Art and elemental transformation

Use in the book

The maxim “art imitates nature” introduces an inference from familiar craft to the hidden structure of natural change. Clay receives one vessel shape after another and remains when a pot breaks. Nature is consequently called an artisan with a universal material. The analogy illustrates the relation of mutable forms to a continuing recipient; it does not claim that prime matter is ordinary clay or that natural generation is merely external reshaping.

Ficino follows this with an ancient elemental account: solar rays thin seawater into vapor and air; matter then passes through fire, air, water and earth as rarefaction and condensation alternate. The warmth, coldness, moisture and dryness are properties within that model. Their explanatory role should be reported without replacing them silently with modern chemistry or endorsing the account as current science.

The seed examples restrict natural power. Wheat does not yield pears, millet does not yield figs, and human seed does not yield an eagle. A natural agent unable to produce just anything from any existing seed cannot, Ficino argues, make anything from nothing. The different examples therefore support one inference about the bounds of natural agency, not three botanical curiosities.

Later the sculptor’s prepared stone and the differing readiness of air and water to become fire illustrate distances between potency and actuality. The power needed rises with the distance to be traversed. This prepares the special case of creation from nothing, which no finite craft can perform.

Places to read

1. V.4.1Potter and clay lead into nature’s universal underlying matter and solar vapor.
2. V.4.2, V.4.3, V.4.4Nonannihilation, specific seeds and elemental transformations form one connected argument.
3. V.13.5, V.13.6Prepared stone and elemental readiness support the contrast between finite production and creation.

Translation in this edition

Latuerat/delitescit preserve matter’s hiddenness beneath qualities; indui formas preserves the clothing image. At V.4.3 the moisture common to air and water is expressly “as the Platonists hold,” an attribution worth retaining. These are historical natural-philosophical examples.

alvus / fetus

alvus / fetus. Printed forms: alvo; fetus.

Womb and offspring, a maternal image for a quality drawn from material potentiality. The offspring is extended and divided with the material from which it is produced, marking the quality's dependence. References: V.5.3. See Art and elemental transformation.

appetitus naturalis

appetitus naturalis. Printed forms: appetitio; appetitu; appetitum naturalem.

Natural directed striving toward a good or a likeness-producing act. Its source in the supreme good supports the denial that nature intends annihilation, and its return completes a causal circuit. References: V.4.6, V.4.7. See Art and elemental transformation.

aqua / aer / terra

aqua / aer / terra. Printed forms: aere; aerem; aeris; Aqua; aqua; aquae; aquam; terrae; terram.

Water, air and earth, elemental bodies within the historical transformation model. The same material subject is followed through replacement of coldness, moisture and dryness; the analysis is not modern chemistry. References: V.4.1, V.4.3, V.4.4. See Art and elemental transformation.

aquila

aquila. Printed forms: aquilam.

An eagle, the animal that does not arise from human seed in the example. It extends the argument about determinate natural generation beyond plants. References: V.4.3. See Art and elemental transformation.

ars

ars. Printed forms: ars; Ars; artibus.

Art or craft, an organized practice of making. Pottery and sculpture illustrate receiving form and realizing a prepared potency; rational art later has a cognitive rather than manual object. References: V.4.1, V.8.1, V.13.5. See Art and elemental transformation.

chaos

chaos. Printed forms: chaos.

The term for the disappearance of the previous elemental form when its replacement arrives. The earth-form passes into chaos, but the matter receiving water survives; the wording does not establish annihilation of all being. References: V.4.1. See Art and elemental transformation.

densitas / densare

densitas / densare. Printed forms: densatur; densitate.

Density or condensation, the thickening associated with descent through air, water and earth. The opposite movement to rarefaction displays one matter receiving successive forms. References: V.4.4. See Art and elemental transformation.

elementum

elementum. Printed forms: elementa; elementis; elemento; elementorum; elementum.

An element of bodily nature; in V.1323456789101112131415161718 the four creaturely 'elements' are expressly analogical constituents. Elemental transformation presupposes matter; the Pythagorean analogy does not make spirits composites of literal earth, water, air and fire. References: V.4.1, V.4.6, V.13.7. See Art and elemental transformation.

An elemental constituent of natural body. The hypothesis of a soul made of several elements is separated from the case of one element still composed of matter and form. References: VI.11.1. See Elements, conjunction and the inward orderer.

extenuare

extenuare. Printed forms: extenuat; extenuata.

To thin or attenuate. The sun thins seawater, and rarefaction thins matter toward the elemental form of fire. References: V.4.1, V.4.4. See Art and elemental transformation.

figulus

figulus. Printed forms: figulo.

A potter who imparts successive vessel shapes to clay. The potter supplies a familiar model of differing forms received by persistent matter. References: V.4.1. See Art and elemental transformation.

frangere / reparare

frangere / reparare. Printed forms: fractis; reparentur.

To break and to make or repair again. The pot's form is lost in breakage, yet the surviving clay permits another vessel, illustrating material persistence. References: V.4.1. See Art and elemental transformation.

humiditas / humor

humiditas / humor. Printed forms: humiditas; Humiditas; humiditatem; humiditati; humor.

