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 22 of 174
Book I · Chapter 3 · §§ 24–26
Latin
p. 46Atque ex his omnibus collige formas corporales non habere ex se invicem generationem sufficientem, sed causam postulare insuper aliquam altiorem. Quae quidem superior causa si rursus forma esset similiter iuncta materiae, ab alia iterum substantia superiore descenderet. Tandem, ne fiat in infinitum progressio, ad formam aliquam perveniendum est quae nullis sit mixta corporibus. Tanta vero est in genere formarum virtus ad id, ut a materia separatae esse possint, ut etiam si quis illas esse quidem coniunctas ex se dixerit, verum ex ipsa mentium contemplatione seiungi, hinc saltem fateri cogatur mentes ipsas esse seiunctas, quandoquidem ipsae alia separant.
Quod hinc rursus apparet, quia substantia per naturam et dignitatem prior est quantitate ac reliquis accidentibus. Et quia quod prius est potest esse a posteriore seorsum, potest esse substantia quaedam sine quantitatis divisione. Si potest, utique est aliquando, ne desit naturae ista perfectio, ne frustra sit ista potentia. Nam in his quae ad praecipuum universi ordinem pertinent ita se res habet, ut quicquid potest esse aut iam sit, ut physici opinantur, ne contingat in aeternis mutatio, aut saltem sit aliquando, ne aliquid sit semper inane.
Ac si vita, quae sola origine naturali antecedit sensum, iam nunc per se exsistit alicubi sine sensu, multo magis substantia, quae quantitati tam dignitate quam origine praestat, consistit nunc in rerum ordine seorsum a quantitate. Praesertim cum perfectius sit universum si substantiae quaedam sint solutae a vinculis quantitatis quam quod sint vitae quaedam sensus expertes.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book I
p. 47From all this, conclude that bodily forms do not possess in one another a sufficient source of generation, but require in addition some higher cause. If that higher cause were in turn a form similarly joined to matter, it too would descend from another, higher substance. At last, lest the progression continue to infinity, we must arrive at some form unmixed with any bodies. Indeed, the capacity within the genus of forms to exist separated from matter is so great that, even if someone were to say that forms are conjoined in themselves but separated by the very contemplation of minds, he would at least be forced from this to admit that minds themselves are separate, since they separate other things.
This becomes clear again from the following: by nature and dignity substance is prior to quantity and the remaining accidents. And because what is prior can exist apart from what is posterior, there can be a substance without the division of quantity. If it can exist, then surely it exists at some time, lest nature lack this perfection and this potency be in vain. For in matters belonging to the principal order of the universe, things stand in such a way that whatever can exist either already exists—as the natural philosophers maintain, lest change occur among eternal things—or at least comes to exist at some time, lest any possibility remain forever empty.
And if life, which alone in the order of natural origin precedes sensation, even now exists somewhere by itself without sensation, much more does substance, which surpasses quantity in both dignity and origin, now subsist in the order of things apart from quantity. This is especially so because the universe is more perfect if there are some substances released from the bonds of quantity than if there are some lives devoid of sensation.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book I · I.3.24–I.3.26
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.