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 150 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 1 · §§ 39–42
Latin
p. 302Animam ipsam terrae rationalem esse necessarium est, quandoquidem animalia quaedam terrae ratione non carent, praesertim cum opera terrae pulchriora sint quam hominum opera. Si anima huius infimi globi ratione capta non est, neque etiam superiorum globorum animae sunt rationis expertes. In terra et aqua talis est distinctio partium, quod terrenorum corporum quaedam sunt minus pura, quaedam purissima. Illa animas irrationales habent, ista rationales. Idem in aqua, ubi sunt pisces irrationales in luteis partibus aquae. Sunt etiam daemones aquei, quas Nereides vocat Orpheus, in quibusdam sublimioribus exhalationibus aquae, quales sunt in hoc aere nubiloso. Quorum corpora videntur quandoque acutioribus oculis, praesertim in Perside et Africa, ut existimat Zoroaster. Adiungit Porphyrius illos daemones videri solum, in quorum corporibus praeter aquae exhalationem ignis abundat, idque in Oriente contingere atque meridie. Illos insuper tangi, in quibus praeterea multum est terrae, quales fuisse temporibus suis apud Tuscos inquit. Sed in globis omnibus super aquam non sunt animantes nisi compotes rationis, quoniam non dividuntur globi illi in partes crassas et tenues.
Et quicquid ibi est aqueis exhalationibus longe est purius. Sed liceat hic una cum Pythagoricis parumper confabulari.
Quoniam vero omnis multitudo maxima ad paucum est numerum colligenda, paucus numerus ad paucas unitates, unitates paucae ad unitatem unam, ideo innumerabilis animarum turba in qualibet sphaera mundi viventium ad paucas animas in ea ipsa sphaera praestantiores, puta principes duodecim, est reducenda.
Sed cur ad duodecim principes maxime? Quia sicut unum mundi corpus duodecim apud priscos continet artus, hi vero articulos plurimos, sic una mundi anima animas duodecim, hae plurimas; sed hae ita continent plurimas, ut duodecim primo contineant principales. Cur? Quia cum anima cuiusque sphaerae ex primo duodenario animarum numero selecta sit et accommodata sphaerae, merito recurrit rursus in duodenarium.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 303The soul of earth itself must be rational, since some of earth's living creatures are not devoid of reason—especially since earth's works are more beautiful than the works of men. If the soul of this lowest sphere is not deprived of reason, neither are the souls of the higher spheres without it. In earth and water there is such a distinction of parts that some earthly bodies are less pure and others most pure: the former have irrational souls, the latter rational ones. The same is true in water, where irrational fish inhabit its muddy parts. There are also aqueous daemons, which Orpheus calls Nereids, in certain more elevated exhalations of water, like those found in this cloudy air. Zoroaster believes that their bodies are sometimes seen by sharper eyes, especially in Persia and Africa. Porphyry adds that only those daemons are seen in whose bodies fire abounds besides watery exhalation, and that this occurs in the East and the South. He also says that those in whom much earth is present can be touched, and that such daemons existed among the Tuscans in his own time. But in all the spheres above water there are no living beings except those capable of reason, since those spheres are not divided into dense and rarefied parts.
And whatever exists there is far purer than watery exhalations. But let us be permitted here to converse for a little while with the Pythagoreans.
Since every very great multitude must be gathered into a small number, a small number into a few units, and a few units into one unity, the innumerable host of souls living in each sphere of the world must therefore be brought back to a few more excellent souls within that sphere—namely, twelve rulers.
But why especially twelve rulers? Because, just as the one body of the world contains twelve members according to the ancients, and these in turn contain many joints, so the one soul of the world contains twelve souls, and these many more. Yet they contain the many in such a way that they first contain twelve principal souls. Why? Because the soul of each sphere, having been selected from the first set of twelve souls and fitted to its sphere, rightly returns again to the number twelve.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.1.39–IV.1.42
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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.