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 134 of 174
Book III · Chapter 2 · §§ 13–17
Latin
p. 270Quemadmodum tota vox significatioque quodammodo simul in singulis domus est partibus, cum tota paene simul audiatur et intelligatur in singulis. Neque impossibile est hanc essentiam, cum sit individuum quiddam in se ipso existens, amplae corporis moli sic totam esse praesentem. Immo vero ex eo quod et individua est et non clauditur loco, potest tota totum quicquid in loco est penetrare et comprehendere. Extensio enim quantitatis ubicumque reperitur talem vim et praesentiam prohibet, ita ut res extensa per quantitatem nequeat tota esse simul in pluribus. Quin etiam res illa quae, licet individua sit, est tamen alicubi affixa corporis quantitati—sicut punctum quod tamquam lineae terminus signatur in linea—nequit tota esse simul per partes quaslibet corporis.
Sic punctum quod est alicubi in linea aliqua circuli designatum neque in omnibus lineis aliis inest, neque per totam diffunditur lineam aut circulum.
Punctum vero quod circuli centrum est, nullius lineae proprium, in omnibus quodammodo lineis reperitur quae inde ad circumferentiam deducuntur. Et cum nullum punctum quod in circumferentia designatur totum circulum aeque respiciat, centrum tamen quod in nulla circumferentia proprie figitur universum circulum aeque circumspicit.
Non potest igitur esse tota simul in pluribus res illa quae dividua est, neque etiam res illa quae, licet sit individua, certum tamen in re alia dividua habet situm.
Tertia vero illa essentia neque extensa est, quia esset qualitas; neque in extensione sita alicubi, quia non per se ac libere moveretur si non subsisteret per se ipsam.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book III
p. 271In much the same way, a whole utterance and its meaning are in a certain sense present together in every part of a house, since the whole is heard and understood almost at once in every part. Nor is it impossible for this essence, since it is something indivisible existing in itself, to be wholly present in this way to a body of great bulk. Indeed, precisely because it is indivisible and is not enclosed by place, it can as a whole penetrate and encompass as a whole whatever is in place. Wherever quantitative extension is found, it prevents such power and presence, so that a thing extended by quantity cannot be wholly present in several places at once. Moreover, even a thing that is indivisible but is fixed somewhere to bodily quantity—like a point marked on a line as the line’s endpoint—cannot be wholly present throughout every part of a body.
Thus a point marked somewhere on one line of a circle is not present in all the other lines, nor is it diffused throughout the whole line or circle.
But the point that is the center of the circle belongs exclusively to no line and is in a certain sense found in all the lines drawn from it to the circumference. And although no point marked on the circumference regards the whole circle equally, the center, which is properly fixed on no circumference, surveys the entire circle equally.
A thing that is divisible, then, cannot be wholly present in several places at once; nor can a thing that, though indivisible, nevertheless has a fixed position in another divisible thing.
That third essence, however, is neither extended—for then it would be a quality—nor situated somewhere within extension, for it could not move through itself and freely unless it subsisted through itself.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book III · III.2.13–III.2.17
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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.