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 15 · §§ 1–3

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Facing Pages · Branch 55 of 191

Book V · Chapter 15 · §§ 1–3

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Latin

p. 104

Quintadecima ratio: quia vita est praestantior corpore.

Rationalis anima vera naturalis vita est. Vera vita per se corporis est formatrix et rectrix, ideoque corpore est longe praestantior. Corpus, quamvis in varias vertatur qualitates aut etiam millies dividatur in partes, numquam tamen desinit esse corpus. Semper enim restat natura corporis divisibilis, cum dividantur partes in particulas sine fine. Ergo multo magis anima rationalis, quae vera est corporis vita, quantumcumque mutetur, numquam desinit esse vita.

Huius argumentationis vim in eo potissimum consistere arbitramur, quod tertia essentia, quae est sedes rationalium animarum, tres habet dotes ex eo quod omnium medium obtinet. Primam, quod in ea refulgent verae imagines divinorum. Secundam, quod ipsa format continetque totam machinam corporalem. Tertiam, quod divina et corporalia conciliat invicem.

Omnes hae dotes esse ostendunt animam sempiternam. Prima, quia, si in genere corporum aliqua sempiterna sunt in quibus umbrae sunt divinorum, multo magis animae rationales animarum omnium praestantissimae, in quibus sunt divinorum imagines, sempiternae sunt. Prior enim in divinis vita est quam splendor, quoniam splendor eorum est tum reflexio, tum effusio vitae.

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

p. 105

Fifteenth argument: because life is more excellent than body.

The rational soul is true natural life. True life in its own right forms and governs the body and is therefore far more excellent than the body. A body may be changed into various qualities or even divided into parts a thousand times, yet it never ceases to be body, for the divisible nature of body always remains as its parts are divided into ever smaller particles without end. Far more, then, does the rational soul—which is the body’s true life—never cease to be life, however greatly it may be changed.

We judge the force of this argument to lie chiefly in the fact that the third essence, the dwelling place of rational souls, possesses three gifts because it occupies the middle of all things. First, true images of divine things shine within it. Second, it forms and contains the whole bodily fabric. Third, it reconciles divine and bodily things with one another.

All three gifts show the soul to be everlasting. The first does so because, if within the bodily order some things are everlasting in which there are shadows of divine things, then much more must rational souls be everlasting: they are the highest of all souls, and within them are images of divine things. For in the divine order life is prior to radiance, since that radiance is both the reflection and the outpouring of life.

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.