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 142 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 1 · §§ 9–11
Latin
p. 286Erunt igitur illae causae in anima terrae, quae per naturalem ideam rationemque vitis vites, per muscarum rationem muscas efficiet. Faciet, inquam, talia in materia sic prius aut sic ab anima ipsa disposita, dum ad eam disponendam sic aut sic contrahit mundanos instinctus.
Proinde, si ars humana nihil est aliud quam naturae imitatio quaedam, atque haec ars per certas operum rationes fabricat opera, similiter efficit ipsa natura, et tanto vivaciore sapientioreque arte quanto efficit efficacius et efficit pulchriora. Ac si ars vivas rationes habet, quae opera facit non viventia neque principales formas inducit neque integras, quanto magis putandum est vivas naturae rationes inesse, quae viventia generat formasque principales producit et integras.
Quid est ars humana? Natura quaedam materiam tractans extrinsecus. Quid natura? Ars intrinsecus materiam temperans, ac si faber lignarius esset in ligno. Quod si ars humana, quamvis sit extra materiam, tamen usque adeo congruit et propinquat operi faciundo ut certa opera certis consummet ideis, quanto magis ars id naturalis implebit, quae non ita materiae superficiem per manus aliave instrumenta exteriora tangit, ut geometrae anima pulverem quando figuras describit in terra, sed perinde ut geometrica mens materiam intrinsecus phantasticam fabricat. Sicut enim geometrae mens, dum figurarum rationes secum ipsa volutat, format imaginibus figurarum intrinsecus phantasiam, perque hanc spiritum quoque phantasticum absque labore aliquo vel consilio, ita ut in naturali arte divina quaedam sapientia per rationes intellectuales vim ipsam vivificam et motricem ipsi coniunctam naturalibus seminibus imbuit, perque hanc materiam quoque facillime format intrinsecus.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 287Those causes will therefore reside in the soul of the earth, which through the natural Idea and principle of the vine will produce vines, and through the principle of flies will produce flies. It will make such things, I say, in matter previously disposed in this way or that by the soul itself, while the soul contracts the impulses of the world in this way or that in order to dispose the matter.
Accordingly, if human art is nothing other than a certain imitation of nature, and art fashions its works through definite principles of working, nature acts in the same way—with an art all the more vital and wise in proportion as its action is more effective and its products more beautiful. And if art possesses living principles even though it makes works that are not alive and introduces neither principal nor complete forms, how much more must we suppose that living principles dwell within nature, which generates living things and brings forth forms that are both principal and complete.
What is human art? A kind of nature working upon matter from without. What is nature? Art tempering matter from within, as though the carpenter were inside the wood. If human art, although external to matter, is nevertheless so closely fitted and joined to the work it performs that it completes particular works according to particular Ideas, how much more fully will natural art do this. It does not touch the surface of matter through hands or other external instruments, as the geometer's soul touches the dust when he draws figures upon the ground; rather, it acts as a geometrical mind inwardly fashions imaginative matter. For just as the geometer's mind, while turning over within itself the principles of figures, inwardly forms the imagination with images of those figures, and through the imagination forms the imaginative spirit without labor or deliberation, so in natural art a certain divine wisdom, through intellectual principles, imbues natural seeds with the vivifying and motive power joined to itself; through that power it also shapes matter inwardly with the greatest ease.
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Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.1.9–IV.1.11
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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.