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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Facing Pages · Branch 110 of 174
Book II · Chapter 13 · §§ 10–11
Latin
p. 222Ubinam haec sapientia est? Si in summo Deo, providet rebus Deus, cum conciliet invicem repugnantia ne se vicissim interimant, atque ad fines optimos cuncta perducat. Sin in alia quamvis infra Deum angelica mente vel anima, scito Deum omnia quae infra se sunt movere. Quare si angelica mens aut anima quaedam regit mundum ducitque ad bonum, certe et ducta a Deo et Dei virtute id agit.
Quapropter Deus primus ac summus est rector, qui providere potest omnibus, si potest per intellectum omnia facere, cum praestantius sit per intelligentiam facere quam considerare et conservare iam facta. Scit etiam regere cuncta, si facere non nesciuit. Vult denique gubernare et custodire quae sua sunt, quae fecit ipse, quibus non invidet bene essendi dona, postquam non invidit munus essendi.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book II
p. 223Where, then, is this wisdom? If it is in the supreme God, then God provides for things, reconciling those that contend with one another so that they do not destroy each other, and conducting all things to the best ends. But if it is in some other angelic mind or soul, however far beneath God, know that God moves everything below himself. Thus, if some angelic mind or soul governs the world and leads it toward the good, it surely does so because God leads it and because it acts by God's power.
God is therefore the first and highest ruler. He can provide for all things, since he can make all things through intellect, and it is a greater achievement to make by intelligence than merely to observe and preserve what has already been made. He also knows how to rule everything, if he knew how to make it. Finally, he wills to govern and preserve the things that are his own, which he himself has made. Having not begrudged them the gift of being, he does not begrudge them the gifts by which they may fare well.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book II · II.13.10–II.13.11
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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.