Animating and animal · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordAnimal means a living being, potentially including humans and cosmic living wholes.
In the Platonic TheologyThe family of words should not automatically be restricted to nonhuman beasts.
In this editionThe English “animal powers” at IV.1.31 can mislead if read as irrational or nonhuman powers: the Latin expressly explains them as the souls through which human minds reach their bodies.
A place to readHuman beings are included in the comparison among animals while distinguished from beasts.

Meaning

Animal means a living being, potentially including humans and cosmic living wholes. Animalis can mean belonging to an animated body or its life-giving powers; it does not necessarily mean beast-like.

Use in the book

The family of words should not automatically be restricted to nonhuman beasts. At IV.1.31 the animales vires are the powers through which particular human minds reach and move their bodies; the apparatus expressly explains animalis as belonging to or animating a living body. Likewise, animalia includes human beings in IV.1.37, where flight, buildings, and machines establish independence from the earth. Ficino also calls the world a vast animal and describes spheres with their souls as indissoluble living beings. The semantic range thus extends from familiar organisms to the cosmos as an organized living unity. “Animal” can be retained when the historical breadth is clear, but “living being” often prevents an unintended contrast with humans. His cosmic use is a substantive philosophical claim supported by analogies of parts, life, and governance; it is not merely decorative personification.

Further passage references. IV.1.31; IV.1.37; IV.1.71–IV.1.732 3; IV.1.82–IV.1.832; apparatus

Places to read

I.1.1Human beings are included in the comparison among animals while distinguished from beasts.
IV.1.31Animales vires are the body-reaching and body-moving powers mediated through soul.
IV.1.38Animalia includes celestial living beings as well as earthly and aquatic creatures.

Translation in this edition

The English “animal powers” at IV.1.31 can mislead if read as irrational or nonhuman powers: the Latin expressly explains them as the souls through which human minds reach their bodies. Keep the adjective’s animating sense beside the noun’s broader living-being sense.

aedificia / machinae

aedificia / machinae. Printed forms: aedificiis; machinis.

Buildings and machines. The capacity to rise above earth by these means makes clear that animalia includes humans in this example. References: IV.1.37. See Animating and animal.

animal / bestia / animans

animal / bestia / animans. Printed forms: animal; animantibus; bestiae.

A living creature; a beast; a living being. The opening includes the human being among animals while distinguishing humans from beasts; “animal” is not restricted to nonhuman creatures. References: I.1.1. See Animating and animal.

animalis / animales vires

animalis / animales vires. Printed forms: animales; animales vires.

Animating or belonging to bodily life. Human minds reach their bodies through these powers; celestial lives combine intellectual and animating functions. References: IV.1.31. See Animating and animal.