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 147 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 1 · §§ 29–31
Latin
p. 296Sed numquid sphaerae vitam esse angelum concedemus, naturalesque formas ab ideis mentis angelicae proficisci? Nequaquam. Corpus enim sicut per talem aut talem essentiam ad vitam talem aut talem, ita per talem vitam ad mentem talem necessario praeparatur. Ideo Plato in Timaeo Deum inquit mentem animae, animam corpori coniunxisse. Quasi non possit clara mens opaco corpori aliter quam per animam perspicuam copulari, sicut et lucidum corpus denso per diaphanum, id est perspicuum, iungitur, ut quod et lucem per se habet et aliis exhibet ei quod luce caret et impedit lucem per naturam mediam coniungatur, quae licet per se careat luce, non tamen impediat lucis ingressum.
Ac si mentis nostrae operatio per quandam a materia separationem perficitur, operatio mentis angelicae, quae in genere intellectuali perfecta est, longe semota est a materia. Cum vero angelus ipse nihil aliud sit quam mens et qua ratione mens est operando materiam fugiat, quonam pacto angeli substantia materiae proxime inhaerebit?
Decet ut quemadmodum particulares hominum mentes particularia ipsarum corpora per animas proprias, id est per animales vires, attingunt et movent, ita communes sphaerarum mentes communia corpora per animas complectantur et ducant. Sic enim et sphaerae illae vitam insitam possidebunt et mentes divinae e sublimi statu nequaquam deicientur, et super vitas sphaerarum, quae intellectuales sunt simul et animales, erunt angelicae vitae, quae solum intellectuales existunt. Super has autem erit Deus vita vitarum.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 297But shall we grant that an angel is the life of a sphere, and that natural forms proceed from the Ideas of an angelic mind? By no means. Just as a body is necessarily prepared through this or that essence for this or that kind of life, so through this or that life it is prepared for a corresponding mind. Hence Plato says in the *Timaeus* that God joined mind to soul and soul to body. It is as though a clear mind could not be united to an opaque body except through a transparent soul, just as a luminous body is joined to a dense one through something translucent—that is, transparent—so that what possesses light in itself and displays it to others may be joined to what lacks and obstructs light through an intermediate nature which, although it has no light of its own, does not prevent light from entering.
And if the operation of our own mind is perfected through a certain separation from matter, the operation of an angelic mind, which is perfect in the intellectual order, lies far removed from matter. Since an angel is nothing other than mind, and insofar as it is mind flees matter in its activity, how could an angel's substance adhere immediately to matter?
It is fitting that, just as the particular minds of men reach and move their particular bodies through their own souls—that is, through animal powers—so the universal minds of the spheres should embrace and guide their universal bodies through souls. In this way those spheres will possess an indwelling life, the divine minds will by no means be cast down from their exalted state, and above the lives of the spheres, which are at once intellectual and animal, there will be angelic lives, which exist as intellectual alone. Above these, however, will be God, the life of lives.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.1.29–IV.1.31
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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.