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 158 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 1 · §§ 71–73
Latin
p. 318Neque diffidendum est animal unum fieri ex sphaeris animisque divinis. Quia cum proprium sit materiae quidem adsciscere formam, formae vero complecti materiam atque ducere, idque totum ibi fiat magis ubi tam materia quam forma praestantior est, quis neget ex animis illis qui nostris praestantiores sunt atque ex sphaeris, quae nostris corporibus simpliciores diuturnioresque sunt, continent quoque nostra trahuntque et generant, animal unum et indissolubile confici?
Nonne corpora illa propter mirabilem simplicitatem tenuitatemque quasi spiritalia sunt? Ergo praesentibus spiritibus facilius animantur quam praesente igne sulfur accenditur. Sic enim excellentissima materia ex excellentissima forma, id est intellectuali, coniungitur usque adeo ut numquam dissolvantur.
Si corpora mixta quanto magis discedunt ab intemperantia elementalium qualitatum acceduntque ad caelestium corporum temperantiam, tanto magis vitae cognitionisque capacia fiunt, procul dubio caelestia corpora vitae cognitionisque capacissima sunt. Genus mentium sublimius est quam caelum et caelo cognatius est quam terrae. Ergo cum multae sint mentes terrenis coniunctae corporibus tamquam formae, necessarium est mentes et plures et prius et magis caelestibus corporibus quam terrenis tamquam formas esse coniunctas.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 319Nor should we doubt that the spheres and divine souls together form a single living being. For it belongs to matter to take on form, and to form to embrace and guide matter; and all this takes place more fully where both matter and form are more excellent. Who, then, will deny that those souls, which surpass our own, and those spheres, which are simpler and more enduring than our bodies and which also contain, draw, and generate them, are composed into one indissoluble living being?
Are not those bodies, by reason of their wondrous simplicity and subtlety, almost spiritual? They are therefore animated by the spirits present to them more readily than sulfur is kindled by the presence of fire. In this way the most excellent matter is joined so closely with the most excellent form—that is, intellectual form—that the two are never sundered.
If mixed bodies become more capable of life and knowledge the further they depart from the imbalance of elemental qualities and approach the balance of heavenly bodies, then heavenly bodies are without doubt the most capable of life and knowledge. The order of minds is more exalted than heaven and more akin to heaven than to earth. Since, then, many minds are joined to earthly bodies as their forms, minds must be joined as forms to heavenly bodies in greater number, by a prior bond, and more fully than they are to earthly bodies.
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Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.1.71–IV.1.73
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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.