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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Latin Page · Branch 91 of 191
Book VI · Chapter 5 · §§ 4–5
Latin
p. 176Tale quiddam animam et vitam proprie, non quodvis aliud appellabo. Tu forsitan, ut infinitum illum progressum et responsiones deliras iam devites et tamen animam corpus esse asseras, inferes eam esse corpus non quidem animatum, sed corpus animale, non vivificatum, sed vivens. Si ita est, revolveris eodem. Equidem percontabor utrum illud ea ratione qua corpus est anima sit, an alia quadam ratione novae alicuius additionis, per quam animale dicatur et vivens. Certe non ea ratione qua corpus. Omnia siquidem corpora essent animae ac operationes prae se ferrent.
Sequitur ut alia quaedam illic insit natura praeter corporis rationem, per quam animale corpus illud vivensque dicatur. Illam ego vitam proprie et animam nuncupabo.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II: Book VI
p. 177Something of this kind I shall properly call soul and life, and not just anything else. Perhaps, to avoid that infinite regress and those deranged answers, while still asserting that soul is a body, you will infer that it is not indeed an animated body but an animal body, not something vivified but something living. If so, you will circle back to the same place. I shall ask whether that thing is soul by the same reason by which it is body, or by some other reason, arising from some new addition by which it is called animal and living. Certainly not by the same reason by which it is body. Otherwise all bodies would be souls and would display operations.
It follows that some other nature, beyond the nature of body, is present there, by which that body is called animal and living. This is what I shall properly name life and soul.
Socrates
Reading Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II · Book VI · VI.5.4–VI.5.5
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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
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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