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 123 of 174
Book III · Chapter 1 · §§ 12–15
Latin
p. 248Sed ut ad rem veniamus, potentia quidem angeli in essentia sua est, quae prius quodammodo fit a Deo quam ab ipso formetur. In primo namque creationis suae momento angelus est solummodo; in alio ab auctore illustratur, ut sit intelligens atque formatur. Idcirco essentia illa principio informis est quodammodo et tamquam passivum subiectum quoddam exponitur ad actum intelligendi et formarum idearumque ornatum suscipiendum, de quo Zoroaster ait: Πάντα γὰρ ἐξετέλεσε πατήρ, καὶ νῷ παρέδωκε δευτέρῳ, id est: omnia perfecit pater et menti praebuit secundae. Est igitur angelus multitudo, cum constet ex pluribus.
Multitudo, inquam, immobilis. In illo certe Deo inferior est, quod non est vera unitas sicut Deus; in hoc propinquat, quod est ferme, ut ita loquar, sicut Deus immobilis. Recte post Deum, immobilem unitatem, ponitur angelus, immobilis multitudo.
Multitudo quidem est, cum nihil post Deum esse queat unitas simplicissima. Est quodammodo mobilis, quia longius recedens a Deo propinqua fit corporum qualitatibus, quae penitus agitantur. Si omnino immobilis esset, esset utique angelus. Si omnino mobilis, esset qualitas. Medium tamen aliquod inter angelum esse oportet et corporum qualitates, ne omnino immobilis angelus omnino mobili qualitati sit proximus.
Sit itaque partim immobilis, partim etiam mobilis. Stabit eius substantia, neque in maius minusve aut hoc aut illud mutabitur.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book III
p. 249But to come to the matter itself: the angel’s potency lies in his essence, which in a certain sense is made by God before it is formed by him. In the first moment of his creation the angel merely exists; in another he is illuminated by his author, so that he becomes intelligent, and is formed. Hence that essence is in the beginning in a certain sense formless, and is set forth as a kind of passive subject to receive the act of understanding and the adornment of forms and ideas. Of this Zoroaster says, Πάντα γὰρ ἐξετέλεσε πατήρ, καὶ νῷ παρέδωκε δευτέρῳ—that is, ‘The Father perfected all things and gave them to the second mind.’ The angel, then, is a multiplicity, since he consists of several things.
An immovable multiplicity, I say. In this the angel is certainly inferior to God: he is not true unity as God is. In this he draws near to God: he is almost, so to speak, immovable as God is. Rightly, after God, the immovable unity, is placed angel, the immovable multiplicity.
Soul is indeed a multiplicity, since nothing after God can be a most simple unity. It is movable in a certain respect, because, as it recedes farther from God, it draws near to the qualities of bodies, which are thoroughly in motion. If it were altogether immovable, it would be angel; if altogether movable, quality. Yet there must be some middle between angel and the qualities of bodies, lest the wholly immovable angel stand immediately next to wholly movable quality.
Let soul therefore be partly immovable and partly movable. Its substance will stand firm, and will change neither into something greater or less, nor into this or that.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book III · III.1.12–III.1.15
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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.