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Heaven divine names and cosmological figures

Empyrean heaven

caelum empyreum; prorsus immobile; in aeternitate; sunt et qui

Caelum empyreum is the named heaven; prorsus immobile means wholly motionless.

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordCaelum empyreum is the named heaven; prorsus immobile means wholly motionless.
  • In the Platonic TheologyAfter describing soul as a bond between eternal and temporal things, Ficino reports those who place the empyrean in eternity as wholly motionless, other spheres in eternity and time together, and composite things in time alone.
  • In this editionThe supplied Latin and English have “wholly motionless.”
  • A place to readSoul’s intermediate relation to eternal and temporal beings prepares the comparison.

Meaning

Caelum empyreum is the named heaven; prorsus immobile means wholly motionless. Sunt et qui, “there are also those who,” introduces a reported classification. The passage supplies the term’s classificatory role without explaining its etymology.

Use in the book

After describing soul as a bond between eternal and temporal things, Ficino reports those who place the empyrean in eternity as wholly motionless, other spheres in eternity and time together, and composite things in time alone. A corresponding classification of pure intellects, ensouled intellects, and bodily souls follows. This is an analogy of ways of being related to eternity and time. It is not a fresh unqualified assertion that every sphere is motionless, nor a reason to add an extra sphere indiscriminately to every other enumeration in the work. The initial attribution governs the linked classification and must not disappear when the short sentence is quoted alone.

Selected annotated passages.

Places to read

  1. III.2.3Soul’s intermediate relation to eternal and temporal beings prepares the comparison.
  2. III.2.4An unnamed group places the empyrean in eternity as motionless.
  3. III.2.5The reported classification assigns other spheres to eternity and time.
  4. III.2.6The classification concludes with bodily souls before the argument resumes.

Translation in this edition

The supplied Latin and English have “wholly motionless.” The edition’s apparatus reports prorsus immobile in M1482 and P1641 against prorsus mobile in G1559. This is the apparatus’s report, not a new collation. The opposite reading must not silently replace the text or erase its express attribution.

empyreus / prorsus immobile

empyreus / prorsus immobile. Printed forms: empyreum; prorsus immobile.

Empyrean / wholly motionless. An expressly attributed classification places this heaven in eternity; it does not override other sphere accounts without qualification. References: III.2.4. See Empyrean heaven.

intellectus animales / animae corporales

intellectus animales / animae corporales. Printed forms: animas corporales; intellectus animales.

Ensouled intellects / bodily or embodied souls. These labels occupy successive positions in the reported eternity–time classification; animales does not mean exclusively nonhuman animals. References: III.2.5, III.2.6. See Empyrean heaven.