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 124 of 174
Book III · Chapter 1 · §§ 16–19
Latin
p. 250Fluet autem operatio, et modo haec, modo illa, atque aliter et aliter operabitur. Qualitas autem anima inferior est, quandoquidem per essentiam operationemque mutatur. Qualitate inferius corpus. Qualitas enim movetur et movet; movet enim corpora. Corpus movetur quidem, movet nihil.
Angelus quidem quod sit unum quiddam et quod sit actus non a se ipso habet, sed a Deo vere uno actuque purissimo. Sed quod sit multiplex per potentiam suscipiendi et patiendi habet ex se ipso, quantum extra Deum productus a productoris perfectione degenerat. Multitudo igitur naturalis est angelo. Anima quoque quod una quaedam substantia sit et quod sit actus stabilis per essentiam non a se ipsa, sed a Deo sortitur actu uno et stabilissimo. Quod vero multiplex sit et passiva ex se ipsa possidet, quia sub Deo locatur. Quod denique mobilis, ex se ipsa rursus, quia sub angelo. Sicut igitur unitas naturalis est Deo et angelo multitudo, ita motus naturalis est animae. Lux Dei producit angelum sub Dei scilicet umbra; lux Dei animam sub umbra producit angeli. Angelus a Dei uno actu unitatem stabilem adipiscitur; sub Dei umbra cadit in multitudinem; anima a Dei luce statum nanciscitur, sub umbra Dei multitudinem, sub angeli umbra mutationem.
Fons unitatis Deus; fons multitudinis angelus; fons motionis est anima. Deus per se ipsum unitas; angelus per Deum est unus, per se multiplex.
Anima per Deum una; per Dei umbram, id est quia sub Deo est simul cum angelo, multiplex; per se ipsam mobilis. Qualitas per superiora habet ut moveat aliquid; per se habet ut materiae misceatur. Corpus per qualitatem habet ut agat; per se solum ut patiatur.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book III
p. 251Its operation, however, will flow: now it will perform this, now that, and will act in one way and then another. Quality is lower than soul, since it changes in both essence and operation; body is lower than quality. For quality is moved and also moves—it moves bodies—whereas body is moved but moves nothing.
That angel is some one thing and is actuality he has not from himself, but from God, who is truly one and the purest actuality. But that he is manifold through the potency of receiving and undergoing he has from himself, insofar as, produced outside God, he falls away from the perfection of his producer. Multiplicity is therefore natural to angel. Soul likewise receives from God, the one and most stable actuality, both that it is one substance and that it is an actuality stable in essence; it does not possess these from itself. But that it is manifold and passive it possesses from itself, because it is placed beneath God; and that it is movable it possesses again from itself, because it is beneath angel. As unity, then, is natural to God and multiplicity to angel, so motion is natural to soul. The light of God produces angel beneath the shadow, as it were, of God; the light of God produces soul beneath the shadow of angel. From God’s one actuality angel acquires stable unity, while under God’s shadow he falls into multiplicity; from God’s light soul acquires stability, under God’s shadow multiplicity, and under angel’s shadow change.
God is the fountain of unity; angel the fountain of multiplicity; soul the fountain of motion. God is unity through himself; angel is one through God, manifold through himself.
Soul is one through God; manifold through God’s shadow—that is, because it stands beneath God together with angel—and movable through itself. Through the higher orders quality possesses the power to move something; through itself, the condition of being mingled with matter. Through quality body possesses the power to act; through itself alone, the condition of undergoing.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book III · III.1.16–III.1.19
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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.