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 19 of 174
Book I · Chapter 3 · §§ 17–18
Latin
p. 40Nempe ex eo quod natura efficacius meliusque materiam suam movet quam ars suam, conicimus principalem formam in natura materiae suae magis dominari quam principalem formam in arte materiae suae. Si dominatur magis, duo concluduntur: tum quod propius quam ars adest materiae secundum situm; tum quod magis quam ars secundum substantiam excellit materiam suam, magisque potest per se sine illa existere.
Movet autem ad idem me talis ratio plurimum, quod qualitates omnes, quia formae in alio sunt, quoties generant, formas in alio generant. Non enim possunt liberiorem prolem quam ipsae sint gignere. Generant ergo formas in materiae gremio. Materiam vero ipsam, quae in alio minime iacet, sola illa facit servatque forma quae non iacet in alio. Materia enim neque ex se est, cum imperfecta sit et non agat ex se; neque ex qualitatibus, quas antecedit ipsa; sed ex forma quadam quae materiam antecedit. Talis est penitus incorporea. In talis formae virtute operationeque fundantur qualitatum virtutes operationesque, postquam in illius opere opera semper fundantur illarum.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book I
p. 41Indeed, from the fact that Nature moves its matter more efficaciously and better than art moves its own, we infer that the principal form in Nature rules its matter more fully than the principal form in art rules its matter. If it rules more fully, two conclusions follow: first, it is present to matter more closely in position than art is; second, it surpasses its matter in substance more than art does, and is more capable of existing by itself without that matter.
I am strongly moved to the same conclusion by the following argument. Since all qualities are forms existing in another, whenever they generate, they generate forms in another. They cannot beget offspring freer than they themselves are. They therefore generate forms in the womb of matter. Matter itself, however, which does not lie in another, is made and preserved only by a form that does not lie in another. For matter is neither from itself, since it is imperfect and does not act from itself, nor from qualities, which matter itself precedes, but from a certain form that precedes matter. Such a form is wholly incorporeal. The powers and operations of qualities are founded upon the power and operation of a form of this kind, since in its operation the operations of those qualities are always grounded.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book I · I.3.17–I.3.18
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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.