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 7 · §§ 1–5

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Facing Pages · Branch 71 of 174

Book II · Chapter 7 · §§ 1–5

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Latin

p. 144

Deus omnia agit et servat, et in omnibus omnia operatur.

Esse Deum, et esse unum, primumque et infinitum virtute, duratione, spatio, per superiora monstravimus; ex quibus confirmatum est illud quod in libro De veritate et opinione dixit de Deo Parmenides Pythagoreus: ὂν ἓν ἀκίνητον ἄπειρον, id est, ens unum immobile infinitum. Hunc vero Deum agere omnia et servare et in omnibus omnia operari deinceps ita probabimus. Si Deus est unitas simplicissima, atque haec una sola in natura est quia est summa, quicquid est praeter Deum multiplex est et compositum.

Multitudo autem omnis ab unitate, et omnis compositio a simplicium puritate descendit.

Si Deus est summa veritas, et sine veritate esse potest nihil—quomodo enim erit quicquam, nisi et revera sit id quod esse dicitur et verum sit ipsum esse?—a Deo cuncta proficiscuntur.

Si Deus est summa bonitas, atque haec per sui naturam summopere sese communicat, cunctis sese Deus impartit. Ideoque bonum appetunt omnia, quoniam cum a bono sint nata, suam originem repetunt, ut unde effecta sunt inde perficiantur.

Res quaelibet semper aliquid agunt, atque eo tempore magis quo meliores in sua specie sunt, et illae maxime quae in meliori sunt specie. Et quaelibet pro viribus sibi similia operantur, similia etiam, si possunt, in specie. Et boni gratia operantur. Quapropter a bono per bonum ad bonum fit omnis in rebus quibuslibet actio. Igitur summa bonitas, quia bonitas est, agit; quia summa, agit semper; quia non est in specie aliqua terminata, sed aeque communis est omnibus speciebus, agit in omnes.

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

p. 145

God acts and preserves all things, and works all things in all.

We have shown from what has gone before that God exists, and that he is one, first, and infinite in power, duration, and space. These conclusions confirm what Parmenides the Pythagorean said of God in his book On Truth and Opinion: ὂν ἓν ἀκίνητον ἄπειρον, that is, ‘one being, unmoved and infinite.’ We shall next prove in the following manner that this God acts and preserves all things and works all things in all. If God is the simplest unity, and this unity alone exists in nature because it is supreme, whatever exists besides God is manifold and composite.

All multiplicity descends from unity, and every composition from the purity of simple things.

If God is supreme truth, and nothing can exist without truth—for how could anything exist unless what is said to exist truly is, and being itself is true?—then all things proceed from God.

If God is supreme goodness, and goodness by its own nature communicates itself in the highest degree, God imparts himself to all things. Therefore all things desire the good: since they have sprung from the good, they seek again their origin, so that they may be perfected by that from which they were made.

All things are always doing something, and do more in proportion as they are better within their species; those belonging to a better species act most of all. Each thing, according to its powers, produces things like itself—even things like itself in species, if it can. And they act for the sake of the good. Therefore, in all things every action proceeds from the good, through good, to the good. Supreme goodness, then, acts because it is goodness; because it is supreme, it acts always; because it is not bounded within any species but is equally common to all species, it acts upon all.

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.