Re-Writing the Creation Story: How Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola's "Oration on the Dignity of Man" Influenced the Renaissance and Man's Perception of Himself

Re-Writing the Creation Story: How Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man Influenced the Renaissance and Man’s Perception of Himself In the time before the Renaissance, there were two commonly accepted stories of the world’s Creation: those expressed in the first chapters of Genesis. These stories captured the work of God as he brought about the universe, the plants, the animals, and the humans, and they chronicled the fall of Adam and Eve, who used the free will that God had given them in such a way that it brought about their downfall. However, just as the Humanist movement was beginning at the forefront of the Renaissance, a brilliant young writer, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, published his Oration on the Dignity of Man, a work that put forth another version of the creation story. In a time when great thinkers were beginning to speculate on human dignity and rationality, Pico’s Oration on the Dignity of Man provided a refreshing change from the pessimistic Biblical story of the Creation. His portrayal of God, his ideas about the Creation of man, and his description of free will come together in a way that empowers mankind, as he paves the way for future humanist thinkers with his comments and style of writing. The creation story presented in Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man is fundamentally different from the creation story of Genesis for many reasons. The first large difference between the two works lies in their portrayal of God. In Genesis, it is stated that “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them,” (Genesis 1:27). This idea that humans were created in the image and likeness of God is a major part of the Christian faith; however, in his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Mirandola appears to claim the opposite. His word choice paints a picture of God as a man, referring to him as “the supreme Architect,” and the “Supreme Artisan” (Mirandola, 244), placing the