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 10 of 191
Book V · Chapter 3 · § 1
Latin
p. 14Tertia ratio: quia haeret divinis.
Ac si duo quaedam in infimo naturae gradu locata, materia scilicet et quantitas, sunt passiva, et duo alia in supremo sunt activa, Deus et angelus, anima et qualitas, quae mediam inter passiva et activa obtinent regionem, quomodo se habebunt? Sic profecto utraque particeps passionis evadit. Sed qualitas, quia patientibus inhaeret, omnino per operationem et essentiam suscipit passionem; anima vero, quae distat longius, etsi in operandi facultate corporalem aliquam percipit passionem, in essentia tamen passionis est expers. Et sicut corpus ex materia et quantitate passivum inhaerentem sibi qualitatem reddit subiectam corruptioni, ita Deus et angelus activi animam sibi proximam et a corpore segregatam divinitate sua efficiunt immortalem.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II: Book V
p. 15Third argument: because it cleaves to divine things.
If two things placed at the lowest level of nature—namely matter and quantity—are passive, and two at the highest—God and angel—are active, how will soul and quality, which occupy the region midway between passive and active things, be disposed? Each, to be sure, comes to share in passivity. Yet because quality inheres in things that undergo action, it is wholly subject to passion in both operation and essence. The soul, by contrast, stands farther away; and although it undergoes a certain bodily passion in its capacity for action, in its essence it remains free from passion. Thus, just as a body, passive through matter and quantity, makes the quality inhering in it subject to corruption, so God and angel, both active, make the soul nearest to them and separated from body immortal through their divinity.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II · Book V · V.3.1
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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.
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- 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