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 149 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 1 · §§ 36–38
Latin
p. 300Quod ostendunt ipsorum corporum naturae diversae specie, qualitatibus et effectibus. Si globi tales propter crassitudinem a spiritus puritate remoti atque angusti propriis animabus vivunt, vivunt et multo magis globi omnes superiores, qui et puriores sunt et ampliores admodum, quorum fomento terra et aqua parturiunt. Animam suam habeat aer, suam ignis, eadem ratione qua terra suam et aqua. Similiter octo caelorum globi animas octo; tot enim apud veteres erant caeli.
In terra multa sunt animalia, quae propriam habent animam a communi anima terrae distinctam, quia moventur loco, quod terra non facit; quia separata cum sint a terra vivunt, quod lapides et plantae non faciunt, quae per animam vivunt terrae, non suam; quia se a terra vel volatu vel aedificiis et machinis tollunt in altum. In aqua rursus plurima sunt animalia viventia propriis animabus. Si ergo a Deo fecunda et ornata facta est aqua et terra, cur non aer et ignis praeter communes animas suas etiam animas multas contineant et animalia propria? Idem de caelorum sphaeris argumentare, ubi stellae, cum sint inter se quantitate, luce, virtute motuque diversae et singulae proprios circuitus peragant, specie quoque diversas animas habent. Quae quidem stellae ita caelos ornant, ut aquam aquatica et terrena animalia terram.
Animalia illa caelestia ob maximam lucis copiam clare perspicimus. Terrena quoque et aquatica, quia et propinqua sunt nobis et sua crassitudine oculis sese monstrant. Aerea vero et ignea non videmus, quia neque etiam ignis et aeris cernimus elementa, cum neque lucis ingentissimae beneficio neque molis crassitudine appareant oculis terrenorum.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 301The diverse natures of their bodies—in species, qualities, and effects—show this. If spheres of this kind, removed from the purity of spirit by their density and narrow in extent, live by souls of their own, still more do all the higher spheres live, for they are both purer and far more ample, and by their fostering earth and water bring forth their offspring. Let air have its own soul, and fire its own, by the same reasoning by which earth and water have theirs. Likewise, let the eight heavenly spheres have eight souls; for among the ancients there were eight heavens.
On earth there are many living creatures that have a soul of their own, distinct from the common soul of earth: they move from place to place, which earth does not; once separated from earth they live, which stones and plants do not, for these live through the soul of earth and not through one of their own; and by flight, or by buildings and machines, they raise themselves above the earth. In water, too, very many animals live by souls of their own. If, then, water and earth were made fruitful and adorned by God, why should air and fire not contain, besides their common souls, many souls of their own and creatures proper to them? Argue in the same way about the heavenly spheres. Since the stars differ among themselves in size, light, power, and motion, and each completes its own circuit, they possess souls differing also in species. These stars adorn the heavens just as aquatic animals adorn water and terrestrial animals the earth.
We clearly perceive those celestial living beings because of their immense abundance of light. We also perceive terrestrial and aquatic creatures, because they are near us and reveal themselves to the eyes by their density. But airy and fiery creatures we do not see, for we do not even discern the elements of fire and air, since they appear to earthly eyes neither through the gift of immense light nor through density of mass.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.1.36–IV.1.38
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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.