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 136 of 174
Book III · Chapter 2 · §§ 22–24
Latin
p. 274Haec illa ipsa essentia est quam Timaeus Locrus et Plato in libro de mundo constare dixerunt ex individua dividuaque natura. Haec illa est quae se ipsam inserit mortalibus, neque fit ipsa mortalis. Sicut enim se ipsam inserit integram, non discerptam, ita et integram retrahit, non dispersam. Et quia dum corpora regit haeret quoque divinis, corporum domina est, non comes. Hoc maximum est in natura miraculum. Reliqua enim sub Deo unum quiddam in se singula sunt; haec omnia simul.
Imagines in se possidet divinorum, a quibus ipsa dependet; inferiorum rationes et exemplaria, quae quodammodo et ipsa producit. Et cum media omnium sit, vires possidet omnium. Quod si ita est, transit in omnia. Et quia ipsa vera est universorum connexio, dum in alia migrat non deserit alia, sed migrat in singula ac semper cuncta conservat, ut merito dici possit centrum naturae, universorum medium, mundi series, vultus omnium, nodusque et copula mundi. Qualis sit tertiae huius essentiae natura satis, ut arbitror, diximus. Quod autem haec ipsa sit propria rationalis animae sedes facillime inde conspicitur, quod huiusmodi est rationalis animae definitio: vita et intelligens discurrendo et corpus vivificans tempore. Haec eadem est essentiae illius conditio. Nam vivit, intelligit, corpori praestat vitam. Quod vivat apparet, quoniam ea in terris vivere dicimus quae sua quadam interiori virtute per omnem partem moventur: sursum, deorsum, ante, retro, ad dexteram et sinistram. Ita plantae moventur et animalia. Ubi igitur est motus intimus et communis, ibi vita.
Vita, inquam, ibi est vis ipsa interna movendi. Vis huiusmodi ibi est praecipue, ubi totius agitationis fons est et origo primusque motus. Maxime enim est motus intimus atque communis ubi est primus. Primus autem motus in tertia illa essentia ponitur. Ibi igitur vita est: vita, inquam, talis ut eius participatione corpora vivant et moveantur. Nam est vita corporibus per naturam quam proxima. Illa igitur essentia tertia est vita vivificans corpora. Est etiam intelligens.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book III
p. 275This is that very essence which Timaeus of Locri and Plato, in the book on the world, said was composed of an indivisible and a divisible nature. It is this essence that inserts itself into mortal things without itself becoming mortal. As it inserts itself whole, not torn apart, so it withdraws whole, not dispersed. And because, while ruling bodies, it also clings to divine things, it is the mistress of bodies, not their companion. This is the greatest wonder in nature. All other things beneath God are each some one thing in themselves; this essence is all things together.
Within itself it possesses images of the divine things on which it depends, and the principles and exemplars of lower things, which in some measure it also produces. Since it is the middle of all things, it possesses the powers of all. If this is so, it passes into all things. And because it is the true connection of the universe, when it moves into some things it does not desert the others, but enters each in turn and always preserves them all. It may therefore rightly be called the center of nature, the middle of the universe, the world’s chain, the countenance of all things, and the knot and bond of the world. I believe we have said enough about the nature of this third essence. That it is the proper seat of rational soul is easily seen from the definition of rational soul: a life that understands by discursive movement and gives life to body in time. This is precisely the condition of that essence, for it lives, understands, and supplies life to body. That it lives is evident, since on earth we call those things alive which move in every direction by an inward power of their own: upward, downward, forward, backward, right, and left. Plants and animals move in this way. Wherever, then, motion is inward and shared throughout, there is life.
Life, I say, is there the inward power of motion itself. Such a power exists especially where the fountain and origin of all movement, the first motion, is found. For motion is most inward and most widely shared where it is first. The first motion is placed in that third essence. Life is therefore there—a life, I say, such that by participating in it bodies live and move. For it is the life by nature nearest to bodies. That third essence, then, is a life that gives life to bodies. It is also intelligent.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book III · III.2.22–III.2.24
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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.