Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Name: Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Author: Marsilio Ficino

Proem and Books I–IV · Latin with an independent English translation

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Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume IBook I · Chapter 3 · §§ 19–20

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Book I · Chapter 3 · §§ 19–20

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p. 42

Sed de hoc alias. Nunc autem meminisse oportet materiam ipsam, ut Mercurius Trismegistus Timaeusque putant, esse informem, non nihil, nihilo proximam, quod primo infiniteque sit patiens. Unde Plotinus existimat ut propinqua ipsius materiae dispositio, id est dimensio qualitasque, et vanissimum quiddam sit, et quantulumcunque est, totum sit passio quaedam. Dimensiones enim nihil esse aliud quam materiae ipsius extensiones; qualitates vero nihil aliud praeter eiusdem affectiones, affectiones videlicet umbratiles et labentes, tanquam umbras quasdam eminentium arborum in torrente. Demum concludit neque materiam, cum sit primum patiens, neque dimensiones qualitatesve, cum sint primi patientis passiones primae, esse prima actionum principia posse. Ita Plotinus. Alii vero quidam, quamvis ad eundem finem, ita distinguunt. Profecto aiunt materiam ipsam agere nihil posse; quantitatem quoque, si est extensio ipsa passiva materiae, proficiscens a causa quadam materiam extendente, agere nihil, cum sit primi patientis perpetua passio. Sin autem est quasi forma quaedam per quam causa materiae motrix extendit materiam, agere forte non nihil in materia propria, quia sit medium quo causa illa materiam videtur extendere; sed in materiam alienam nihil penitus operari, quoniam semper distare cogit agens a patiente, quod impedit actionem. Qualitatem vero in materiam tam alienam quam propriam secundum Peripateticos aliquid operari. Quod si a materia, quae in neutram agit materiam, ad qualitatem, quae quodammodo movet utramque, per mediam quantitatem, quae solum in alteram, scilicet propriam, quodammodo operatur, nos ratio ducit, nunquid a quantitate, quae nullo modo movet materiam alienam, absque medio ullo ad rem illam transibimus, quae omnino moveat alienam? Nequaquam.

Qualitas autem est proxima quantitati. Itaque non est omnino sufficiens qualitas ad extrinsecam actionem. Si ergo claudicat ad agendum, a substantia superiore dirigitur, quae omnino sit potens.

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book I

p. 43

But more of this elsewhere. For now we should remember that matter itself, as Mercury Trismegistus and Timaeus hold, is formless—not nothing, but next to nothing—because it is primarily and infinitely receptive. From this Plotinus judges that the disposition nearest to matter itself, namely dimension and quality, is both a most empty kind of thing and, whatever slight being it possesses, wholly a kind of passivity. Dimensions, he says, are nothing other than extensions of matter itself, and qualities nothing beyond affections of that same matter: shadowy and fleeting affections, like the shadows of tall trees in a stream. He finally concludes that neither matter, since it is the first patient, nor dimensions and qualities, since they are the primary passive states of the first patient, can be the first principles of actions. Thus Plotinus. Certain others distinguish matters as follows, though toward the same end. They say that matter itself can do nothing. Quantity too, if it is the passive extension of matter itself proceeding from some cause that extends matter, does nothing, since it is the perpetual passive state of the first patient. But if quantity is a kind of form through which the cause that moves matter extends it, quantity may perhaps do something within its own matter, because it is the medium by which that cause appears to extend the matter. Yet it performs absolutely nothing upon other matter, since it always forces the agent to stand apart from the patient, which impedes action. According to the Peripatetics, however, quality performs some action upon both its own and other matter. If reason leads us from matter, which acts upon neither kind of matter, through the intermediate quantity, which acts in a certain way only upon one kind—namely its own—to quality, which in a certain way moves both, are we then to pass without any intermediary from quantity, which in no way moves other matter, to that which moves other matter in every way? By no means.

Quality, however, stands nearest to quantity. It is therefore not altogether sufficient for action upon external things. If it limps in acting, it is directed by a higher substance that is altogether powerful.

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.

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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.