Diotimos Library · Renaissance Collection · Bilingual Edition
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Proem and Books I–IV · Latin with an independent English translation
Explore the LexiconSwipe or use the arrow keys.
Latin Page · Branch 174 of 174
Book IV · Chapter 2 · § 27
Latin
p. 350Quod voluit Zoroaster in nobis assidue volvi. Denique hanc de motu caeli disputationem hac sententia concludamus: neque corpus caeli mobile neque motorem, qui ad motum caeli movetur, esse praecipuum motionis huius principem atque finem, ne in huiusmodi motu labor transgressioque contingat. Motus enim ad stabile et circa stabile efficitur semper et regitur.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book IV
p. 351This is the ethereal garment that Zoroaster wished to be turning continually within us. Finally, let us close this discussion of heaven's motion with the following judgment: neither heaven's moving body nor the mover that is itself set in motion in order to move heaven should be held to be the chief source and end of this motion, lest toil and passage beyond bounds occur in motion of this kind. For motion is always produced and governed toward what is stable and around what is stable.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book IV · IV.2.27
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.