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 170 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 2 · §§ 15–18
Latin
p. 342Similiter tertium atque alios. Eadem ratione in anima sphaerae fieri arbitrantur, ubi mens ratioque ipsius communiter statuit totidem in caelo figuras et in materia formas per caeli motum effingere, quot videt ideas et conceptus in angelo per Dei ipsius effingi virtutem, ut tale ipsa pro viribus mundanum opus efficiat quale Deus facit angelicum, atque ita primum imitetur artificem. Non tamen incipit movere caelum aut aliquid operari nisi motrix potentia, quae est eius infima pars, quasi laterna unum aliquid suorum seminum genus promat prae aliis et quasi oculis offerat. Cum primum vis generis alicuius seminum ceteris seminibus praevalet, imaginatio ipsa, quae infimae huic potentiae annexa est, illud cogitat, idem et appetit, idem explicat in caelo. Format in elementis, serit in caelo, parit in elementis.
Eodem modo fit per seriem successionis in seminibus aliis. In hac serie successionis fatalis consistit lex, in illa cogitatione cupiditas. Sic caelum movetur a fato et innata cupiditate, eodem quasi modo quo in nobis spiritus et humores a vehementi cogitatione affectuque vibrantur atque formantur. Neque putes tam novos in mundo effectus, tam varias in caelo figuras momentis singulis explicari nisi per novas variasque animarum illarum affectiones.
A causa enim quae stabilis est omnino stabile fit et opus.
Neque arbitrandum est caeli animam fatigari movendo si nostra non fatigatur. Motores enim qui cum mobili extensi non sunt fatigari non solent, videlicet si infinito statui, motionum omnium fini, sint proximi. Praeterea quantum ineptum est infimum terrenumque corpus ad motum, tantum est agile sublime corpus.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 343The third and all later steps follow in the same way. The Platonists believe that the same process occurs in the soul of a sphere. Its mind and reason resolve in a general way to fashion through heaven's motion as many figures in heaven and forms in matter as it sees ideas and conceptions fashioned in the angel through the power of God himself. Thus, to the utmost of its power, the soul may produce a work in the world like the angelic work God produces, and so imitate the first artisan. Yet it does not begin to move heaven or perform any work until its motive power—its lowest part—brings forward one kind of its seeds before the others and presents it, as a lantern presents something to the eyes. As soon as the power of one class of seeds prevails over the rest, imagination, which is joined to this lowest power, conceives that seed, desires it, and unfolds it in heaven. It gives form in the elements, sows in heaven, and brings forth in the elements.
The same process takes place through the successive series of the other seeds. The law of fate consists in this ordered succession, while desire resides in the thought that directs it. Thus heaven is moved by fate and an inborn desire, much as the spirits and humors within us are stirred and shaped by a powerful thought and affection. Nor should you suppose that effects so new arise in the world, and configurations so various unfold in heaven at every moment, except through new and various affections in those souls.
For from a cause that is wholly stable there proceeds a work that is stable as well.
Nor should we suppose that the soul of heaven grows weary through moving it, if our own soul does not grow weary. Movers that are not extended together with the moving body are not ordinarily fatigued—especially if they stand near the infinite state that is the final end of every motion. Moreover, just as the lowest and earthly body is unfit for motion, so a sublime body is agile.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.2.15–IV.2.18
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.