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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English Page · Branch 137 of 174
Book III · Chapter 2 · §§ 25–28
Latin
p. 276Quippe si motus alicubi perfectus est, perfectissimus certe est ubi primus. Nulla enim perfectio in posteriores motus nisi a primo descendit. Igitur motus est in tertia essentia motionum omnium perfectissimus. Is est autem qui a fonte suo discedit quam minimum; qui suo fundamento maxime iungitur; qui unus et aequalis est summopere; qui se ipso sufficiens est; qui figuram perfectissimam imitatur. Talis autem est circuitus, ut cuique constat, qui etiam solus omnium motionum est sempiternus.
Alii quippe motus aliquem attingunt terminum, ultra quem non liceat progredi, cum nullum sit usquam spatium infinitum. Circuitus autem, ut semel eadem repetit, ita bis ac ter et quater; simili repetit ratione. Idemque in eo finis est atque principium; ideo cum finiri videtur, tunc incipit. Circuitus igitur sempiternus est essentiae tertiae proprius, ita ut per motum in se ipsam circulo reflectatur. Merito, si movetur ex se, movetur et in se ipsa, ut finis aliquis motionis fiat ubi aliquod est principium, siquidem ipsa motionis causa quodammodo sui ipsius gratia edit motum.
Igitur essentia illa a se ipsa incipiens perpetuo in se ipsam revolvitur, vires suas a summis per medias ad infimas explicando.
Ac rursus infimas per medias ad summas similiter replicando. Si ita est, se ipsam et quae possidet intus animadvertit. Si animadvertit, certe cognoscit. Cognoscit autem intelligendo, dum essentiam suam spiritalem et a materiae limitibus absolutam agnoscit. Talium namque cognitio dicitur intellectio. In nobis profecto videmus cognitionem nihil esse aliud quam spiritalem unionem ad formam aliquam spiritalem.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book III
p. 277For if motion is perfect anywhere, surely it is most perfect where it is first. No perfection descends into later motions except from the first. Motion in the third essence is therefore the most perfect of all motions. It is the motion that departs least from its fountain, is joined most closely to its foundation, is supremely one and even, is sufficient to itself, and imitates the most perfect figure. Such is circular motion, as everyone recognizes; it alone among all motions is also everlasting.
Other motions reach some limit beyond which they cannot advance, since nowhere is there an infinite expanse. Circular motion, however, repeats the same things a second, third, and fourth time just as it does the first, repeating them in the same order. Its end and beginning are one and the same; therefore, just when it seems to end, it begins. Everlasting circular motion is accordingly proper to the third essence, so that through motion it bends back upon itself in a circle. And rightly so: if it is moved from itself, it is also moved into itself, so that motion ends where it begins, since the cause of motion itself in some measure brings forth motion for its own sake.
That essence, then, beginning from itself, revolves perpetually into itself, unfolding its powers from the highest things through the middle to the lowest.
And in turn it folds the lowest powers back through the middle to the highest in the same way. If this is so, it apprehends itself and what it possesses within. If it apprehends, it surely knows. It knows by understanding, as it recognizes its own spiritual essence, free from the limits of matter; for knowledge of such things is called intellection. In ourselves we plainly see that knowledge is nothing other than a spiritual union with some spiritual form.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book III · III.2.25–III.2.28
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.