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 12 · §§ 13–15

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Latin Page · Branch 41 of 191

Book V · Chapter 12 · §§ 13–15

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Latin

p. 76

Quippe infusio vitae in essentiam animae fit, quoniam vita est primus actus essentiae cum primum acceperit esse. Animae essentia est immobilis, quoniam a stabili Deo sine medio pendet, quia stando et quiescendo perficitur. Turbatur motu, attingit stabilia, regit caduca, sistit mobilia, colligit dissipata, conciliat repugnantia. Nec est in ea potentia illa ad esse pariter atque non esse qualis est in corporibus, quae est totius mutationis initium. Non igitur cessat animae essentia umquam vitae actum accipere; non cessat Deus eundem infundere. Solis namque illis significavit Deus se vim suam aliquando infundere cessaturum, quibus ab origine inseruit proclivitatem illam ad non essendum. Praeterea Deus, naturae institutor, numquam rei quicquam subtrahit quod rei illius est proprium. Propria animae vita est, vita, inquam, perpetua.

Quia quantum rationalis est, etiam absque disciplina et usu per solam eius naturae virtutem quotidie in se parit species absolutas, per quas proxime ad aeternas itur ideas. Si naturale est animo rationali ascendere ad ideas, naturale est ipsi quiescere in ideis, ut sicut naturaliter illis vixit ita naturaliter vivat in illis; et qui operabatur secundum naturam assidue ad perpetua, operetur quandoque secundum naturam perpetuo in perpetuis.

Et quia idea quaeque aeterna vita est, qui secundum naturam suam ideam per ideae modum potest consequi potest etiam per modum aeternum vitam consequi sempiternam.

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

p. 77

For the infusion of life enters the soul’s essence: life is the first actuality of essence as soon as essence receives being. The soul’s essence is immovable because it depends immediately upon the stable God and is perfected by standing still and resting. Motion disturbs it; it reaches what is stable, governs what passes away, brings what moves to rest, gathers what is scattered, and reconciles what is opposed. Nor does it contain, as bodies do, that potentiality both to be and not to be which initiates every change. The soul’s essence therefore never ceases to receive the actuality of life, and God never ceases to infuse that actuality. God has indicated that he will at some time cease to pour forth his power only in those things into which, from their origin, he planted an inclination not to be. Moreover, as the founder of nature, God never takes from a thing what properly belongs to it. Life is proper to the soul—and by that I mean perpetual life.

For insofar as the soul is rational, even without instruction or practice it daily brings forth within itself, by the power of its nature alone, separate forms through which one approaches most nearly to the eternal Ideas. If it is natural for the rational mind to ascend to the Ideas, it is also natural for it to rest in them: just as it has lived naturally through them, so it should live naturally in them. The mind that by nature was continually active toward perpetual things should at some time, in accordance with that same nature, act perpetually among things perpetual.

And because every Idea is eternal life, a being that by its nature can attain an Idea in the manner of an Idea can also attain everlasting life in an eternal manner.

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.