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 77 of 174
Book II · Chapter 7 · §§ 27–30
Latin
p. 156Tale vel tale. Ita cuncta quae sub Deo sunt agentia ad unum communem, scilicet essendi, concurrunt effectum. Agentia vero plurima et diversa in unum opus quod est esse non conspirant, nisi quia ipsa sunt unum; neque unum sunt nisi quia sub uno sunt atque ad unum. Unius itaque Dei agentis primi virtute agentia reliqua operantur.
Nonne secundum ordinem effectuum ordinem causarum disponimus? Primum omnium effectuum est esse; reliqui siquidem effectus nihil aliud sunt quam quaedam ipsius esse determinationes et proprietates. Prius enim est unumquodque secundum naturam.
Deinde est hoc aut illud, tale vel tale. Adde quod et ultimum quod amittitur est esse; prius enim amittitur esse tale quam simpliciter esse. Quare esse ipsum proprius est illius agentis effectus quod est principium finisque omnium. Atque ad id cetera agentia si quid conducunt, primi agentis virtute conducunt.
Et ipsa tamquam inferiora angustiorisque imperii nihil agunt aliud, nisi quod universalem illam Dei vim actionemque ubique ad esse universale tendentem distinguunt passim, adiuvante Deo, et affectiones quasdam esse ipsius inducunt potius quam essendi naturam.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book II
p. 157Of this kind or that. Thus all agents under God converge upon one common effect, namely being. Many and diverse agents can conspire in a single work, which is being, only because they themselves are one; nor are they one unless they are under one and directed toward one. Therefore all other agents act by the power of the one God, the first agent.
Do we not arrange the order of causes according to the order of effects? The first of all effects is being, since the remaining effects are nothing other than certain determinations and properties of being itself. For each thing exists first in the order of nature.
Then it is this or that, of this kind or that. Add that being is also the last thing lost, for a thing loses being of a certain kind before it loses being simply. Hence being itself is the proper effect of that agent which is the beginning and end of all. And if other agents contribute anything toward it, they contribute by the first agent’s power.
And these agents, as inferior things of narrower dominion, do nothing other than differentiate at various points, with God’s aid, that universal power and action of God which everywhere tends toward universal being; and they introduce certain modifications of being itself rather than the nature of being.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book II · II.7.27–II.7.30
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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.