From the book
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordColligere gathers dispersed things; unio is their unification.
- In the Platonic TheologyFicino asks the reader to gather a fiery form as extended as a three-cubit body into the heart’s centre.
- In this editionThe apparatus applies the authorial correction aeneique, “and bronze,” in place of igneique.
- A place to readThe three-cubit fiery form, concentrated rays and removal of the heart portion form one ordered exercise.
Meaning
Colligere gathers dispersed things; unio is their unification. Resilire is rebounding, here of rays from a concave bronze mirror. Subtrahere removes what burdens the imagined form. These verbs mark successive transformations in an exercise, not a literal anatomical procedure.
Use in the book
Ficino asks the reader to gather a fiery form as extended as a three-cubit body into the heart’s centre. Its power is to grow with its unity, as solar rays concentrated by a concave mirror become strong enough to burn hard things. He then removes the remaining bit of heart that weighs the form down. What remains is imagined as indivisible, agile, warm and luminous; from these predicates follow equal illumination, life-giving heat and sensation. Understanding is added if the form turns upon itself and rises upward.
The sequence makes a point about concentration, activity and independence from bodily bulk. It belongs to the preliminary route from touch toward an incorporeal conception. It neither identifies the rational soul with ordinary fire nor retracts the rejection of material fire as soul. The change of explanatory level occurs when extension and organ attachment are removed, and the final condition of self-reflection matters. The mirror is an analogy for intensified effective power, not experimental confirmation of each subsequent psychic predicate.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The apparatus applies the authorial correction aeneique, “and bronze,” in place of igneique. The mirror is not itself described as fiery. The imperatives and subjunctives preserve a guided imagining; they should not be turned into present-tense medical facts.
calere; lucere; collustrare
calere; lucere; collustrare. Printed forms: calens; collustret; fervet; fulget; lucens.
To be warm, shine and illuminate together. The staged predicates lead from an indivisible active form to life and sensation, then conditionally to self-reflective understanding. References: VI.2.21. See Bronze mirror and concentrated fire.
centrum (concentration)
centrum (concentration). Printed forms: centro; centrum.
A centre at which an extended figure or rays are gathered. The exercise first concentrates the imagined fiery form into the heart’s centre and compares the increased power with sunlight collected at the centre of a concave bronze mirror. It is a preparatory image, not the final assertion that soul is a tiny extended object. References: VI.2.21. See Bronze mirror and concentrated fire.
colligere; unio
colligere; unio. Printed forms: collecti; colligite; unione.
To gather into one; union. Ficino compares increased power through concentration with the convergence of solar rays in a mirror. References: VI.2.21. See Bronze mirror and concentrated fire.
resilire; accendere; consumere
resilire; accendere; consumere. Printed forms: accendant; consumant; resilientes.
To rebound, ignite and consume. The sequence describes the concentrated rays’ supposed burning power and supplies an analogy for intensified unity. References: VI.2.21. See Bronze mirror and concentrated fire.
speculum concavum aeneum
speculum concavum aeneum. Printed forms: concavi aeneique speculi.
A concave bronze mirror. The authorially corrected metal matters: the example concerns concentrated solar rays, not a fiery mirror. References: VI.2.21. See Bronze mirror and concentrated fire.
subtrahere; deprimere
subtrahere; deprimere. Printed forms: deprimitur; Subtrahite.
To remove and to be weighed down. The remaining portion of heart is removed in thought so that the fiery form is no longer locally burdened. References: VI.2.21. See Bronze mirror and concentrated fire.
tricubitus
tricubitus. Printed forms: tricubita; tricubito.
Three cubits in measure. The fiery form initially matches the body’s extension before the imagined gathering into the heart’s centre. References: VI.2.21. See Bronze mirror and concentrated fire.