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 156 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 1 · §§ 62–65
Latin
p. 314Quae quidem aviditas neque caeca est ut lapidum, neque irrationalis ut bestiarum. Quomodo enim aviditas primae veritati sapientiaeque propinqua caeca irrationalisque erit? Praesertim cum maiori ordine moveat suum corpus quam nostra ratio nostrum. Non igitur Deus movet caelum proxime, sed forma quaedam caeli propria, vitae rationisque compos et divinae cupida bonitatis.
Ac si quis dixerit temperatione quadam moveri caelos, sicut aeneae quondam Archimedis volvebantur sphaerae, compelletur eam ipsam temperationem non minus substantialem, vitalem, rationalem esse fateri quam sit temperatio qua terrenorum animalium membra moventur, postquam illa primae substantiae, vitae, rationi propinquior est et apparet tum natura sua tum motibus aequabilior.
Sed numquid illa est angelus? Nequaquam. Vita enim ipsa caelestis familiarissima est caelo et una cum suo corpore quodammodo circumcurrit. Angelus neque familiaris motor est neque movetur. Nempe super motorem mobilem esse decet motorem alium qui sit immobilis.
Rursus angelus est penitus stabilis. Ab eo vero quod stabile est omnino tam repentinus tam varius motus non provenit. Si angelus stabilis est omnino, caelum vero ab alio mobile, aliquo certe medio indigent quod sit mobile per se ipsum. Nam rei omnino stabili succedit proxime res per se ipsam mobilis, et huic succedit res per aliud mobilis. Siquidem res mobilis per se ipsam ex eo quod mutatur convenit cum re illa quae permutatur ab alio. Ex eo autem quod se ipsam regit, quia sic in sua natura se sistit neque e sua sede delabitur, convenit cum re illa quae penitus permanet.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 315This desire is neither blind, like that of stones, nor irrational, like that of beasts. How could a desire close to the first truth and wisdom be blind and irrational—especially when it moves its body with greater order than our reason moves ours? God, then, does not move heaven immediately; rather, a certain form proper to heaven moves it—a form possessed of life and reason and desirous of divine goodness.
And if someone should say that the heavens are moved by a certain temperament, just as Archimedes' bronze spheres once revolved, he will be compelled to admit that this temperament is no less substantial, living, and rational than the temperament by which the limbs of earthly animals are moved. For the former lies closer to first substance, life, and reason, and appears more uniform both in its nature and in its motions.
But is that temperament an angel? By no means. Celestial life itself is most intimately joined to heaven and in a certain manner runs its circuit together with its body. An angel is neither a mover intimately joined to a body nor itself moved. Above a moving mover, indeed, there must be another mover that is unmoved.
Again, an angel is wholly stable, and from what is altogether stable so sudden and varied a motion does not proceed. If the angel is wholly stable while heaven is moved by another, the two surely require an intermediary that is moved by itself. For immediately after a wholly stable thing comes a thing moved by itself, and after this a thing moved by another. Insofar as it changes, the self-moving thing agrees with a thing changed by another; but insofar as it governs itself—standing itself in its own nature and not slipping from its station—it agrees with the thing that remains altogether fixed.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.1.62–IV.1.65
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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.