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 II · Chapter 2 · §§ 1–3

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Facing Pages · Branch 51 of 174

Book II · Chapter 2 · §§ 1–3

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Latin

p. 104

Non sunt dii plures inter se aequales.

Profecto dii plures non sunt, quia nequeunt plura esse principia. Verum sint, si placet, dii gemini, duo scilicet totius mundi principia, hoc et illud. Quaerimus numquid hoc sub illo sit, an sub hoc illud, an aequalia utraque. Si alterutrum sub altero sit, quod praeerit plane erit principium, alterum minime. Si aequalia sint, interrogamus utrum omnino inter se differant.

An omnino conveniant. An partim differant, partim vero conveniant. Primum non concedetur. Nam saltem in eo conveniunt, quod utraque sunt, aguntque et rerum principia aeque dicuntur. Ac si nullo pacto congruerent, nulla esset in machina mundi concordia. Si secundum illud admittimus, quod omnino conveniant, non duo sunt iam, sed, ut cupimus, unum. Sin detur tertium, quod partim congruant in natura, partim discrepent, tunc sane, quia nequeunt per idem consentire et dissentire, una quaedam inest natura communis utrisque, per quam conveniunt.

Duae praeterea in duobus illis naturae propriae ultra communem naturam, per quas discrepant. Ergo neutrum illorum erit simplex, sed utrumque ex communi natura et proprietate compositum. Neutrum erit primum, quia pendet ex illo qui partes inter se diversas conciliavit in unum. Neutrum per se sufficiens, cum et totum egeat partibus et alia pars egeat alia. Neutrum potentissimum, cum non sit prorsus unitum.

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

p. 105

There are not several gods equal to one another.

Certainly there are not several gods, because there cannot be several principles. Yet let there be, if you please, twin gods—that is, two principles of the whole world, this one and that. We ask whether this one is beneath that, or that beneath this, or whether the two are equal. If either is beneath the other, the one that stands above will plainly be the principle, and the other not at all. If they are equal, we ask whether they differ entirely from one another.

Or whether they agree entirely; or differ in part and agree in part. The first alternative will not be granted. For they agree at least in this: both exist and act, and both are equally called principles of things. And if they agreed in no respect, there would be no harmony in the fabric of the world. If we admit the second alternative, that they agree entirely, they are no longer two but, as we desire, one. If the third is granted, that they partly agree in nature and partly differ, then, since they cannot agree and disagree through the same thing, there is in both a certain common nature through which they agree.

There are in addition, in those two, two proper natures over and above the common nature, through which they differ. Therefore neither will be simple; each will be compounded from the common nature and a property. Neither will be first, because it depends upon the one who reconciled those mutually diverse parts into one. Neither will be sufficient in itself, since both the whole needs its parts and one part needs another. Neither will be most powerful, since neither is wholly united.

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.

Discussion Questions

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.