Body, instruments, and vital spirit · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordAn instrument is a bodily means through which a power acts.
In the Platonic TheologyThe Epicurean argument, as Ficino reports it, infers a growing and declining soul from the changes in children's, adults' and elderly people's strength.
In this editionThe apparatus specifies “vital spirit” for spiritus and “ardor” for affectus.
A place to readArt and instruments answer the inference from age-dependent strength to a quantitatively growing soul.

Meaning

An instrument is a bodily means through which a power acts. Ars supplies the comparison with an enduring skill whose expression varies with its tools. Spiritus in this local passage is the subtle bodily mediator, not the incorporeal soul proved elsewhere. Ingenium, usus and affectus name native capacity, exercise and engaged ardour.

Use in the book

The Epicurean argument, as Ficino reports it, infers a growing and declining soul from the changes in children's, adults' and elderly people's strength. His reply distinguishes an unchanged art from variable instruments. Limbs that are too soft or dry cannot hold firm or bend equally well; that limitation does not prove that the governing art has itself become larger or smaller.

Even bodily effectiveness depends on proportion and skilful organization rather than simply weight of flesh. Ficino connects these factors with vital spirit. Intellectual and moral development also requires industry: a growing idle body does not acquire wisdom merely by growing. Practice, ability and ardour can strengthen mind, and reason or sudden frenzy can produce courage in an instant. The smaller person who overcomes the larger is an example of this divergence.

The argument does not deny that the condition of organs affects performance. It uses that admitted relation to distinguish the source of a power from the fitness of its means. Nor does every occurrence of virtus in this neighbourhood have exactly the same force: bodily strength, effective mental power and ethically formed virtue must be read in their respective sentences.

Places to read

VIII.2.3Art and instruments answer the inference from age-dependent strength to a quantitatively growing soul.
VIII.2.5Bodily illness diverts the soul into care and government.

Translation in this edition

The apparatus specifies “vital spirit” for spiritus and “ardor” for affectus. The corrected non tam, rather than non tamen, creates the comparison “not so much weight as proportion.” Furor arma ministrat is retained as a vivid account of sudden arousal, not a recommendation of violence.

ars / instrumentum

ars / instrumentum. Printed forms: Ars; artificiosam; artis; instrumenta.

Art or skill and the tools through which it is exercised. One art can remain unchanged while its instruments become more or less fitted to its operation, as soul's bodily organs do. References: VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

coalescere

coalescere. Printed forms: coalescere; coalesceret.

Growing together or developing in conjunction. The Epicureans are reported as inferring parallel growth of soul and body; the instrument analogy challenges that inference. References: VIII.2.1, VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

conformatio

conformatio. Printed forms: conformationemque.

An ordered shaping or configuration, here the artful arrangement of bodily members. Ficino attributes bodily efficacy to natural proportion and artful configuration rather than sheer weight of flesh; he relates these conditions more closely to vital spirit than to bulk. This historical physiological claim serves the distinction between an art and its instruments. References: VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

furor / arma ministrare

furor / arma ministrare. Printed forms: arma; furor; ministrat.

Frenzy and the vivid image of supplying weapons or resources for action. A sudden arousal of courage illustrates mental effectiveness arising more rapidly than bodily strength grows; it is not ethical endorsement of frenzy. References: VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

ignavia / torpere

ignavia / torpere. Printed forms: ignavia; torpent.

Idleness and sluggish inactivity. The idle person can grow bodily without making intellectual progress, exposing the weakness of the parallel-growth inference. References: VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

industria / usus / affectus

industria / usus / affectus. Printed forms: affectu; industria; usu.

Active exertion, practice and engaged ardour in mental development. Soul's progress depends on these activities rather than merely on a body's increase in bulk. References: VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

magnanimitas / pusillanimitas

magnanimitas / pusillanimitas. Printed forms: magnanimitas; magnanimitatemque; pusillanimitas.

Greatness and littleness of soul, not large and small physical volume. The food reductio would absurdly allocate magnanimity by bodily bulk; experience of a small person overcoming a larger supports the distinction. References: VIII.2.1, VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

mollities / ariditas

mollities / ariditas. Printed forms: ariditatem; mollitiem.

Excessive softness or dryness that impedes bodily firmness and flexibility. These are limitations of limbs as instruments; they do not establish a quantitatively altered intellectual substance. References: VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

pinguis / tenuis / grandis / pusillus

pinguis / tenuis / grandis / pusillus. Printed forms: grandi; grandiorem; parvo; pingui; pusillus; tenui.

Stout, slender, large or small bodily conditions. The examples break the supposed proportional relation between bodily size and mental greatness or effective courage. References: VIII.2.1, VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

proficere / crescere / decrescere

proficere / crescere / decrescere. Printed forms: crescente; Crescente; crescimus; crescit; Decrescente; decrescimus; Proficit; proficit.

Advancing, growing and diminishing, whose quantitative or qualitative mode matters. Body may grow while mind stagnates, or body may decline while soul advances; intellectual reception can perfect without enlargement. References: VIII.2.1, VIII.2.3, VIII.11.1, VIII.13.2. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

spiritus (vital mediator)

spiritus (vital mediator). Printed forms: spiritum.

The subtle bodily mediator associated with organic proportion and skilful formation. This physiological usage in the instrument argument differs from incorporeal spirits in the truth argument and from the ascent's nonbodily endpoint. References: VIII.2.3. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.

vis

vis. Printed forms: vi; vim; Vim; vires; viribus; Vis; vis.

Effective power or force, including bodily strength and intellectual capacity. Bodily strength, the unity of a knowing power and divinely enlarged intellectual reach are different applications; magnitude alone does not measure them. References: VIII.1.4, VIII.1.5, VIII.2.1, VIII.2.3, VIII.3.5, VIII.3.8, VIII.5.2, VIII.8.1, VIII.10.1, VIII.13.1, VIII.14.1, VIII.15.2, VIII.16.1, VIII.16.2, VIII.16.3, VIII.16.4. See Body, instruments, and vital spirit.