Esistenza ed essenza: dalla "Oratio de hominis dignitate" di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola agli “umanismi” del Novecento.

This paper aims to be a theoretical investigation which starts from the desire to understand the particular statement of Eugenio Garin about an alleged "Pico-Sartre line".The connection between these two philosophers comes from the surprising closeness of terminology and anthropological conception of Pico’s "Oration on the Dignity of Man" and "Existentialism is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre. This alleged affinity coincides with a period of renewed historical reception of the fifteenth-century philosopher, testified by the rise of critical writings in his honor and a change in the conception of the character,elevated to a symbol of a previous historical period and manifesto of human and cultural values felt with impressive urgency by the mid-twentieth century. The purpose of this work is not only the clarification of the relationship between these two works but also a question about the reason for such a "rebirth" of Pico in the twentieth century, after years of apparent disinterest in the Oratio and its philosophical significance. The history of this reception includes Pico’s meditation on the broader issue of humanism and its historical and philosophical significance. The modern reception of renaissance ideas attests the philosophical richness of humanism and its continuing relevance. The “Pico-Sartre line” is placed at the beginning of this research not as a theoretical basis for departure, but rather as an object of investigation; its existence is not accepted a priori, but it is investigated trying to understand its consistency and development.