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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Latin Page · Branch 114 of 174
Book II · Chapter 13 · §§ 20–22
Latin
p. 230At si parentes tui te clausa undique domo sic ab infantia educavissent ut mirabile hunc mundi decorem ante annum aetatis trigesimum non vidisses, proculdubio novum deinde harum rerum spectaculum esses usque adeo admiratus ut, quamvis ante ambiguus, postea tamen numquam ambigere potuisses quin cuncta unius sapientissimi artificis providentia fiant atque regantur. Fateamur igitur—necessarium est, Lucreti—quod, cum partes effectusque mundi constanti ordine procedant, non potest totus ipse mundus praeter constantiam ordinemque vel nunc procedere vel ab initio prodiisse. Fateamur denique quod neque sua sponte movetur mundus sine vita, neque tam diu tam aequaliter volvitur sine potentissima vita, neque tanto ordine sine sapientissima mente, neque tam optime et commodissime absque summo bono; sed vita quaedam una, regina unius mundani corporis, potentia, sapientia, bonitate praecellens, mundum providentissime et ab initio et continue perducit ad optimum. Haec vel summus est Deus vel Dei summi pedisequa. Si summus est Deus, Deus providet certe. Si Dei pedisequa, Deus etiam providet.
Quoniam primum principium sui ipsius gratia agit movetque cuncta. Divine de Iove dixit Orpheus: παντογένεθλ’, ἀρχὴ πάντων, πάντων τε τελευτή, id est, omnium genitor, principiumque et finis. Ideo si vita mundi providet, profecto ducta a Deo ad Dei providet finem. Igitur ad Dei bonitatem omnia denique diriguntur. Atqui haec bonitas, cum totius operis sui habeat curam, certe partes negligit nullas. Ex singulis enim constat optimus totius compositi status et habitus.
Totum hoc Orpheus sic expressit: πάντ’ ἐσορᾷς, καὶ πάντ’ ἐπακούεις, πάντα βραβεύεις, id est, omnia intus inspicis, omnia intus audis, omniaque distribuis.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book II
p. 231But suppose that from infancy your parents had raised you in a house closed on every side, so that you had not seen the marvelous beauty of this world before your thirtieth year. You would surely have marveled so greatly afterward at this new spectacle that, however doubtful you had once been, you could never again have doubted that all things are made and governed by the providence of one supremely wise craftsman. We must therefore confess, Lucretius, that since the parts and effects of the world proceed in a constant order, the whole world itself cannot now proceed, nor could it first have arisen, apart from constancy and order. Let us confess, finally, that the world does not move itself without life; that it has not revolved for so long and with such regularity without a most powerful life; that it cannot possess such order without a most wise mind, nor be arranged in the best and most fitting manner without the supreme good. Rather, one life, queen of the one body of the world and preeminent in power, wisdom, and goodness, has from the beginning and without ceasing conducted the world with perfect providence toward what is best. This life is either the supreme God or the handmaid of the supreme God. If it is the supreme God, then God certainly provides for the world; if it is God's handmaid, God provides for it nonetheless.
For the first principle acts for its own sake and moves all things. Orpheus spoke divinely of Jupiter: ‘the begetter of all, their beginning and their end.’ If, then, the life of the world exercises providence, it surely does so under God's direction and toward God's end. Thus all things are ultimately directed toward the goodness of God. Since this goodness cares for its whole work, it neglects none of its parts; for the best state and condition of the composite whole is constituted from them one by one.
Orpheus expressed the whole matter in these words: ‘You behold all things from within, you hear all things from within, and you distribute all things.’
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book II · II.13.20–II.13.22
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.