Conditions and the fashioner’s law

Use in the book

Ficino’s forms do not enter existence under an identical arrangement. V.7.2 makes the agent determine some to bodily being, so the actuality and essence are contracted to place, time and exposure to contrary qualities. Other forms receive being in themselves. This creator-assigned distinction controls the later per se argument.

V.8.2 calls the material form’s condition a fashioner’s law. Heat, provisionally standing for fire’s substantial form, has been drawn from matter and established within the composite’s being. When contrary cold expels it, it leaves the condition under which it could exist. “Transgressing” the law is therefore descriptive of ontological failure, not a moral blame placed upon heat.

Soul’s law is different: it is made to stand in itself. It does not cease to satisfy that condition because no removable material support mediates its being. The passage separately excludes displacement by the soul itself, by conserving higher causes and by weaker lower things. V.9.2 then repeats that “its own nature” means precisely the nature assigned by its maker.

V.9.4’s conclusion that soul exists without condition must be read alongside V.10.1’s explicit relation to God. The condition excluded is material or intervening dependence of the kind exposed by the fire example, not every causal relation. Creator-given independence from matter remains creator-given.

Places to read

1. V.7.2Being is either contracted to bodily conditions or received in the form itself.
2. V.8.2, V.8.4The fashioner’s law distinguishes dependent heat from self-subsisting soul.
3. V.9.2, V.9.4, V.10.1Assigned nature explains per se, while dependence on God remains explicit.

Translation in this edition

The English “law” retains the repeated Latin lex rather than importing legislation. Proprius, natura and condicio are overlapping explanatory terms here, not synonyms for an externally imposed command.

accidere

accidere. Printed forms: accidat; accidere; accidit.

To happen or follow as a consequence, without necessarily meaning a technical accident. The possible dissolution after a broken bond is a consequence considered and rejected for soul. References: V.9.4, V.12.2, V.15.9. See Conditions and the fashioner’s law.

assignare (assigned nature)

assignare (assigned nature). Printed forms: assignata; assignavit.

To assign or allot a nature or mode of subsistence. The maker assigns material form the nature of inhering in matter, while separate form has the nature of adhering to itself. What belongs per se consequently depends upon the particular nature assigned; the expression does not remove dependence on the maker. References: V.9.2. See Conditions and the fashioner’s law.

contrahere / coarctare

contrahere / coarctare. Printed forms: coarctatur; contrahitur.

To restrict, contract or confine to a determinate condition. The being of bodily forms is narrowed to bodily place and time, and their essence follows those limits. References: V.7.2. See Conditions and the fashioner’s law.

determinare

determinare. Printed forms: determinat; determinatur; determinet.

To determine or restrict something to a particular mode or outcome. At V.7.2 the maker determines some forms to bodily being, with its temporal and spatial conditions. At V.12.6 a higher agent determines receptive matter to being a lion without abolishing prime matter’s capacity for another outcome. Determination does not itself mean creation from nothing. References: V.7.2, V.12.6. See Conditions and the fashioner’s law.

formabile / formator

formabile / formator. Printed forms: formabile; formantis; formator; formatore.

What can receive form and the source imparting it. The one receptacle of the universe is paired with a single formative beginning; the fashioner's law sets a form's mode of subsistence. References: V.4.5, V.8.2, V.8.4. See Conditions and the fashioner’s law.

lex formantis

lex formantis. Printed forms: formantis lege; lege.

The law or determination of a forming agent, specifying a form's mode of existence. A material form must remain in its subject; soul is created to stand in itself. The law is ontological, not a moral prohibition on heat. References: V.8.2, V.8.4. See Conditions and the fashioner’s law.

sortiri

sortiri. Printed forms: sortiantur; Sortitur; sortitur.

To obtain an allotted mode or possession. Forms receive being in matter or in themselves, so the mode allotted by the maker controls the consequence. References: V.7.2, V.9.1, V.9.4. See Conditions and the fashioner’s law.