Diotimos Library · Renaissance Collection · Bilingual Edition
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Proem and Books I–IV · Latin with an independent English translation
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 64 of 174
Book II · Chapter 6 · §§ 5–9
Latin
p. 130Bonum latius est quam vita, quia pluribus convenit; magis quoque necessarium est mundo quam vita. Vita enim sublata cessaret quidem mundus moveri; sublato vero bono esse desineret. Si ergo in uno mundi corpore vivente una quaedam vita ubique est, quod alias ostendemus, multo magis unum ipsum bonum est ubique, etiam extra mundum. Si primum patiens, quod est materia et essentia, per omnia propagatur, multo amplius per omnia et ultra omnia sese propagat primum agens, quod est Deus.
Non decet mentis machinationem ulterius quam boni praesentiam progredi. Illa vero progreditur per immensum. Ac decere Platonici putant infinitum bonum per immensum exuberando ita sese integrum fundere, ut nullam vel imaginariam immensi particulam, sive in mundo sit sive cogitetur extra mundum, relinquat sua praesentia destitutam.
Quippe si natura boni est se ipsum amplificare, infinitum bonum amplificat infinite se ipsum.
Difficile reperitur ubi sit Deus, quia nusquam est quod nullius vel subiecti vel loci limite cohibetur. Difficilius reperitur ubi non sit, quia in omnibus est illud in quo sunt, per quod fiunt, per quod servantur quaelibet ubique. Deus ideo est in omnibus, quia omnia in eo sunt, quae nisi essent in eo, essent nusquam et omnino non essent. Per Deum hoc ipsum ubi est, diciturque ubique.
Per Deum tamquam ducem et tamquam lucem agit et quaerit quodcumque agit quisque et quaerit alicubi.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book II
p. 131Good extends more widely than life, because it belongs to more things; it is also more necessary to the world than life. For if life were removed, the world would indeed cease to move; but if good were removed, it would cease to be. Therefore, if in the one living body of the world a single life is everywhere, as we shall show elsewhere, much more is the one Good itself everywhere, even beyond the world. If the first recipient, which is matter and essence, is propagated through all things, much more does the first agent, which is God, propagate himself through all things and beyond all things.
It is not fitting for the mind’s ranging thought to proceed farther than the presence of the Good. Yet that thought ranges through immensity. And the Platonists hold it fitting that infinite Good, overflowing through immensity, should pour itself forth whole in such a way as to leave no portion of immensity, even an imaginary one—whether it lies within the world or is conceived beyond it—bereft of its presence.
For if the nature of good is to extend itself, infinite Good extends itself infinitely.
It is difficult to discover where God is, because that which is confined by no limit of subject or place is nowhere. It is more difficult to discover where he is not, because in all things is that in which they are, through which they come to be, and through which every thing everywhere is preserved. God is therefore in all things because all things are in him; if they were not in him, they would be nowhere and would not exist at all. Through God, the very ‘where’ exists and is said to be everywhere.
Through God as guide and as light, each person does whatever he does and seeks whatever he seeks in any place.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book II · II.6.5–II.6.9
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.