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 133 of 174
Book III · Chapter 2 · §§ 9–12
Latin
p. 268Sed quomodo corporibus iungitur? Num forte, cum corpus aliquod ingreditur, unum quoddam illius corporis tangit punctum, atque ita dicitur unita corporibus? Nequaquam. Uniretur enim puncto, non corpori, neque totum corpus illud vivificaret, sed punctum viveret unum, toto corpore vita carente. Immo vero, si in unum semper collecta punctum ita sibi ipsi unita perseveraret, idem esset quod angelus, qui longe distat a corpore. Vel saltem divinis eo modo haereret quidem, corpora vero relinqueret. Igitur non uni dumtaxat corporis puncto coniungitur, sed pluribus, atque ita partes corporis implet.
Sed numquid ita implet ut albas carnes albedo, et omnino quaevis qualitas materiam propriam? Minime.
Sic enim esset idem quod qualitas, atque relictis divinis ad corpus penitus declinaret. Albedo ita in tota est carne, ut cum ea aequaliter in partes plurimas extendatur et dividatur, et pars albedinis secundum physicos in parte sit carnis, et in maiori carnis parte pars maior albedinis, in minore sit minor. Sic albedo facta est corporalis. Idem pateretur essentia illa quam tertiam esse putamus, si non aliter quam qualitas ista funderetur in corpus; atque ita ad alterum naturae extremum tracta esse desineret copula mundi.
Quamobrem, cum corpus ingreditur, singulis corporis particulis tota fit praesens, neque dividitur distrahiturve in partes ullas ad hoc ut partibus corporis a se invicem distantibus adstet. Nam per vim individuam tangit corpus, non per latitudinem quantitatis. Igitur integra remanens atque simplex, singulis partibus tota et indivisa fit praesens.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book III
p. 269But how is it joined to bodies? When it enters a body, does it perhaps touch a single point of that body and so come to be called united with bodies? By no means. It would then be united to a point, not to the body; nor would it give life to the whole body, but one point would live while the entire body remained lifeless. Indeed, if it were always gathered into a single point and thus persevered in unity with itself, it would be the same as angel, who stands far removed from body. Or at least it would cling to divine things in that manner, but abandon bodies. It is therefore joined not merely to one point of the body but to many, and in this way fills the body’s parts.
But does it fill the body as whiteness fills white flesh, and, more generally, as any quality fills its proper matter? Not at all.
For then it would be the same as quality and, forsaking divine things, would incline wholly toward body. Whiteness is present in the whole of the flesh in such a way that it is extended and divided with the flesh equally into many parts. According to the natural philosophers, a part of the whiteness is in a part of the flesh: in a larger part of flesh there is a larger part of whiteness, and in a smaller part, a smaller. Whiteness has thus become corporeal. The essence we consider third would suffer the same fate if it were poured into body in no other way than this quality; drawn toward the other extreme of nature, it would thereby cease to be the bond of the world.
Therefore, when it enters a body, it becomes wholly present to each particle of the body. It is neither divided nor drawn out into any parts in order to stand present to bodily parts distant from one another; for it touches the body by an indivisible power, not by the breadth of quantity. Remaining whole and simple, it is thus present, whole and undivided, to each part.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book III · III.2.9–III.2.12
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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.