Fountain, womb and offspring · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordFons is a spring or source.
In the Platonic TheologyMatter cannot supply form from itself: if it essentially possessed a sufficient productive power, it would be a fountain of forms rather than their substrate.
In this edition“Womb,” “offspring,” “fountain,” and “liquor” preserve changing images rather than one literal mechanism.
A place to readBeing a source of forms would contradict the role assigned to prime matter

Meaning

Fons is a spring or source. Gremium can be a lap, bosom or enclosing womb; the supplied translation uses “womb” for matter. Proles is offspring. Haurire draws or drinks in; infundere pours into. Ficino’s productive and receptive images shift between generation and flowing liquid.

Use in the book

Matter cannot supply form from itself: if it essentially possessed a sufficient productive power, it would be a fountain of forms rather than their substrate. Qualities, which exist in another, produce offspring no freer than themselves, in matter’s womb; a cause independent of that substrate is needed to make and preserve matter itself. The third essence is subsequently a fountain of changing qualities. At the end of Book I, mind “draws” goodness from elsewhere, and the Good pours the liquor of its perfection into mind. These images give direction to dependency: source gives, recipient receives. They do not turn a non-bodily cause into a liquid or imply that it loses a divisible portion whenever something receives its perfection. The local metaphors also differ: biological generation explains a limitation inherited by an effect, whereas the fountain comparison stresses a superior productive source.

Places to read

I.3.6Being a source of forms would contradict the role assigned to prime matter
I.3.18Offspring in matter contrasts with the independent source of matter itself
I.4.1Soul’s level is a source of flowing qualities
I.6.17Mind’s reception of goodness is figured as drawing and being filled

Translation in this edition

“Womb,” “offspring,” “fountain,” and “liquor” preserve changing images rather than one literal mechanism. Ut ita loquar in I.6.14 similarly qualifies “seeds” of forms latent in matter; it does not identify physical seeds already present there.

fons formarum

fons formarum. Printed forms: fons; formarum.

A source or fountain of forms. If matter possessed productive form essentially, it would be form’s source rather than its recipient, contradicting its assigned role. References: I.3.6. See Fountain, womb and offspring.

haurio / liquor / infundo

haurio / liquor / infundo. Printed forms: haurit; infundat; liquorem.

To draw or drink in; liquid; to pour into. Mind receives goodness from the Good through a fluid metaphor of communicated perfection, without a claim of physical material transfer. References: I.6.17. See Fountain, womb and offspring.

proles / gremium

proles / gremium. Printed forms: gremio; prolem.

Offspring and an enclosing womb or bosom. Qualities cannot beget offspring freer than themselves and therefore generate forms in matter’s womb; the imagery expresses dependence on a substrate. References: I.3.18. See Fountain, womb and offspring.