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 17 of 174
Book I · Chapter 3 · §§ 10–13
Latin
p. 36Quamobrem praeter omnes huiusmodi formas inesse oportet omnibus et praeesse substantiam quandam incorporalem per corpora penetrantem, cuius instrumenta sint corporeae qualitates.
Quo enim pacto qualitates singulae, quae suapte natura instabiles inordinataeque sunt, aut stabilem ordinem in generationis successione servarent, nisi per ordinem altioris causae stabilem regerentur; aut ad eosdem effectus statutis temporum curriculis semper reverterentur, nisi una eademque causa esset quae illas quovis tempore ducens, statutis temporibus similiter duceret?
Mens humana quotidie a particularibus formis ad universales absolutasque se confert. Item super naturales formas certis adstrictas materiis per mathematicas, quibus incerta materia sufficit, ad metaphysicas, quae neque certa neque incerta materia indigent, ascendere solet. Praeterea a dimensionibus quae tam situ quam partibus egent ad punctum sine partibus, sed quodammodo circa situm; rursus a punctis ad numeros, qui partibus quidem indigent, situ vero nequaquam; demum a numeris ad unitatem, cui neque situ neque partibus ullis opus est, sese attollit.
Atque ultra unitatem individuam sed accidentalem ad substantialem se unitatem, id est formam, transfert individuamque essentiam, accidentium fundamentum simul atque originem, tanquam ad fixum quendam et in se ipso manentem accidentium per se mutabilium alterique semper haerentium cardinem. Si tantam ad ascensum rationalem mens humana potentiam habet, quae et pars quaedam est universi et mens corporeis vinculis impedita, multo certe maiorem ad idem in se ipso possidet universum, praesertim cum infimae mentis ordo ab universi ordine trahat originem. Ubi vero ad agendum potentia maior viget, ibidem naturaliter et magis et citius proditur in actum.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book I
p. 37Therefore, beyond all forms of this kind, there must inhere in all things and preside over them a certain incorporeal substance that penetrates bodies and whose instruments are bodily qualities.
For how could individual qualities, which by their own nature are unstable and disordered, either preserve a stable order in the succession of generation unless they were governed by the stable ordering of a higher cause, or always return to the same effects in appointed cycles of time unless there were one and the same cause which, directing them at every time, directed them in the same way at the appointed times?
Every day the human mind rises from particular forms to forms that are universal and free. Again, above natural forms bound to determinate kinds of matter, it is accustomed to ascend through mathematical forms, for which indeterminate matter suffices, to metaphysical forms, which need neither determinate nor indeterminate matter. Moreover, it lifts itself from dimensions, which require both position and parts, to the point, which has no parts but is in a certain way related to position; then from points to numbers, which require parts but no position at all; and finally from numbers to unity, which needs neither position nor any parts.
Beyond a unity that is indivisible but accidental, the mind carries itself to substantial unity—that is, to form—and to indivisible essence, the foundation and at once the origin of accidents. It turns to this essence as to a fixed hinge that remains in itself for accidents which are mutable in themselves and always adhere to another. If the human mind possesses so great a power for rational ascent, though it is both a part of the universe and a mind hindered by bodily bonds, then the universe surely possesses within itself a far greater power for the same ascent, especially since the order of the lowest mind draws its origin from the order of the universe. Wherever a greater power of acting flourishes, there it naturally issues into act both more fully and more swiftly.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book I · I.3.10–I.3.13
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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.