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 119 of 174
Book III · Chapter 1 · §§ 1–5
Latin
p. 240Descensus per quinque gradus fit, per quos est factus ascensus. Qui gradus invicem congrue comparantur.
Ascendimus hactenus a corpore in qualitatem; ab hac in animam; ab anima in angelum; ab eo in Deum, unum, verum et bonum, auctorem omnium atque rectorem. Corpus appellant Pythagorici multa.
Qualitatem multa et unum; animam unum et multa; angelum unum multa; Deum denique unum, quia corpus ad quamlibet speciem indeterminatum est et suapte natura sine fine dividuum, cuius materiam in infinitum fluxuram inquiunt, nisi eam forma sistat et uniat.
Qualitas ad materiam specie terminandam confert et est per se quodammodo individua. Sed per admixtionem corporis fit divisibilis. Anima materiam specie terminat, neque per se neque per inquinationem corporis est divisibilis, sed mobilis multitudo.
Angelus receptaculum specierum est et multitudo immobilis.
Deus super species immobilis unitas. Deum aiunt per se omnino indissolubilem esse, quia ipsa unitas statusque sit; corpora vero ex elementis composita prorsus dissolubilia, quoniam in eis et multitudo unitatem et motus superat statum. Sed angelos, animas, sphaeras et stellas dissolubiles quidem videri quodammodo, quatenus partes habent, esse tamen indissolubiles, propterea quod in ipsis unitas statusque multitudinem motumque exuperant. Hic autem est nodus ille divinus quo Deus, ut Timaeus putat, haec per se solubilia semper indissoluta conservat. Tam potens est unitatis ipsius statusque munus, ut in infimo solum universi gradu excedi ab oppositis videatur, sed tamen interim ibi quoque quodammodo vincat, siquidem materiam ipsam infinitae multitudini mutationique subiectam semper custodit in unitate substantiae atque ordinis permanentem.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book III
p. 241The descent takes place through the five grades by which the ascent was made. These grades are fittingly compared with one another.
We have ascended thus far from body to quality; from quality to soul; from soul to angel; and from angel to God—the one, the true, and the good, the author and ruler of all things. The Pythagoreans call body “many.”
They call quality ‘many and one’; soul ‘one and many’; angel ‘one-many’; and finally God ‘one.’ For body is undetermined toward any form and by its own nature divisible without end; its matter, they say, would flow out to infinity unless form brought it to rest and unity.
Quality contributes to delimiting matter by form and is in itself, in a certain sense, indivisible; through admixture with body, however, it becomes divisible. Soul delimits matter by form and is divisible neither in itself nor through contamination by body, but is a movable multiplicity.
Angel is the receptacle of forms and an immovable multiplicity.
Above forms stands God, an immovable unity. They say that God is altogether indissoluble through himself, because he is unity itself and stability itself; bodies compounded of elements, by contrast, are wholly dissoluble, since in them multiplicity surpasses unity and motion surpasses stability. Angels, souls, spheres, and stars, they say, appear dissoluble in a certain respect, insofar as they have parts, yet are nevertheless indissoluble, because in them unity and stability prevail over multiplicity and motion. This is that divine knot by which God, as Timaeus holds, preserves forever indissoluble things that are dissoluble in themselves. So powerful is the gift of unity and stability that only at the lowest level of the universe does it appear to be overcome by its opposites; yet even there it prevails in some measure, since it always keeps matter—subject to infinite multiplicity and change—abiding in the unity of substance and order.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book III · III.1.1–III.1.5
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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.