Diotimos Library · Renaissance Collection · Bilingual Edition
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Books V–VIII · Latin with an independent English translation
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English Page · Branch 86 of 191
Book VI · Chapter 2 · § 27
Latin
p. 166Et paulo ante tamquam punctum a corpore liberum, agile per se ipsum, calens, vivificum, sentiens, capax superiorum, quod substantialis quaedam unitas appellatur. Atque haec prima quaedam excursio sit et quasi praeludium, quo infelix diffidentia illa tollatur quae longissime a spiritalium confessione abducit animos plebeiorum.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II: Book VI
p. 167And a little earlier you discovered it as a point free from body, active through itself, warm, life-giving, sentient, and receptive of higher things—a point which is called a kind of substantial unity. Let this be a first excursion and, as it were, a prelude by which that unhappy distrust may be removed—the distrust that draws the minds of the common people far away from acknowledging spiritual realities.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II · Book VI · VI.2.27
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Volume II continues Ficino’s inquiry into the immortality of the soul through Books V–VIII. Its arguments consider the rational soul’s self-motion, its relation to the body, sensation, and the powers of the mind. The Latin and independent English translation follow the supplied edition’s facing pages and matching comparison units.
Historical Text and Translation
The Latin reading text is independently established from the Florence 1482 editio princeps (M1482), collated against the Paris 1559 printing (G1559), with the Paris 1641 Opera used only as a late control. Abbreviations are expanded, spelling and punctuation are conservatively normalized, and consequential readings are recorded in the apparatus.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation in the voice established in Volume I, preserving Ficino’s argumentative sequence, metaphors, technical distinctions, repetitions, conditions, purposes, and qualifications. Editorial notes and witness variants accompany their passages as numbered notes. The edition and source statement, contents, and reading guidance are also retained. The source locator register remains available in the downloadable edition.
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.
- PDF editionComplete Volume II — PDF
- Word editionComplete Volume II — Word
- public-domain-base-witnessFlorence 1482 editio princeps — Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
- collating-witness-cc-by-4.0Paris 1559 printing — Universidad Complutense de Madrid
- late-control-and-ocr-aidParis 1641 Opera printing — Internet Archive