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 67 of 174
Book II · Chapter 6 · §§ 14–16
Latin
p. 136Consistens itaque Deus in se exsistit ubique. Nec per mundum Deus, sed mundus per Deum, quatenus potest, extenditur. Et sicut vim divinam, quae infinita est, mundus assequitur modo finito, ita praesentiam eius, quae per immensum undique fulget, finito quodam situ consequitur. Non progreditur per rectam lineam mundus ut attingat Deum, qui nusquam abest, sed convolvitur pro viribus circa illum, immo revolvitur in illo ibi dumtaxat, ubi divina lege situs ei motusque praescribitur. Anebon et Abamon Aegyptii sacerdotes, Plotinus quoque Iamblicusque et Iulianus Platonici, non Deum tantum, sed omnem quoque mentem, sive angelicam sive animalem, per immensum se integram fundere voluerunt, ita ut huiusmodi spiritus absque mutua confusione sibi invicem insint ubique, quemadmodum diversi habitus virtutum in anima et diversa simulacra colorum in aere.
Quorum sententia his fundamentis innititur. Formae spiritu rationali inferiores, quia ex certis terminatisque materiis oriuntur, iisdem necessario cohibentur. Spiritus autem rationales, quoniam nullo pacto pullulant ex materia, ideo neque in se certam habent dimensionem neque dimensioni alicui alligantur.
Quapropter, cum aeque quamlibet spatii cuiuslibet partem respiciant, aut nusquam sunt aut sunt in universo. Non est dicendum omnino nusquam adesse quae re vera exsistunt; nusquam igitur absunt. Mens omnis aliquo modo aeterna est. Quod aeternum est, quamvis indivisibile sit secundum tempus, tamen per omnem cursum temporis se ipsum porrigit. Sic rursus, quamvis indivisibile sit secundum spatium, tamen per omne spatium dilatatur.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book II
p. 137Thus God, abiding in himself, exists everywhere. God is not extended through the world; rather, the world is extended through God, so far as it can be. And just as the world attains divine power, which is infinite, in a finite mode, so it attains God’s presence, which shines everywhere through immensity, in a certain finite position. The world does not advance along a straight line to reach God, who is nowhere absent, but coils about him according to its powers—indeed, it revolves in him only there where divine law prescribes its place and motion. Anebon and Abamon, the Egyptian priests, and the Platonists Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Julian maintained that not only God but every mind, whether angelic or animating, pours itself forth whole throughout immensity, so that spirits of this kind, without mutual confusion, are everywhere within one another, just as the diverse habits of virtues are in the soul and the diverse images of colors in the air.
Their position rests upon these foundations. Forms lower than rational spirit, since they arise from determinate and bounded matters, are necessarily confined by those same matters. Rational spirits, however, since they in no way spring from matter, neither possess any determinate dimension in themselves nor are bound to any dimension.
Therefore, since they stand in an equal relation to every part of any space, they are either nowhere or throughout the universe. Things that truly exist cannot be said to be present nowhere at all; therefore they are absent nowhere. Every mind is in some way eternal. That which is eternal, although indivisible with respect to time, nevertheless extends itself through the whole course of time. In the same way, though indivisible with respect to space, it spreads throughout all space.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book II · II.6.14–II.6.16
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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.