condemned, and its author was briefly arrested.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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