Moisture, shared by air and water in the Platonic account reported here. Its persistence during water-to-air transformation signals a continuing material subject; it is not the same use as plural bodily humors. References: V.4.1, V.4.3, V.4.4, V.9.1. See Art and elemental transformation.

latere / delitescere

latere / delitescere. Printed forms: delitescit; latet; latuerat; latuit.

To lie hidden or remain concealed. Matter is hidden beneath changing sensible qualities, while potential fire is pictured as concealed in matter before manifestation. References: V.4.3, V.9.4. See Art and elemental transformation.

lutum

lutum. Printed forms: lutum.

Clay, the enduring material of different vessels. Clay survives a broken pot and can receive another shape; the analogy prepares, without identifying clay with, prime matter. References: V.4.1. See Art and elemental transformation.

mare

mare. Printed forms: mare; mari.

The sea, the watery body from which a portion is drawn by solar action. The example follows the same portion through change so that the question of persistence is concrete. References: V.4.1, V.4.3. See Art and elemental transformation.

milium / ficus

milium / ficus. Printed forms: ficus; milio.

Millet and figs, a second mismatched pair of seed and product. Ficus later supplies a tree whose determinate nature is explained by form rather than common matter. References: V.4.3, V.8.1. See Art and elemental transformation.

natura

natura. Printed forms: natura; Natura; naturae; naturam; Naturam.

Nature, either a thing's proper constitution or the productive order of natural agents. Nature as artisan forms a substrate; a form's own nature also means the determinate mode assigned by its maker. References: V.4.1, V.9.2, V.13.5. See Art and elemental transformation.

A thing's defining nature or characteristic way of being and acting. The book distinguishes common nature, particular embodiment and the natural mode of an intellectual power; naturalness concerns explanatory fitness, not merely frequency. References: VIII.1.2, VIII.1.3, VIII.1.4, VIII.1.5, VIII.2.1, VIII.2.5, VIII.2.6, VIII.2.8, VIII.3.6, VIII.3.8, VIII.4.1, VIII.4.4, VIII.4.5, VIII.4.6, VIII.4.10, VIII.4.11, VIII.4.12, VIII.4.13, VIII.5.2, VIII.6.1, VIII.7.1, VIII.8.1, VIII.9.1, VIII.10.1, VIII.10.2, VIII.11.1, VIII.13.1, VIII.13.2, VIII.15.2, VIII.15.3, VIII.16.2, VIII.16.3. See Common nature, participation, and the divine Idea.

opus

opus. Printed forms: opera; operibus; operis; opus.

A work, product or task made or performed by an agent. A completed artifact, natural product and the whole task held in mind use the same family without making them identical kinds of effect. References: V.4.1, V.4.8, V.12.3, V.13.2, V.15.5. See Art and elemental transformation.

portiuncula

portiuncula. Printed forms: portiunculam; portiunculam istam.

A little portion, here of water removed from the sea. The diminutive isolates a concrete test case: did this portion become nothing, or did something of it remain? References: V.4.1, V.4.2. See Art and elemental transformation.

radius

radius. Printed forms: radiis.

A ray, the sun's means of acting upon the sea in the historical account. The rays introduce the vapor/air example used to test whether natural change can annihilate its substrate. References: V.4.1. See Art and elemental transformation.

rarefactio

rarefactio. Printed forms: rarefactione.

Rarefaction, a thinning associated with ascent through the elements. Matter acquires the fire form without becoming a different underlying subject. References: V.4.4. See Art and elemental transformation.

semen

semen. Printed forms: semine.

Seed or generative resource, literal in biological examples and figurative in matter's latent capacity. The restricted products of wheat, millet and human seed establish the limits of natural production. References: V.4.3, V.8.2, V.13.5. See Art and elemental transformation.

siccitas

siccitas. Printed forms: siccitas; siccitatem.

Dryness, opposed to moisture in the elemental example. Its acquisition during the passage from air to fire shows one quality replacing another without destroying matter. References: V.4.1, V.4.4, V.14.3. See Art and elemental transformation.

sol

sol. Printed forms: Sol; sol; sole; solem; soli; solis.

The sun, a natural agent and source of light in these examples. Solar rays thin water, solar formation supplies the fire example, and inseparable light illustrates a proper attendant. References: V.4.1, V.8.2, V.9.1, V.14.6. See Art and elemental transformation.

The sun, a physical light-source or an intelligible analogue according to the passage. Solis in the ray and radiance examples belongs to sun, whereas auribus solis means ears alone; identical printed forms require syntactic disambiguation. References: VI.2.7, VI.2.15, VI.2.16, VI.2.21, VI.2.23. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.

triticum / pyrum

triticum / pyrum. Printed forms: pyra; tritico.

Wheat and pears, the first mismatched seed and product in the natural-generation example. The point is that a natural agent cannot produce any kind from any seed, supporting the stronger exclusion of creation from nothing. References: V.4.3. See Art and elemental transformation.

turgescere / gravescere

turgescere / gravescere. Printed forms: gravescit; turgescit.

To swell and to become heavy. These bodily verbs mark stages of the descending elemental sequence rather than moral increase or decline. References: V.4.4. See Art and elemental transformation.

vas

vas. Printed forms: vasis.

A vessel or pot, the artifact whose form may be lost while clay remains. Its breakage distinguishes destruction of a formed object from annihilation of its material. References: V.4.1. See Art and elemental transformation.