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Care order and governing

Fitting and correspondence

quadrant, quadrabit, congruit, conveniunt, accommodata, competens, convenientiam.

Quadrare, congruere, and convenire concern fitting, agreeing, or corresponding.

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordQuadrare, congruere, and convenire concern fitting, agreeing, or corresponding.
  • In the Platonic TheologyA natural cause produces a definite effect because it has a definite principle fitted to that effect.
  • In this edition“Fitted,” “accords,” “agrees,” “corresponds,” and “affinity” distribute one recurring relational vocabulary across different English constructions.
  • A place to reada determinate cause must fit a determinate effect; the intermediary must combine the relevant respects

Meaning

Quadrare, congruere, and convenire concern fitting, agreeing, or corresponding. A medium competens is a suitable intermediary, and something accommodatum has been fitted or assigned to its recipient. Here these terms often name causal adequacy rather than aesthetic attractiveness or verbal agreement.

Use in the book

A natural cause produces a definite effect because it has a definite principle fitted to that effect. Otherwise, Ficino argues, it would have no reason to produce this rather than that. The earth's universal soul fits between a universal celestial impulse and a particular earthly life because it combines earthly status with universal scope. Soul similarly fits angelic mind and body by sharing indivisibility with the former and mutable activity with the latter. The argument therefore uses agreement in one respect together with difference in another.

Fittingness also limits a proposed assignment of God as the first sphere's mover. If the assignment places God and other minds in the same proportional series as their spheres, divine transcendence is lost. At the end of Book IV, the equal suitability of each part of Saturn's sphere to each relevant place supports an argument for rotation. The repeated vocabulary thus does more than say that things go well together: it specifies relations of causal capacity, mediation, proportion, and local affinity.

Places to read

  1. IV.1.6–72a determinate cause must fit a determinate effect; the intermediary must combine the relevant respects
  2. IV.1.32soul accords with both the immutable and the mutable
  3. IV.1.59–602placing God in a proportionate series of movers threatens simplicity and immeasurability
  4. IV.2.24–252equal affinity for different positions is used to motivate circular motion

Translation in this edition

“Fitted,” “accords,” “agrees,” “corresponds,” and “affinity” distribute one recurring relational vocabulary across different English constructions. The terms should not all be indexed solely under beauty.

cognatus

cognatus. Printed forms: cognatissima; cognatius.

Akin or naturally related. Minds are said to be more akin to heaven than earth; the lower celestial power is most closely akin to mutable bodies. The kinship adjective supports fitting mediation and is not a form of the cognition verb cognoscere. References: IV.1.73, IV.2.12. See Fitting and correspondence.

decere / dignitas

decere / dignitas. Printed forms: decet; digna; dignitatem.

To be fitting; rank or worthiness. Cosmic recipients' dignity is a causal and hierarchical fitness, while particles losing their sphere's integrity lose its higher standing. References: IV.1.31, IV.1.91, IV.1.93. See Fitting and correspondence.

quadrare

quadrare. Printed forms: quadrabit; quadrant.

To fit or be adequate to something. Natural causes work insofar as fitted to their task; angelic mind cannot fit mutable body directly without a mediator. References: IV.1.6, IV.1.32. See Fitting and correspondence.

receptaculum

receptaculum. Printed forms: receptacula; receptaculum.

Receptacle or that which receives. Angel contains forms as immovable multiplicity, so receptivity does not imply bodily extension or temporal change. References: III.1.4. See Angel.

A receptive seat or recipient. Elemental globes become fitting recipients of rational souls through their place within the whole cosmic order. References: IV.1.91. See Fitting and correspondence.

respondere

respondere. Printed forms: respondebunt; respondentes.

To reply; to correspond or face something. A philosophical reply and air or fire situated opposite stars use the same verb in distinct argumentative and spatial senses. References: IV.1.90, IV.1.92. See Fitting and correspondence.