Scholars generally see the Oration as an introduction to Pico’s beliefs. M.V. Dougherty recently edited new essays on Pico, and has renewed interest in the philosopher since the 1960s. A reason for this has to do with the state of political discourse. Dougherty writes that the new significance of Pico has quite a bit to do with the work of Erasmus, Machiavelli, Kepler, and Voltaire. He also cites Milton, Donne, and Shakespeare. “Without doubt, therefore, Pico has long been recognized as an important figure in Renaissance thought, although some historians have debated whether Pico is best viewed as a representative intellectual from an age replete with intellectuals or as an exceptional figure deserving of particular admiration.” (Dougherty 2). For many Pico scholars, including Dougherty, the Oration creates a complete and sufficient basis for the discovery of all human knowledge and a myth that we can ascend in the chain of being; Pico’s work is now the focus of a collaborative commentary hosted by Brown University and University of Bologna.

There has appeared a series dedicated to editing and translating the volumes composing Pico’s Kabbalistic library collection. Additionally, the appearance of philological studies on Pico, as well as historiographical accounts, suggests that the present state of studi pichiani is a healthy one and that interest in this Renaissance thinker will continue to grow. (Dougherty 4)

Pico’s work began when he was studying Aristotlelianism at the University of Padua. He was already proficient in Latin and Greek, and began studying Hebrew and Arabic under the Jewish Averroist Elia del Medigo. It was here that Pico adopted the philosophy of Islamist Ibn Rushd, who came to be known as “Averroes.” He interpreted Aristotle to mean a few things: First, there is only one truth, but you can get it through two ways, philosophy and religion. Second, the world is eternal. Third, the soul is divided into two parts: one is individual, and the other is divine, but the individual soul is not eternal, and all humans share the same intellect at the basic level.

After studying at Padua, Pico went on to do postgraduate work at the University of Paris. It was probably in Paris that he began his 900 Theses of which the Oration is a defense. The speech and the theses form the first example of humanist syncretism, because they combine many religious and philosophical schools, among them Platonism, Neo-Platonism, Aristotelianism, Hermeticism, and Kabbalah. 

Morrison combines many of these things as well. Platonism sets forth the Theory of Forms, which says that sense objects — always being engaged in situations of perpetual change like touching, smelling, and hearing — are never genuine and always up for reinterpretation. In Morrison’s comics, speech patterns and visual cues are never explicitly stated to be what they appear to be. There is always a deeper level of symbolic and meaning in his comics.  He emphasizes this, paradoxically, by working with detail-oriented artists.. He needs that artistic detail to balance the abstract notions he is trying to convey. For example, Frank Quitely his artist on We3 and All-Star Superman comes from the artistic school of French comics pioneer Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Japanese Manga creator Katsuhiro Otomo. Phil Jimenez, from The Invisibles, has a very fashion-conscious and streamlined American pop style, and Rags Morales, the artist on the Action Comics reboot, presents motion in a static medium coupled with un-paralleled character emotion. The characters seem alive in Morales’ art. Overall, every detail in Morrison’s comics, from character to background to action, has an underlying meaning that differs from what is explicitly depicted. That doesn’t mean that the surfaces presented are not genuine, but that there is another layer of significance to the art. Readers recognize this depth, and Morrison’s works are frequently annotated online; Callahan and Meaney’s books testify to that, and writers like David Uzumeri at the website Comics Alliance annotate his current run on Batman, Incorporated.