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 93 of 174
Book II · Chapter 11 · §§ 12–16
Latin
p. 188Non ergo dicendus est Deus aut per nudam naturam aut per adventitiam intelligentiam operari, immo per naturam intellectualem et intelligentiam naturalem. Deo, quia causa prima communisque et felicissima est, operatio convenit naturalis, quae ceteris prior est, communior et facilior. Rursus, quia causa pretiosissima est, convenit operatio intellectualis, quae prior est dignitate in nobis, quamvis non tempore, ideoque est in rerum ordine prima, et tamquam pretiosa praestantioribus dumtaxat congruit speciebus. Propria igitur operatio Dei est operatio utraque. Est autem apud Platonicos unica divinae essentiae, prout Deus est, proprietas. Est igitur utraque in Deo eadem operatio.
Quarta ratio. Natura nuda bonum hoc respicit aut illud. Natura intellectualis universale bonum.
Causa igitur quae per nudam agit naturam ita comparatur ad causam quae per naturam agit intellectualem sicut particularis causa ad universalem et minister ad architectum. Mundi itaque architectus per naturam intellectualem, quantum intellectualis est, operatur. Quinta ratio. Illa prae ceteris operatio Deo congruit per quam Deus neque ex suo statu neque ex sua simplicitate labatur. Talis in primis est operatio mentis. Operatio naturalis ab agente quidem incipit, sed definit in id quod patitur, sicut calefactio ab igne in lignum. Intellectualis autem utrumque terminum retinet in agente.
Per hanc enim Deus, dum se speculando versatur secum, undique versat externa.
Atque, ut Parmenides Pythagoreus inquit, rerum orbem mobilem rotat, dum se servat immobilem.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I: Book II
p. 189God must therefore be said to act neither through bare nature nor through an intelligence added from without, but through an intellectual nature and a natural intelligence. Because God is the first, universal, and most blessed cause, natural operation belongs to him: it precedes all others, is more universal, and is easier. Again, because he is the most precious cause, intellectual operation belongs to him. In us it is prior in dignity, though not in time; hence it is first in the order of things and, as something precious, belongs only to the more excellent kinds. God's proper operation is therefore both operations at once. Among the Platonists, however, the divine essence insofar as it is God has a single property. Both operations in God are consequently one and the same operation.
Fourth argument. Bare nature regards this particular good or that; intellectual nature regards the universal good.
Thus a cause acting through bare nature stands to a cause acting through an intellectual nature as a particular cause stands to a universal one, and as a servant to an architect. The architect of the world therefore acts through an intellectual nature insofar as he is intellectual. Fifth argument. That operation above all others befits God through which he departs neither from his own state nor from his simplicity. Such, preeminently, is the operation of mind. Natural operation begins in the agent but ends in what undergoes it, as heating begins in fire and ends in wood. Intellectual operation, by contrast, retains both terms within the agent.
Through this operation, while God dwells with himself in self-contemplation, he turns all external things on every side.
And, as Parmenides the Pythagorean says, he turns the moving sphere of things while preserving himself unmoved.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Book II · II.11.12–II.11.16
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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.