Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Name: Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Author: Marsilio Ficino

Books V–VIII · Latin with an independent English translation

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Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume IIBook V · Chapter 11 · §§ 6–7

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Facing Pages · Branch 35 of 191

Book V · Chapter 11 · §§ 6–7

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Latin

p. 64

Atqui sicut figura cerae a sigillo impressa, quando sigillo penitus adaequatur, non destruitur, sed in speciem suam redintegratur, sic essentia animi, si quando ideae per quam Deus eam in certa essendi specie disposuerat admovetur, in esse pristino confirmatur, maxime enim sequens actus roboratur a primo. Nam quomodo Deus esse potest terminus in quem corruptio tendat, cum sit efficiens terminus unde et a quo omnis creatio generatioque deducitur? Aut quo pacto Deus, qui actus est purus, nascente anima ad animae ipsius compositionem concurrit, ita ut, quemadmodum ex materiae potentia et actu potentiae addito forma fit corporalis et in eam potentiam denique actus formae resolvitur, sic ex Dei potentia quadam et adiecto quodam actu fiat animus, qui tandem in Dei potentiam quasi materiam resolvatur? Non enim gerit umquam materiae vicem qui primus est actus.

Asseret aliquis essentiam animae neque in materiam neque in Deum resolvi, sed ipsam se statim in se recipere, esse priore sublato. Verum sicut materia corporalis absque actu corporali esse nequit, ita neque spiritalis seorsum a spiritali. Quapropter essentia quae est materia spiritalium et ad esse spiritale quasi actum aliquem comparatur numquam segregatur ab esse, ab esse, inquam, spiritali. Nisi forte quis dicat essentiam animae, dum esse aliud exuit, aliud indui, ac tales in esse spiritali vices hanc essentiam variare quales in formis suis materia variat. Absurdum id quidem dictu.

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

p. 65

Consider a figure impressed upon wax by a seal. When the figure is brought into complete conformity with the seal, it is not destroyed but restored to the integrity of its own form. So too, if the essence of the mind is brought near the Idea by which God assigned it a definite mode of being, it is confirmed in its original being, for a subsequent actuality is strengthened above all by the first. How could God be the terminus toward which corruption tends when he is the efficient source from which, and by which, every creation and generation proceeds? Or how could God, who is pure actuality, enter into the soul’s composition at its birth in such a way that—as bodily form arises from matter’s potentiality when an actuality is added to it, and the actuality of form is finally resolved back into that potentiality—the mind should arise from some potentiality in God by the addition of an actuality and at last be resolved into God’s potentiality as though into matter? What is first actuality never assumes the role of matter.

Someone may maintain that the soul’s essence is resolved neither into matter nor into God, but immediately receives itself back into itself once its former being has been removed. Yet just as bodily matter cannot exist without bodily actuality, neither can spiritual matter exist apart from spiritual actuality. Hence the essence that serves as the matter of spiritual things, and stands to spiritual being as to an actuality, is never separated from being—from spiritual being, I mean. One might still claim that when the soul’s essence puts off one being it puts on another, and that this essence passes through changes within spiritual being like those through which matter passes among its forms. But such a claim is plainly absurd.

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.