Magic and the Dignity of Man

Copenhaver painstakingly reconstructs the story, or rather stories, of how Pico and his Oration were read and misread over the centuries. This is very much a project of love. -- Eva Del Soldato * Speculum * Massive, lively, and learned...He explains how and why historians decided to put this Renaissance philosopher and his ideas not only in a box, but in the wrong one...Copenhaver analyzes the arguments of Pico's critics with precision and panache...[He] has cut through generations of misguided commentary and shown us how to read this complex, baffling text. -- Anthony Grafton * New York Review of Books * This is nothing less than the definitive study of a text long considered central to the understanding the Renaissance and its place in Western culture. Even though the effect of Copenhaver's reading is to demote the text from that status, this book will certainly be a must-read for anyone, especially historians of philosophy and intellectual historians, interested in the larger significance of the Renaissance. -- James Hankins, Harvard University Brian Copenhaver's Magic and the Dignity of Man is erudite, original, and eloquent. In it he carries out two major tasks, one of demolition and one of construction, with great skill and flair. The book reinterprets one of the most prominent thinkers of the Italian Renaissance in ways that will be widely discussed. No future interpretation of Pico's life or work, no future reading of Renaissance philosophy, will be able to avoid engaging with it. -- Anthony Grafton, Princeton University