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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Facing Pages · Branch 52 of 174
Book II · Chapter 2 · §§ 4–6
Latin
p. 106Atque illa natura communis, per quam utrisque aequalem utraque habent hoc, ut sint aeque principia, principium erit potius quam illa duo. Immo illud erit principium quod illis inter se diversis naturam dedit communem. Nam una haec natura quae in aliis iacet et aliorum angustiis circumscribitur ab ipsa profluit unitate, quae in se ipsa consistens nullo limite coarctatur. Sic ergo natura illa communis et una utrisque provenit aliunde et ab altiori principio. Quin et naturae illae duae propriae per quas differunt extrinsecus illis adveniunt. Nam praeter illas nihil reliquum est in utrisque nisi natura communis et una, a qua si absolute nascantur naturae illae propriae quae duae addiciuntur, non amplius erunt diversae, ut metaphysici arbitrantur, sed una eademque erit utriusque proprietas, eadem vena scaturiens. Scaturiet enim per absolutum merae naturae modum et refluet intro. Si itaque duae illis insunt absolutae proprietates, necessario accedunt extrinsecus.
Quapropter utrumque essentiae suae proprietatem accipit aliunde. Et quia propriam sui naturam aliunde sortitur utrumque, neutrum per se exsistit, sed fit a principio altiore. In quolibet rerum genere illud quod est generis illius summum unum est dumtaxat. Si enim sunt duae summae luces, utraque in eo quod summa lux est convenit, atque est unum.
Quod si et duo quaedam sint, per aliam naturam potius quam per lucem differunt. Ergo alia insuper adest natura a luce diversa, cuius contagione lux fiat opaca neque sit summa. Sic et summus calor est qui frigori aut aliis non miscetur; quia, si miscetur, utique impeditur et vehementior fieri potest, si modo purgetur. Itaque summum in quovis genere et unum est solummodo, et unius dumtaxat illius naturae. Puta summa lux et una est, non duae luces; et sola lux est, non lux simul et aliud quiddam. Deus summum est rerum omnium.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book II
p. 107And that common nature, equal in both, through which both possess this—that they are equally principles—will be more truly a principle than those two. Indeed, that will be the principle which gave those mutually diverse things their common nature. For this one nature, which lies in others and is circumscribed within their narrow bounds, flows from unity itself, which, subsisting in itself, is constrained by no limit. Thus that one common nature comes to both from elsewhere and from a higher principle. Moreover, the two proper natures through which they differ also come to them from without. For apart from those, nothing remains in both except their one common nature. If the proper natures that are added as two arise absolutely from it, they will no longer be diverse, as the metaphysicians judge, but the property of each will be one and the same, springing from the same vein. For it will spring forth according to the absolute mode of bare nature and flow back inward. If, therefore, two absolute properties are in them, they necessarily come from without.
Accordingly, each receives from elsewhere the property of its own essence. And because each obtains its proper nature from elsewhere, neither exists through itself, but is made by a higher principle. In every genus of things, that which is supreme in the genus is one only. For if there are two supreme lights, they agree in being supreme light and thus are one.
But even if there are two such things, they differ through some nature other than light, rather than through light. There is therefore another nature besides light, through whose contamination the light becomes dim and is no longer supreme. So too supreme heat is that which is not mingled with cold or anything else; for if it is mingled, it is thereby hindered and can become more intense, provided it is purified. Thus what is supreme in any genus is one only and consists solely of the nature of that genus. For example, supreme light is one, not two lights; and it is light alone, not light together with something else. God is the supreme of all things.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book II · II.2.4–II.2.6
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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.