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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Latin Page · Branch 148 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 1 · §§ 32–35
Latin
p. 298Adde quod, si mens angelica indivisibilis immutabilisque est et super locum tempusque omnino, nulla ratione quadrabit corpori divisibili, mutabili, loco temporique subiecto aut formas in eo tales efficiet, nisi anima intercesserit; quae quia indivisibilis est superque locum formatur ab angelo sive ducitur; quia vero mutabilis est et aliquid habet temporis, congruit cum materia et formas acceptas desuper deducit in se ipsam ad mutabilem temporalemque naturam, per quam facillime transeunt in corpus quoque mutabile atque in ipso divisibiles iam evadunt.
Placet ergo Platonicis Deum per se ipsum formare angelos, per angelos animas, per has postremo materiam, formasque a summa vita et actu gradatim degenerare usque adeo, ut in materia iam neque revera vivae neque efficaces appareant. Nempe a Deo in angelum ex una essentia transeunt in multiplices qualitates; ab hoc in animam ex statu in motum aliquem efficacem; ab hac in corpus ex vitali actuosoque motu in mutationem mortalis naturae passivam.
Quamobrem si aquae terraeque vita insita est neque tamen haec est Deus, ne immensus actus vilissimae potentiae sit addictus, neque angelus, ne clarissima mens obscurissimae naturae sit proxima, consequens est ut aqua et terra animas habeant, quarum artificio hae sphaerae rebus pretiosissimis exornentur, quemadmodum et animula quaeque animalium aquaticorum et terrenorum, videlicet duce sphaerae suae anima, corpuscula sua per insita semina gratissime pingunt atque figurant.
Globo terreno una anima sufficit, quoniam ipse unus est omnino, partibus in molem unam continuatis. Una quoque anima orbi sufficit aquae. Necesse est tamen geminas esse horum duorum animas, specie invicem differentes.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 299Add that, if an angelic mind is indivisible and immutable and wholly above place and time, it can in no way fit a divisible and mutable body subject to place and time, or produce such forms in it, unless a soul intervenes. Since the soul is indivisible and above place, it is formed or guided by the angel; but since it is mutable and possesses something of time, it accords with matter. It brings the forms received from above down into itself, to a mutable and temporal nature; through this they pass with the greatest ease into a body that is likewise mutable, and there at last become divisible.
The Platonists therefore hold that God forms the angels through himself, souls through the angels, and finally matter through souls; and that forms gradually decline from the highest life and actuality until, in matter, they no longer appear either truly alive or efficacious. From God into an angel, indeed, they pass from one essence into manifold qualities; from the angel into a soul, from rest into a certain efficacious motion; from the soul into a body, from a living and active motion into the passive alteration of mortal nature.
Therefore, if water and earth possess an indwelling life, and yet this life is neither God—lest immeasurable actuality be bound to the lowest potency—nor an angel—lest the brightest mind lie nearest the darkest nature—it follows that water and earth have souls, through whose art these spheres are adorned with the most precious things. In the same way, each little soul of aquatic and terrestrial animals, under the guidance of its sphere's soul, paints and fashions its own little body most delightfully through implanted seeds.
One soul suffices for the earthly sphere, since it is wholly one, its parts being joined into a single mass. One soul likewise suffices for the sphere of water. Yet the souls of these two spheres must be a pair differing from one another in species.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.1.32–IV.1.35
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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.