From the book
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordLucretius Epicureus identifies the author as Epicurean; Lucreti is direct address.
- In the Platonic TheologyFollowing the Florentine mechanism, Ficino tells Lucretius to be silent and represents his position as deriving stable, beautiful order from unstable absence of order.
- In this editionThe vocative should remain visible as address.
- A place to readThe name and command introduce the polemic against chance.
Meaning
Lucretius Epicureus identifies the author as Epicurean; Lucreti is direct address. Taceat, “let him be silent,” opens an adversarial exchange. Casu and consilium frame the disagreement as chance against purposive direction.
Use in the book
Following the Florentine mechanism, Ficino tells Lucretius to be silent and represents his position as deriving stable, beautiful order from unstable absence of order. He then addresses him with questions about aimless travel, stone-handling, organic structures, and the world’s regularity. The apparent dialogue is an authorial apostrophe, not a report of an encounter. Its examples ask whether human activity without a plan would achieve the coordination Ficino finds in nature. The closing “let us confess” presses the opponent toward providential life and intelligence. This identifies the polemical role of the name, but the passage supplies neither a detailed exposition of Epicurean mechanisms nor a quotation from Lucretius sufficient to settle whether Ficino represents them fairly.
Selected annotated passages.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The vocative should remain visible as address. The historical and doctrinal report is Ficino’s characterization; a reading companion should not restate it as an independently established account of everything Lucretius argued.
Lucretius / taceat
Lucretius / taceat. Printed forms: Lucreti; Lucretius; Taceat.
Lucretius / let him be silent. The named Epicurean becomes the addressee of Ficino’s polemic, not a participant in a reported historical conversation. References: II.13.14, II.13.15. See Lucretius.