Diotimos Library · Renaissance Collection · Bilingual Edition
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Proem and Books I–IV · Latin with an independent English translation
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English Page · Branch 36 of 174
Book I · Chapter 5 · §§ 19–21
Latin
p. 74Profecto motorem sequitur actio illa quae movere dicitur. Actionem hanc sequitur illa passio quae moveri, neque fit contra. Non enim priora a posterioribus ducuntur, sed converso. Potest igitur multo magis esse alicubi actio illa quae dicitur movere sine passione illa quae est moveri quam passio huiusmodi seorsum ab actione. Tamen passio talis in corporibus est seorsum ab actione. Igitur alicubi erit actio procul a passione, ut sicut corpora moventur quidem, non movent, sic angeli moveant, non moveantur. De quibus inquit Zoroaster: πᾶς ἔχει κόσμος νοερούς ἀνοχῆας ἀκαμπεῖς. Mundus habet intellectuales rectores immobiles. Igitur sicut qualitates omnino mobiles antecedunt animae partim mobiles, partimque immobiles, sic animas antecedunt omnino immobiles angeli.
Angelos esse atque esse multos Aristoteles in libro XI Divinorum ita probat. Motum caeli continuum, ordinatum et quantum in se est indeficientem oportet a motore fieri, qui neque in se neque per accidens moveatur. Cum vero motus huiusmodi in caelo sint multi, inter se discreti, specie et virtute diversi, oportet eos a pluribus eiusmodi motoribus fieri, qui videlicet neque corpora sint, ne cogantur dum movent ab alio interim ipsi moveri atque ita in infinitum necessario procedatur. Neque rursus formae in corpore, ne eas una cum moto corpore moveri contingat. Oportet enim ad motorem perfectissimum, id est immobilem, pervenire, ne in motibus ulla unquam transgressio fiat. Motores eiusmodi mentes sunt, siquidem in formis a materia omnino solutis intelligibile atque intellectus est idem. Haec Aristoteles. Hebraei posterioresque philosophi mentes illas angelos nuntiosque nominant. Quorum praecipuos non esse pauciores quam decem alicubi disputat Avicenna. Alibi vero multo plures significare videtur. Aristoteles autem haudquaquam pauciores esse quam caelestes motus. Eumque numerum probabili se ratione computavisse fatetur.
Quod autem necessarium sit sapientioribus se dimittere.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book I
p. 75A mover is surely followed by the action called moving. This action is followed by the passion called being moved, and the reverse does not occur, for prior things are not derived from posterior things, but conversely. It is therefore far more possible for the action called moving to exist somewhere without the passion that is being moved than for such a passion to exist apart from action. Yet a passion of this kind does exist in bodies apart from action. Consequently, action will exist somewhere far removed from passion: just as bodies are indeed moved but do not move, so angels may move without being moved. Of them Zoroaster says: ‘The world has immobile intellectual rulers.’ Thus, just as souls, partly mobile and partly immobile, precede wholly mobile qualities, so wholly immobile angels precede souls.
Aristotle proves as follows, in Book XI of his work on divine things, that angels exist and that they are many. The motion of heaven, continuous, ordered, and, so far as lies in itself, unfailing, must be produced by a mover that is moved neither in itself nor incidentally. Since there are many motions of this kind in heaven, distinct from one another and diverse in species and power, they must be produced by many movers of this kind. These movers cannot be bodies, lest, while moving other things, they themselves be compelled to be moved by another and so a regress to infinity necessarily follow. Nor, again, can they be forms in bodies, lest they happen to be moved together with the moving body. We must arrive at a most perfect mover, that is, an immobile one, so that no deviation may ever occur in the motions. Movers of this kind are minds, since in forms wholly released from matter the intelligible and the intellect are the same. Thus far Aristotle. The Hebrews and later philosophers call these minds angels and messengers. Avicenna argues in one place that the principal among them are no fewer than ten; elsewhere he appears to indicate many more. Aristotle, however, holds that they are by no means fewer than the celestial motions, and he admits that he calculated their number by a probable line of reasoning.
He admits, however, that it is necessary to defer to those who are wiser.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book I · I.5.19–I.5.21
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology places the immortality of the soul at the center of an extended philosophical ascent through body, soul, angel, and God. This exact page-aligned Renaissance edition presents the authorial Proem and Books I–IV in a newly established Latin reading text with an independent English translation prepared by Diotimos Editions.
Historical Text and Translation
The Latin reading text is based on the Florence editio princeps printed by Antonio Miscomini on 7 November 1482 and principally collated against the Paris 1559 printing, with a 1641 Opera printing used only as a late control and OCR aid. Abbreviations are expanded, spelling and punctuation are conservatively normalized, and substantive departures among the witnesses are documented in the edition’s apparatus.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independently worded English translation in house. It aims for a dignified but readable modern register while preserving Ficino’s argumentative sequence, metaphors, technical distinctions, repetitions, conditions, purpose clauses, and direct appeals; long periods are divided only where clarity requires it.
Rights
Ficino’s Latin source work is in the public domain. The 2026 English translation and Diotimos editorial matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos.