Craftsman and father · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordFaber is a craftsman; genitor a begetter or father; filius a son.
In the Platonic TheologyFicino builds an ascending comparison of attachment to a product.
In this editionThe translation’s “material within himself” preserves intrinseca while retaining the next qualification that the parent received it from elsewhere.
A place to readLove of divine works follows from divine self-love.

Meaning

Faber is a craftsman; genitor a begetter or father; filius a son. External and internal material distinguish what a maker works on from what a parent supplies in generation. Fecunditas is fruitfulness; proclivitas an inclination or readiness to act.

Use in the book

Ficino builds an ascending comparison of attachment to a product. The craftsman loves what he has made from external material. The father loves the son more, having begotten him from internal material, although that material was itself received through eating. God’s relation is fuller still, because he makes both the matter and the form rather than receiving either elsewhere. The comparison supports care as well as production: the cause of the complete work wills the work’s good. Its force depends on a contrast, not an identification. God is not said here to eat or generate bodies from a bodily substance of his own. The account of parental material belongs to Ficino’s historical physiology and is not evidence for a modern account of reproduction.

Selected annotated passages.

Places to read

II.13.1Love of divine works follows from divine self-love.
II.13.2Craftsman, father, and creator supply three different relations to material and product.

Translation in this edition

The translation’s “material within himself” preserves intrinseca while retaining the next qualification that the parent received it from elsewhere. Omitting that qualification would erase precisely the dependence that distinguishes the father from the creator.

faber / genitor / filius

faber / genitor / filius. Printed forms: faber; filium; genitor.

Craftsman / begetter or father / son. The ascending comparison differentiates external material, internal but received material, and divine production of matter itself. References: II.13.2. See Craftsman and father.

fecunditas

fecunditas. Printed forms: fecunditas; fecunditate.

Fruitfulness or productive abundance. The creator’s complete causal relation to his works grounds both their productive capacity and his continuing care for them. References: II.13.2. See Craftsman and father.

proclivitas

proclivitas. Printed forms: proclivitasque.

Readiness or inclination to act. Every agent’s inclination toward production is traced to the first agent’s fruitfulness. References: II.13.2. See Craftsman and father.