Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, "dei Conti di Mirandola e Concordia" also known as the "Count of Concord", was born in 1463 at the castle of Mirandola to a wealthy military family in Italy. The seemingly prophetic nature of his title Count of Concord will become more obvious the more one learns about him. Since there are other places that a detailed biography can be found, the years leading up to the full outward expressions of his spiritual, intellectual and philosophical understandings (which eventually culminate into his famous "Vatican Project") will be covered briefly to set a general context and foundation. His “Oration on the Dignity of Man”, or just Oratio, is widely considered by scholars to be the manifesto of the Renaissance, encapsulating it’s spiritual and philosophical essence. He is often referred to as a "humanist" and his philosophy is considered as being central to the historic pivot from pre-modern culture to modern conce